Viral Gospel Hymns Hymnbook.
Let's all stand together. Approach my soul, the throne
of grace, in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one,
who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. ? I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm ? ? And plead his blood alone ? ? The blood, the precious blood
of Christ ? ? Has opened up the way ? ? By which I can draw near
to God ? ? And to my Father pray ? Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, he'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but mine own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief remove, and
turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne,
and there spread out my case. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4. We'll begin reading in verse
13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. I love the way the Lord likens
death for the believer, sleep. And you sorrow not, even as others
which have no hope. We sorrow in the loss of a loved
one and death of a loved one, but not as those who have no
hope. We have, we have a hope, a sure hope For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. Just as sure as the Lord
raised from the dead, it is all those for whom he died will raise
with him. And this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord. There's our authority. We have
God's word as our source of authority that we which are alive and remain
until the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which
are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
the shout and with the voice of the archangel and with the
trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort ye one another
with these words." A lot of hope, a lot of comfort. And we have
the authority of God's word and the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ to assure us that this life eternal has been
made secure for God's people. Henry has a good hope for Peggy. They have, he signed a DNR today,
which was very hard for him and spoke with hospice today. They
moved her to a room where Clarissa is able to see her now, but her
heart is very weak and. Seems like maybe the Lord's going
to take her soon, so. Let's let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father. We come
into thy Holy Presence thanking you that we have thy dear son
as our advocate, our righteousness, our sin bearer, the one who makes
it possible for us to come before thy throne of grace to find help
in our time of need. Lord, we are a needy people.
We are sinful people. What great hope we have in knowing
that the work that Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross was sufficient,
satisfying for your justice and putting away all our sin, that
we can come into thy presence with confidence, boldness, knowing
that our hope is sure in him. We thank you for the testimony
that you have given to Peggy and for the hope that we have
for her and Lord, we Pray for our brother Henry and pray for
Clarissa. We ask Lord that you would comfort
them with your spirit. Pray that you would cause them
to find all their hope and your precious promises revealing the
finished work and glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ. pray for those that are ministering
physically to Peggy and ask Lord that you would give them the
wisdom and knowledge that they need to perform their duties
well. Lord, we know that with you, all things are possible.
We ask Lord for for your mercy and for your grace, for our congregation,
for each of us as we reflect on our own mortality and hope
of eternal life that we have in Christ. Pray that you grow us in your
grace and in the knowledge of Christ and in our hearts together
in the love of Christ. Father, we thank you for Adam
and we pray you would bless him as he stands to proclaim the
gospel tonight. we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I've asked Adam Clark to bring
a message tonight, so after we sing the next hymn, he'll come
and speak to us. Adam. Number eight from the Spiral
Hymnbook again, number eight. ? O Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire ? ? To lift up from this earthly mire ? ? O may we think
of heavenly things ? ? And know the joy thy presence brings ?
Lord, let us see the Savior's face, and let us taste of thy
sweet grace. May open ears thy glories hear,
and may we smell thy fragrance near. ? Be pleased to open heaven's
door ? ? And on our heads thy blessings pour ? ? All wretched,
poor, and needy we ? ? Where can we go if not to thee ? Oh,
may this day be blessed the most that Jesus Christ becomes the
host to feed our souls with living bread and with our souls in joy
to wed. Please be seated. Good evening. Good to see everyone. Would you please turn with me
to Romans chapter 16? Romans chapter 16, and we'll
read verse 25. Now to him that is of power to
establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept
secret since the world began." I titled this message, Revelation
of the Mystery. And I want you to look again
at the statement there in the middle of verse 25. Revelation
of the mystery. This is God's revelation of himself. This entire book, the Bible,
is God's revelation of himself. It's divinely inspired. It's
pure. As Greg preached a couple weeks
ago, the word is pure in the Bible. The penmen of scripture
were inspired by God the Father to write every single word in
this Bible perfectly. And it's meant to teach us how
God saves his people and who he is. His characteristics, His
attributes. Everything about God you can
find right here in His Word. The Bible is not subject to our
opinions. It's not subject to our interpretations
in our own flesh. It doesn't change with culture. It doesn't change with the world's
view on ethics and morality. It's always what it is. The Word
is called Logos. which is a Greek word, which
means logic. It doesn't mean pathos, which
is another Greek word, which means it changes with culture.
Or ethos, which means it changes with how people see ethics. It's
called logos. Logos is another way of pronouncing
it. It's logic. And if the Lord is
pleased to reveal this word to you, you believe it, and it is
logic to you. There's nothing else makes sense
to you after the world, after the Lord reveals himself through
his word to you. We cannot understand this word. It's a revelation of a mystery
and a mystery in the Bible is not something where you lack
the knowledge of. A mystery in the Bible is not
something that people could have common knowledge of. And if you
were just smart enough, you could obtain it and understand what
it means. A mystery in the Bible means
you can't see it, no one can see it. And if the Lord is not
pleased to reveal it to you and me, then we'll never see it,
no matter what. And so with that premise, I'd
like to pray the Lord preaches, you know, preaches through his
spirit tonight. I'm trying to pray that my flesh
is completely removed from this message. I just want to go further with
the revelation of this mystery. And without God revealing what
this mystery is to us, we'd never see him. We would never without
his revelation and his him showing us what his word is and what
it means and the truth of salvation. We would never be able to figure
out on our own how God elected a people before time ever began. before the world ever began,
how He predestined people before. You can't figure that out on
your own. The Lord has to teach you that,
has to teach me that. If He didn't reveal this mystery
to us, how could we ever come to grasp Christ's unity with
His people? How could you ever come to grasp
and understand We are found in Him. The Bible talks about us
being found in Christ, in His life, Your Honor. How could anyone
ever come to understand what that means? How could you come
to understand that right now, all God's people are with Him
in eternity, right? If you're saved, how could anyone
possibly come up with that idea and derive it, grasp it, and
understand it? No one can. God has to reveal it to you.
And he reveals it to you in such a way, in God's people, in such
a way where you just believe it. You might not understand.
No one understands all this. No one does. But you just believe
it. And so in that sense, you know,
like young Gabe Finby a couple of weeks ago told Greg, he had
heard about what other people believe. He said, how could you
possibly believe anything else? And that's what I mean when I
say it's log-offs, it's logos, it's logic. You can't not believe
it. It's irresistible. if He reveals
it to you. And there's no other way. If He didn't reveal this mystery
to you, you'd never be able to see your own sin. You'd never
be able to see your own need of a Savior. You'd never be able
to see God for who He is. And how could anyone possibly
grasp how God could be just, come into this earth, be just,
and then save those who are unjust? and still be just, and still
be glorified, and still be magnified. How could that be? It's a mystery.
We can't understand. How can he be just and save those
who are unjust in a way that magnifies his justice and his
grace? Another point I wrote here, without
the mystery of God being revealed to us, how could we ever understand
why God chose Peter to preach the gospel after Christ died?
Peter did the same thing Judas did, essentially, without giving
money. He betrayed him. Betrayed Christ right before
he went to the cross. How could God save a sinner?
He's perfect. How could he do what he did? If he doesn't reveal this to
us, and this word to us, and his love, and his grace to us,
we'll never see it. We'll always forever be blind.
A mystery is something that we've never have known it. unless God
revealed it to us, the revelation of the mystery. We are completely
blind to God, unless he opens our eyes to see. You can't come up with this in
your own mind. And yet, all too often we find
ourselves dwelling in our own thoughts, in our own ways, in
our own flesh, in our own interpretations, in our own opinions, way of trying
to comprehend what's going on in our lives and what's going
on around us. It's been a crazy year, but God's
ordained it. We have to trust him. We have
to look to his word and trust him. He controls all things.
Do we believe that? Do you believe that by all things,
everything consists of him? Everything is controlled by him
and consists of him. And he's ordained everything
in his goodwill and providence. And what he does is good and
right. If He doesn't reveal His sovereignty and His glory to
you and I, we're never gonna agree with that. I mean, in our
flesh, you're never gonna agree with that in your flesh. You're
never gonna come up, well, you know what? Yeah, I can see that
that makes sense, but God's good, God's good. When we get distracted,
which happens, Frequently, all too often. We all, I mean, just
sitting here and trying to listen to Greg on Sunday in my own flesh,
I get distracted constantly, and I know we all do. And in
our own flesh, we are completely blind to him. Now, while we lose
sight of the Lord all too often, there's one who always set his
eyes on the Father, and that's who I'm here to talk about. If
the Lord reveals anything to us, it's gonna be his son, because
no man can look on the Father and live. If he's gonna show
us anything about who he is and his deity and his goodness and
his grace, it's gonna be by showing us who Christ is. I love how
John 1 verse 18 says it. No man hath seen God at any time,
the only begotten Son. which is in the bosom of the
Father, he hath declared him." The way Christ sees things is
the way I wish I could see things. I wish I could see things like
Christ. I wish I could remove my wandering eye from the world,
from my flesh and circumstances. And I know you all feel the same
way. I wish we could all see things as God sees things. The
side of Christ. how God sees things through your
circumstances, storms of life, understanding, look, this is
in God's goodwill and providence. Things might not be going, might
feel like they're going great, but they're all in God's goodwill
and time. I love how Song of Solomon 5.12
says, his eyes, speaking of Christ, his eyes are the eyes of the
doves by the rivers of water washed with milk and fitly set. I love to think about this, our
failure and inability to see God, and yet He's still willing
to show us a little bit of His grace and mercy. And when He
does, boy, you just wanna hold onto it. Whenever He shows you
a little bit of His light, you just wanna hold onto it, you
just wanna grasp onto it. Don't leave, Lord, don't leave.
And yet he only shows us his backside, right? He only shows
us his backside, what he's done for us in his life, his purpose
in his life on this earth, his death, his resurrection. So how
is the truth of God revealed to us? It's in his word, this
word, his son, Jesus Christ is the word. And in the volume of
the book, it is written of me. It's called his will. And his
will testifies as to the inheritance of God's elect, God's people,
the church, also called the tribe of Benjamin. And he's made it
known to us by his word. So please turn with me to John
chapter six. Here is his word. his will. John chapter six, verse
38. We'll read the next three verses
of this text. Verse 38, for I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the father's will which hath sent me, that
all of which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up
at the last day." You see that? That everyone who seeth the Son,
Jesus Christ, and believeth on Him, that's His will. That is
what He was bound, and He finished. He accomplished it. Now for many, God hath blinded
their eyes. Scripture talks about that in
John chapter 12, verse 40. I'll just read it. He hath blinded
their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see
with their eyes nor understand with their heart. And in Acts
28, verse 27, for the heart of this people is wax gross and
their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they close.
And when I read these two verses, I think, I look at myself, I'm
no different than anyone else in my own flesh and no one here
is any different than anyone else in this world in terms of
our flesh and our inability to keep God's law, our sin. But unless the Lord reveals to
us our need of Him, our sin, then we'll never, we'll never
even come to Him, Becky. We'll never even realize we're
sinners. He'll never, if He's not pleased to reveal our sin
to us and make us a sinner, then we'll be stuck in our self-righteousness.
We'll never be saved. And yet, many will never be given
this revelation of your sin and your need for Christ, nor will
they be given any new eyes of faith to see Christ. And we can't
see the Lord and they won't see not only can't they see the Lord,
but they won't see the Lord in their own self-righteousness. And they don't like his purpose.
Even if they come to you, like, let's say they were here today,
this evening, and they come to attend and the Lord hasn't given
them ears to hear. And many people, I have many
family members and friends that have attended a gospel church
and they, Simply, they hate the gospel. People don't love the
Lord. Many people don't want to know
who He is. They dwell on their self-righteousness, their old
man, their deeds, and their works and attempts to keep God's law
and ultimately rob Christ's glory. But for God's children, here's
what we can rest everything on, God's will, what we just read.
This is the Father's will which He hath sent me, that all of
which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day, and they will see the Son and
believe on Him. Now, what does it mean to see
the Son and believe on Him? Well, do you see that Jesus Christ
is God? Do you see that Christ is God? That's the first question I think
you should ask. Do you believe Christ is God? made in the form
of a man who was predestined and purposed before the world
began to come to this earth and save his people. How could anyone
understand that in and of their own flesh and mind? It's impossible
unless Christ reveals himself to us, causes us to believe,
gives you that heart of belief, gives you, takes out your old
man, that old flesh, that old heart of stone, gives you a heart
of flesh, gives you a heart of flesh, a new heart, a beating
heart, In Colossians chapter nine verses, or excuse me, chapter
three, verses nine through 15, the Lord says, lie not to one
another. Put aside your old man and his
deeds. Put aside your old man and his
deeds. Put on the new man, right? So we have to, Lord has to do
it. Lord has to take out our heart
of stone, give us a heart of flesh, a new flesh, the new man
in Him, to cause us to be able to even see Him and worship Him. Otherwise, we have a heart of
stone. We're not worshiping anyone.
We can't hear anything. He's got to do it all. Do you
see the Son and believe on Him? Do you see His purpose of living
a perfect life coming down in the form of man to live a perfect
life, to be the spotless lamb slain before the foundation of
the world? Do you see him for who he is, to fulfill the prophecies
and be the only sacrifice satisfactory to God's perfect law, which is
a subject I'm not gonna dive too far into, but God's law,
the whole purpose of God's law, to see God's law for what it
is. The purpose of God's law is to show us his perfection,
to show us how holy he is, what he requires to be in his presence.
He will not be defiled. He will not be defiled by any
sin. So no man will ever be able to
see or be in God's presence ever, but for God himself intervening. and being that perfect sacrifice.
And when he said on the cross, it is finished, do you believe
that? Do you believe when it says it is finished, period,
Christ went to the cross, he said it is finished, period.
Doesn't have, there's no comma, there's no semi-colon phrase
after that. It is finished, period. Do you
believe that Christ is who he is when he said it is finished?
Do you believe what he said? Many people don't. Many people
believe that Well, add a condition on there. Many people believe
that period's not really a period. No, it's, well, it is finished,
but you gotta do your part. You also have to fulfill God's
law. No one can fulfill God's law, it's foolish. As young Gabe
Finby said, how can anyone believe that? Salvation by works. If
God doesn't reveal to us the difference between salvation
by works and grace, we'll never see the difference. I remember,
you know, it's funny, back whenever I was in religion, I grew up
in religion. And I remember the term self-righteousness in the
Baptist church. It was a good thing. Self-righteousness
was something that, oh wow, he's self-righteous, good for him. And I always tried to strive
to be self-righteous. But then, you know, thankfully, you know,
the Lord brought me to hear Todd Nyberg in Lexington. Boy, that
changed things pretty quickly. And the Lord eventually, over
time, over being in person, hearing in person, attending a gospel
church in person, over a period of time, he plants a seed, and
that seed grows. And then, wow, one of these days,
boy, he opened my ears to hear. I'm thankful for that. He showed
me the difference. If you can't see the difference,
it's because he hasn't showed you the difference between salvation
by works and grace. And what does that cause us to
do? It causes us to cry out to him, Lord, cause me to see the
difference. Open my eyes. Lord, please reveal yourself
to me. Reveal the truth to me. Reveal who I am as a sinner before
you. Reveal my need for Christ. Cause
me to need Christ. Salvation was finished for his
people. All of God's people are with him right now in eternity.
including you and me, if God is pleased to have ordained us
in Christ. If God was pleased to have ordained you and I in
Christ, we're with him right now in eternity. How could anyone
possibly understand that in their flesh? You can't. God's got to
reveal it to you. But you believe it. But you believe
it because he says it. We're united with him. What power,
what a mystery. What a mystery of Christ's life.
Christ's life is a mystery. God came in the incarnate man.
He became incarnate. God Almighty, the God of creation
in the universe, created all things. He decided to come to
this planet Earth that we live on. And he came in the form of
a man. I love how Christ is depicted.
There's nothing special about his looks. There's nothing special.
He had no bells and whistles about him. He was a common-looking
guy. And that's how he came. I'm so
thankful for that. I'm so thankful. I've talked
to the kids, teaching some of the kids over the last couple
years, and we've talked about that. talking about how thankful
we are that Christ was exactly who he was. He wasn't some, there
were no bells and whistles about him. He came for a purpose. He
came to save his people. Nothing super attractive about
his face or anything like that physically. I'm glad it was that
way. It's our spiritual need of him.
It's not some physical attraction. It's a spiritual need of him.
He's beyond temporal. He's eternal. Nothing physically
is gonna matter at all. And we irresistibly come to Him. If the Lord calls any of His
people, He calls all of His people, number one, but when He calls
His people, they irresistibly come. How do we comprehend that
with just the world, just the overflow of the media, and the
world, and how we've been socialized growing up, and how we've always
been educated, and the social groups, and the different traditions
of men. And they're all about free will,
and it's your choice, and what are you gonna do for God? Come
on up to the altar and bend your knee today, son of God, when
that's a lie. They don't believe in the sovereignty
of God. When he calls Hugo, when he calls Hugo, Hugo irresistibly
comes. There's no, well, let me wait
on him. No, you come immediately. And we're gonna read about blind
Bartimaeus here in a little bit, because we're completely blind.
He's a perfect story, and his gospel picture there in Mark
10, which we'll get to here in a moment, is a perfect depiction
of what we are. We're completely blind in Jericho
on the wayside. Thankfully, Christ is coming.
He's on his way to Jerusalem. He's coming, and special things
happen there in Jericho. as he's on his way to the cross
in Jerusalem. Oh Lord, we are blind and we
call out to him. And I tell you what, if you don't
think you're blind, read John chapter nine, verse 41. That's a good wake-up call. If
you don't think you're blind, read John chapter nine, verse 41,
which says more or less, and I'm paraphrasing, if you know
you're blind, then you're without sin. But if you think you can
see, then your sin remaineth. We are blind before Him. And
I love that picture. And you know what, sometimes
in our lives, whenever we feel like we can't see the Lord, the
Lord, if we're one of His people, He ordained that mind, that we
call on Him again. Turn us again, oh Lord. Open
our eyes to see. He causes us to pray to Him.
He puts the prayer in your heart to pray to Him. How can anyone
in their flesh understand that? If He doesn't reveal His glory
to you, open your eyes to see that light. No one can. Before we get to John, or excuse
me, Mark chapter 10 of our days, I love this scripture in Isaiah
chapter 42. If you could please bear with
me and go there. Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42 verse 16. I just love these three verses
here, excuse me, four verses. It's just so reassuring to me
that God would be pleased by His grace and His love to call
on us, to come teach us His word, to reveal Himself to us, to show
us the way of life through His Son, Jesus Christ. Verse 16,
and I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. We
didn't know. We didn't know anything about
Christ until he revealed himself to us. And I will bring the blind
by a way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. They shall be turned back, they
shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that
say to the molten images, ye are our gods. Here, ye deaf,
and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind but my servant? O deaf, O deaf, is my messenger
that I send. Who is blind is he that is perfect,
and blind is the Lord's servant. And nevertheless, the Lord gives
us these promises and reassurances. We still find ourselves going
back to our own ways. The scripture calls us, we're
backsliders. We always tend to go back to
our flesh. It's our old man. And one of these days, we have
loved ones here in this congregation that one of these days, they're
not gonna have to worry about the flesh anymore. They'll be
in the presence of the Lord in that moment. And I tell you what,
Greg preached on this last Sunday, and so, such a blessing. It's
so much better to be in the presence of the Lord, isn't it? Right
now, it's, you know, this flesh, we have obligations we feel like
in this temporal life, and look, I don't wanna leave my son. I'm
a two-year-old, right? I don't wanna leave him be. But
boy, I tell you what, being in the presence of the Lord, removing
our flesh, removing these temporal obligations we feel that are
binding us here. I wanna tell you what, being
in the presence of the Lord is gain. It is gain, and we have
people in our congregation that in time, in time, not in eternity,
we're all there, but in time, they're one step closer to the
Lord. What a blessing, what a blessing. So I pray for some folks who
are going through physical ailments and conditions, we pray for them. But we also rejoice for them. And boy, what a mystery as well.
The passing of a believer, what a mystery. The world doesn't
know it. I tell you, I remember You know, when Ed Burnside passed
away, I don't mean to get too detailed and private, but I just
remember, you know, there was such a celebration of worship. Greg preached the message. It
was just a great time. We were, everyone was just praising
the Lord, thankful. And the world doesn't know it.
It's a mystery. It's a mystery to the world, but we see the
Lord gives us that peace. It's just a special thing. He
reveals that to us. He gives us that love and the comfort
and the, We're sure, we are sure of our end. I'm just so thankful
for that. The way God is, it's just, it's
so marvelous. So as blind Bartimaeus, let's
go to Mark chapter 10. We are like blind Bartimaeus,
completely blind. I love, I just love this story. Mark chapter 10, verse 46. They sit at the roadside outside
of Jericho. And you know what's amazing is
this moment in scripture, when Christ goes to Jericho and saves
Bartimaeus, saves Zacchaeus, the publican, Zacchaeus, come
down right now, I'm gonna abide in your house today. He predestinated
that, he prophesied about that in the book of Joshua. After
Joshua sacks the city of Jericho, And at the end of Joshua's days,
he breaks up the inheritance of the promised land across the
Jordan for the children of Israel. And he says Jericho will be for
the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin. This is something
special here. And whenever we see the tribe
of Benjamin, we know that's a picture of God's church. It's for the
inheritance of Benjamin. This place is for the inheritance
of Benjamin. It's And guess what happens when
Christ goes through there, he saves two people. He teaches
us how he saves his people at Jericho, a long time in time,
quite some time after Joshua was there. I think that's pretty
special. And the first person we see here
in verse 46, and they came to Jericho. And as he went out of
Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, Blind
Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side, begging.
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to
cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great
deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood
still and commanded him to be called. commanded him to be called
and they called the blind man saying unto him be of good comfort
arise he calleth thee and he casting away his garment that's
Bartimaeus casting away his garment rose and came to jesus and jesus
answered and said unto him what wilt thou that i should do unto
thee i love whenever i've got to stop right now i love whenever
christ asks a question And Christ, God, He comforts
us with these words. He asks a question. He knows
what's gonna happen. If the Lord would have just said,
come to me right now. I mean, it's a love. He puts
that seed of love in your heart to love Him. And boy, I just,
I'm so thankful that the Lord is exactly who He is. When the
blind man said unto Him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.
And Jesus said unto him, go thy way, thy faith that may be whole.
And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the
way. We are no different to Bartimaeus. We sit at the roadside outside
of Jericho as Christ makes his way ultimately to the cross.
And once we hear that Christ is near, once God's people hear
that Christ is near, they beg for him to give us sight. We beg for him to give us sight.
And we're begging now, Lord, please give us sight to see your
work. Please save us, Lord. He commanded us to come to him
then. And in so doing, I love how he shed his garment. Blind
Bartimaeus shed his garment. He had nothing to bring. He was
exposed for what he is. Completely naked, no covering,
no fig leaves. He didn't see any fig leaves
on Bartimaeus, did we? He didn't see anything covering him. He
went completely naked before the Lord. And that's what it
takes for a believer to be called and come to the Lord. Don't bring
anything. Don't try to bring anything to
the Lord. Don't try to bring anything to the Father. Say,
look at me. That's the opposite of what we should be doing. Never.
A believer would never do anything like that. Believer comes naked.
Oh Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm exposed. I have nothing to
bring to you. Nothing of value. He didn't give
anything to Jesus. But Jesus was pleased to see
him as a sinner, blind as a sinner. And then he revealed himself
and said, see and believe. So see the Son and believe on
Him. That's His will. We will see
Him and we will believe. And I love this state of man, the
state of a believer, the state of a believer. We're in a sinful
state before Him. We have nothing to bring. As
Hugo preached on Sunday, I love that message on the leper, the
one with full leprosy. It's a great picture of the fullness
of our sin, how it covers us completely. There's nothing,
we have no good blemish on our skin that could be brought before
the Lord. Everything's sin. We are sin. There's nothing we
can bring before Him. And we need a full cleansing
too. And we're completely blind too. It's not like we can see
a little bit of light because of our eyes and how we are, but
we are completely blind without Him. It's nothing but darkness.
But in Him, there's no darkness. In Him, there's no darkness.
He is light. He is the way. I love, I'm just
gonna read a few more scriptures here. In Deuteronomy chapter
32, verse 10, I love where he finds his people, where God Christ
will come and find his people. He found Bartimaeus, he found
Zacchaeus in the tree. Amongst all those people he found,
he says, Zacchaeus, pointed to Zacchaeus, come down. He calls
us, he calls us particularly. It might be in the middle of
a great crowd, it might be when we are by ourselves. In Deuteronomy
32, verse 10, he says, he found him in a desert land, and in
the howling waste of a wilderness, he encircled him, he cared for
him, he guarded him as the pupil of his eye." The pupil being
like the apple of his eye. How Christ sees us as people,
which is beyond me, it's a mystery to me because I'm a sinner and
we are sinners. The way he sees us is like we're
the apple of his eye. It's like in Ephesians 5, the
picture of the husband and the wife. What a great mystery, this
love, true love, that brings us together with our husband,
Christ. The church is together with our
husband, Christ, the bridegroom. I love in Ephesians 5 where it
says, this isn't about conduct between husbands and wives, this
is about Christ and his church. This is a great mystery about
Christ and his church. What love, the pupil of his eye,
the apple of his eye, that's how he looks at us. What a great
God, what a savior, what love. We have nothing to bring, we're
unworthy. And yet, he is just to justify the ungodly. He's
glorified for it. First Samuel chapter 26, verse
24. I love this as well. This is
about how things are in his eyes, the eyes of the Lord. And behold,
as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life
be much set by in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver
me out of all tribulation. Let our lives be set in the eyes
of the Lord. Oh, to be set in the eyes of
the Lord, what a blessing. There is nothing greater. If
he looks at you like you're the apple of his eye, the favored
one, Jacob have I loved, he so have I hated. He loved, well,
I tell you what, he loved Cain, or excuse me, he loved Abel,
he didn't like Cain, did he? He loves the sheep, doesn't love
the goats. Boy, I tell you what, if you're
one of those sheep, even in the remnant, the many things going
on, the storms of this world, craziness of this world. If you're
one of his, it's all you need to be set in his eyes. And guess
what he does? He delivers you from all tribulation.
Maybe not the physical things in this world, but what really
matters, the spiritual things. You don't have the tribulation
of your sin any longer. What a mystery. Christ's life
is a mystery. incarnate man. I mentioned it
earlier. Christ's death is a mystery. If He doesn't reveal to you the
glory of His death, how could we ever see a redeeming death? He took all of our sins, the
sins of His people, to Him with the cross, the mystery of the
cross, and died so that His death was a redeeming death. He paid
for us on the cross. No one else can do that. He was
perfect. He was perfect. Mystery of the resurrection.
We talk about not, I mean, the mystery of the resurrection,
how could anyone see the significance of the resurrection? Wow. But when Christ opened his eyes
to life, when he died and was taken, God's people sinned with
him to hell for three days, and he opened his eyes to life, What
mystery is this? God's people opened their eyes
to life at the same time. We were united with him. We were
united with him in his life. We were united with him in his
death. We died on the cross with him. We were united with him
in his resurrection. We rose with him. We opened our
eyes. How could anyone possibly understand
that? But we believe it. But we believe
it. And to us, it's logos. To us, it's logos. How can you
believe anything else? It's irresistible. We're so thankful
for that. Psalm 17, verse eight, keep me
as the apple of the eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm 123, verse two, behold, as the eyes of servants look
under the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden under
the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God until that he have mercy upon us. And that causes us to
beg, Lord, Please be merciful to us. We don't deserve anything.
We deserve punishment. We deserve hell. And if you can
say amen, if God sends me to hell right now, he's still good. He is still good. And he did
it rightfully. And he was just in sending me
to hell. Oh Lord, would you please keep me in Christ? Would you
have me be found in Christ as you promised your people? Cause
me to be one of your people. save me keep me to the end of
my days cause my tree on my last days to fall to you please have mercy on me have
grace on me and don't look to anything for for me from me in
my salvation and that's the cry of god's people we have nothing
to bring to god the father and in and of ourselves all we want
to do is oh lord would you just find me in christ Cover me with
His powerful blood. What power, what mystery of His
blood? I beg that you would find me
in Him. And when He does reveal the good
news of the gospel to us, it's marvelous. We marvel at His word. In Zechariah chapter eight, the
Lord says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, if it be marvelous
in the eyes of the remnant of the people in these days, then
should it also be marvelous in mine eyes, saith the Lord of
hosts? Isn't it amazing that God thinks
it's marvelous what he did for us? I love that. I love how he
thinks, look, it is beyond marvelous to us because we inherit eternal
life with him and be found in him and worship him and be in
a place where there's no sin ever. and glory for all eternity,
eternal life with him, with love, real love. We would obviously marvel with
that, but he says he marvels in it. What unity, we are with
him, he's with us. And he says, what a mystery here.
He says, you will live in him and he will live in you. Christ
will live in you, he lives in his people. He's with us all
the time, even in the hard times. and the good times. Oh, I pray
the Lord to give us that daily bread, the need for a daily bread,
steadiness, peace and comfort, despite what's going on around
us. So I'll finish with Romans chapter
16, and we'll read a few more verses there. Verse 25. now to him that is of power to
establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept
secret before the world began since the world began but now
is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to
the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith To God only wise, be glory through
Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you all for your time and
it was a blessing trying to bring this message and pray that the
Lord doesn't return it void. So thank you all. 268. Number 268 in the hardback temple. Let's all rise. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to
you he hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have pled. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent
hand. ? When through the deep waters
I call thee to go ? ? The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow
? ? For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless ? ? And sanctify
to thee thy deepest distress ? And through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie. My grace all-sufficient shall
be thy supply, the flame shall not hurt thee, I only design
thy draws to consume and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Please be seated. I, uh, talked to Adam. Thank you. That, uh, the last
verse to God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ. And I was
thinking about that in light of the passage you quoted from
Colossians, lie not one to another. In religion, men lie to each
other. They lie about their accomplishments.
They lie about what they're doing for God. They lie about how they
got to know God. And I just love being around
God's people where Christ gets all the glory. We don't lie about
ourselves. We know that we're sinners and
he gets all the glory for having done all the work. That's the
mystery of iniquity that Paul speaks of in second Thessalonians
chapter two, the mystery of iniquity. Men can't see it. Thank you. I talked to Todd Nyberg today,
and Lynn is going to, they're driving now up to Ohio State,
and she's having some tests tomorrow to try to determine what to do
next. She has to have a kidney transplant.
She also has liver disease, so she almost needs a double transplant,
which is going to be very difficult. And so I told her, I told Todd
that we would certainly pray for them as the Lord enables
you to remember them tomorrow. Also tomorrow is Henry and Peggy's
32nd anniversary. I'll pray for them. Call, call
Henry. He'd love to talk to you on the
phone. Just give him a call. He's got his, he's just sitting
there at the hospital. You don't have to know what to
say, just let him know you're there, you're loving him. All right, let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the revelation that you've given us by your spirit and through
your word of the glorious person and accomplished work of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you for putting us in
our place and revealing to us our complete dependence upon
Christ for all of our salvation. And Lord, we know that we're
dependent upon him as well for the breadth of life here in this
world. So we look to you for ourselves
and for our friends and for our loved ones to sustain us. by
your grace and by your mercy and with your strength and with
your healing hand. And Lord, we continue to pray
for Henry and Peggy and Clarissa. Pray for just a special measure
of your mercy in their hearts. Give them hope and peace in Christ. Lord, we thank you for Todd. Thank you for the encouragement
that he and Lynn have been to this fellowship. Pray, Lord,
that you would give the doctors that she meets with tomorrow
a special measure of knowledge and understanding that they would
be able to diagnose and treat her well. Lord, we thank you
for the good hope of mercy and grace that they have and that
they testify of, knowing, Lord, that whatever you do is right,
Lord, that we are. always in your hands, what greater
place is there to be? Thank you for this evening. Thank you for the fellowship
that we have together in Christ and for the, for the declaration
of the gospel. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.