Good morning again. Wanna congratulate Noah Dunbar
for graduating from firefighter school and passing all of his
exams. What a blessing. Just thinking with your mom and
dad about when you were born. I want to read a few verses from
First Chronicles chapter 16. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy is forever. And say, Save us, O God of our
salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen,
that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory to thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
forever and ever. And all the people said, amen. Amen. Number 38 in the spiral hymnal,
let's stand together. ? Come every sinner saved by grace
? You who by faith God's Son embrace ? Tell all who hear your
voice below ? The debt of love to Christ you owe Dear Lord,
I lift my praise to Thee All that I am or hope to be I owe
alone, O Christ, to Thee He left his Father's throne above, And
came to earth on wings of love. For us he lived the perfect man,
And so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's ire
and died at the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, to save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee All that I am or hope to be I owe alone,
O Christ, to Thee From death's dark grave our King arose, And
triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies the victor
rode, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to Thee All that I am or hope to be I owe alone, O
Christ, to Thee ? From heaven Christ will quickly come ? And
bring his ransomed people home ? There we shall see his lovely
face ? And chant the praises of his grace ? Dear Lord I lift
my praise to thee ? All that I am or hope to be I owe a loan,
O Christ, to Thee. Please be seated. First Kings chapter 19 and verse
9. The prophet Elijah has taken
his eyes off of the Lord Jesus Christ because Jezebel threatened
his life. And he's about 40 or 50, maybe
50 days into the desert in a cave. And scripture says in verse nine,
he came thither into a cave and lodged there. And behold, the
word of the Lord came to him, and he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he said unto him, what doest thou here, Elijah? And he said,
I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because
the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down nine
altars, and slain thy prophets with a sword. And I, even I only
am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And he said,
go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold,
the Lord passed by. and a great and strong wind rent
the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But
the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake,
but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still,
small voice. God does not terrify his children. He comes to us with a still,
small voice. You'll never find God attacking
a believer because we belong to him, the believer belongs
to him, and he'll always speak to us when he does speak with
a still, small voice. And it was so when Elijah heard
it that he wrapped his face in his mantle. and went out and
stood at the entering end of the cave, and behold, there came
a voice unto him and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And
he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because
the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant. thrown down nine
altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I,
only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And the
Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness
of Damascus, and when thou comest, anoint Hezael to be the king
over Syria. And Jehu, the son of Nimshi,
shalt thou announce to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the
son of Shaphat of Abel Mahola, shalt thou announce to be the
prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that
him that escapeth the sword of Haziel shall Jehu slay, and him
that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet, yet I have left me 7,000,
better translated, I have reserved unto me 7,000 of Israel, which
have not bowed the knee to Baal in every mouth which hath not
kissed him. They lived under a theocracy,
that's the direct rule of God. The Lord Jesus Christ was there,
but God was the leader. And other people are under the
impression, free will people, that it changed from a theocracy
to a democracy, and it did not. We don't all get a vote. Only
God has the vote. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
even there, and when you appeared before God, you better wrap the
mantle around your face, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, or you're gonna die. No man can look on God and live.
He's either gonna put you in a rock, which is Jesus Christ,
or you're gonna wrap your face in a mantle, which is the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. You say, well, God didn't answer
his question. Yes, he did. Go. That's the answer right there,
go. God took down a king of Syria
and raised up a king of Syria. God took down a king of Israel
and raised up a king of Israel. He sent him to anoint a prophet
to take his place because I'm going to bring you home, Elijah.
Your work is done. You're coming up here. He answered
Elijah's every question, but Do you really believe that a
sovereign God that raises up kings and throws kings down,
that you can stand there and walk down this aisle and look
him in the face and say, oh, I'll let you save me on my terms. I get to keep free will and I
get to have the last word. That's not the God of scriptures.
What a relief to be reserved, isn't it? What a relief to not
have to worry if I'm good enough, if I'm going to do enough, if
I'm going to live long enough to make him happy. God reserved
us unto salvation from forever. Father, we thank you for free
grace, Father. We thank you for the grace when
you called us, the grace when you chose us, the grace when
you sent your son to die for our sin, and the grace to born
us again, Father, by the Holy Ghost, the grace to live, Father,
as we do, knowing that Christ has finished the work. The grace
not to worry father about if we've done enough. The grace
not to have to worry about if we believe enough that our faith
is enough. The grace to know that Christ
will give us what we need. Whatever he demands, he will
give us. We'd ask father that you'd open
our hearts to one another. Continue to give us the grace
father to fellowship with the brethren. We're asking Jesus
name, Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing the hymn on the back of your bulletin. God is our refuge, tried and
proved amid a stormy world. We will not fear, though earth
be moved and hills and oceans. ? The waves may roar, the mountains
shake ? Our comfort shall not cease ? The Lord, his saints,
will not forsake ? The Lord will give us peace ? A gentle stream
of hope and love ? To us shall ever flow from his throne above,
it cheers his church below. Our God, who is the Lord of hosts,
forever on our side. The God of Jacob, our defense,
forever will abide. Please be seated. Adam Cherin's
going to bring special music. The blessed Son of God in heaven
said, Father, please forgive them. They know not what they have
done against the God-man living. They struck a deal before time
began and God became a man. And he bore our sins on the tree
as he suffered the sack through official land. In mercy, God's given his word. It's perfect to the remnant that
he purchased. And the words therein speak peace
to the sinner as the voice of the Lord has purposed It says
forsake thy nets and follow me through deserts, fire, and seas. I provided all my father has
required, and I've done it perfectly. I know that I have a need of
him. I know that I'm vanity and sin. But if he shows me his face,
I'm certain I'll be made like him. Lord, attend unto my cry, and
to my prayer draw nigh. Let my sentence come forth from
thy presence. Behold thy Son in thine eye. You came to me in the land of
ham. You showed me what I am. I'm in need of a substitute,
of a sacrificial lamb. Thank you Adam. Did you write
that? That's good. That's a blessing. Thank you. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 106. Psalm 106. And we'll begin reading verse
47. And this will sound familiar if you heard the passage I read
from First Chronicles 16 just a few moments ago. Verse 47 of
Psalm 106. Save us. Oh Lord, our God. And gather us. From among the
heathen. To give thanks unto thy holy
name. And to triumph. Be victorious in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say. Amen,
can you say amen to that prayer? Can you? Lord save me. Save me. The greatest need that
you and I have right this very minute is for God to save us. I had a man mock the gospel recently,
telling me, he said, well, you're just trying to save the world.
And he had no idea what his need was to be saved. I had another
man tell me, you don't have to tell people to be saved. God's
already settled that in the covenant of grace and eternity past. This
matter of salvation, it's not just a one-time experience. I
can remember in religion, we used to say, well, I've gotten
saved. You know, and you share the gospel with somebody today
and it's a, that's religious and why they say, well, I know
I'm saved. What are they looking to? They're looking to an experience
that they had when they prayed a prayer, walked an aisle or,
or got baptized or joined the church as the, as the evidence
of their salvation. When God speaks of being saved,
he speaks of it throughout the scriptures in five tenses, five
tenses. We were saved in eternity past
in the covenant of grace when the Lord Jesus Christ as our
surety became the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. And in the covenant of grace, everyone that God chose
was saved in that covenant. Before time ever began, before
the earth was ever made, before the stars were ever put into
the universe, God saved the people in Christ. That's not the end
of it though. That salvation had to be accomplished
at Calvary's cross. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ,
as our sin bearer, bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross
and cried, it is finished, everything that was necessary for the salvation
of God's people was accomplished by Christ. So we're saved in
eternity past, that's election. We're saved at the cross, that's
redemption. But that's not the end of it.
That's not the end of it. We've got to be regenerated.
The spirit of God has to come in power and open the eyes of
our understanding and give to us faith and enable us to rest
all the hope of our salvation on the glorious person and finished
work of Christ where salvation is not for us. Nicodemus, except
you be born again, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
You've got to be born from above. You've got the spirit of God's
got to blow and he's got to, he's got to regenerate you. So we're saved in election. We're
saved in redemption. We're saved in regeneration.
We're saved in sanctification. You don't hear believers saying,
well, I got saved. I'm being saved every single day, multiple
times a day. The Spirit of God reminds me
of the unbelief that remains in my heart and brings me once
again and again and again to the foot of the cross pleading
with the Lord, Lord, save me, save me from myself, save me
from my unbelief, save me from my sin. So we're saved in election,
we're saved in redemption, we're saved in regeneration, we're
saved in sanctification, and one day, One day, when this mortal
becomes immortal, and this corruptible becomes incorruptible, and we're
given a new body, and we see him as he is, and we're made
like him, and we're taken by him into glory, we shall be saved. You see, this matter of salvation,
it's from eternity to eternity. And the scripture makes it clear.
Jonah, do you remember when Jonah was in the belly of the whale?
And just before the whale vomited him out onto dry land, what did
Jonah say? Salvation is of the Lord. Lord, if you're gonna save me,
you're gonna have to do it. What'd we say in the previous
hour when the Lord told the prophet, a priest to the dry bones, son
of man, can these bones live? Lord, thou knowest. Lord, you're
gonna have to save them. Lord, save us. Is there a prayer
that you pray more often? Lord, save me. Save me. And what is it that we need to
be saved from? The world wants to be saved from their circumstances. They want to be saved from, you
know, from hardships in life. This matter of salvation is so
much more than that. Lord, I need to be saved from
my sin. I need to be safe from the wrath of God. I need to know
that you're satisfied with what you did in pouring out the full
fury of your wrath and that the fire of your wrath has been quenched. Lest I suffer the judgment of
God for all eternity, Lord, I've got to be saved from that, from
the wrath that is to come. Lord, I need to be safe from
myself. I'm my own worst enemy. I just I'm so full of unbelief
I'm so prone to wonder I'm so prone to forget the God that
I love I'm so prone to to to doubt you and to be caught up
in fear and Lord save me save me again and again and again
save me save us oh Lord the world wants to be saved from and poverty
and plague and ignorance and some of them want to be saved
from the Democrats and some of them want to be saved from the
Republicans and you know, what do we need to be saved from? We need to be saved from the
justice of the law. The law can't save us. The law's
got nothing to say to us but guilty. The law exacts its revenge
fully. And it's not satisfied. That's
why hell is forever, because the law's never satisfied in
hell. You see, every moment that a person spends separated from
God in a, well, in hell, they're adding to their rebellion by
raising their fist in defiance against God. People
in hell aren't asking for mercy. and I ask for mercy. And the law is never satisfied,
so hell's forever. Lord, I need to be saved from
that. I need to be saved from death.
I need to be saved from the grave. I need to be saved from Satan.
I'm fighting a spiritual battle here, and the weapons of my warfare
are not carnal. They're mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds, bringing into captivity every
thought and imagination of the heart to the obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I need for your obedience
to save me from this spiritual power in the world that I can't
stand up against. I need to be saved. Now let the
world mock us for talking about being saved. This is the greatest
need that every man's got. It's the greatest need that you
have and the greatest need that I have. And only God can do it. He's the only one that can save
us. Save us, oh Lord our God. The Philistines were coming against
Israel, surrounded them. There was no hope of escape.
First Samuel chapter seven. And the elders went to the prophet
Samuel and they said, cease not to cry unto the Lord, our God
for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a suckling lamb
and offered it for a burnt offering unto the Lord and the Lord heard
him. You see, when we come before
God to be saved, the only grounds upon which we're able to come
is through that suckling lamb. And we have the promise of God
that he will hear us on the grounds of the shed blood and sacrifice
that the Lord Jesus Christ made to save his people. He accomplished
our salvation. We can't come into God's presence
unless we, like Samuel, bring the blood of that lamb. And we
have the promise of God, and he heard them. And he heard them. And we've got the Lord's promise.
We come to him in his name, and he hears us. He hears our prayers. Lord, save us. You've got the
hope, and confidence of the very promise of God to know that when
you come before the throne of grace in the name of the Lord,
Jesus Christ, based on the shed blood of that suckling lamb,
and you cry to God, Lord, save me, save me. No one's ever done that and not
been saved. People come and they say, well,
Lord, I need to be saved, but I'm so wicked. Listen, there's a little article
in your bulletin you might want to read that I'm about to tell
you. Um, and, and our sin is so much
worse than we even can even imagine that it is. But to say that I'm
too wicked to be saved or my sins too great for God to save
me. Do you see the, the hypocrisy and the self-righteousness in
that statement? It's hypocritical in that you
think that you know how evil your sin is. I'm here to tell
you it's a whole lot worse than you think it is. Whole lot worse. And it's self-righteous in that
it presumes that if I wasn't so bad, I could merit salvation
by myself. So don't wallow, don't wallow
in pity and, and, and, and feigned guilt thinking, well, that's
the means by which God's going to bless me. If I just, if I
just get low enough and get sorrowful enough, God will, God will have
mercy upon me. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us
of all of our unrighteousness. Just agree, just take God's side
against yourself. Just admit, Lord, there's nothing
about me that's not sinful. Lord, I need you to save me.
I need you to save me. And how do you know if he saved
you? Because you're no longer wallowing in the shame and guilt
of your sin. You're rejoicing in the finished
work of Christ. Where the Spirit of God is, there
is liberty. And if Christ shall make you
free, you're free indeed. Or my sin's been put away. I'm
no longer looking at my sin, I'm looking to Christ. And I've
got the hope of knowing that He has saved me. Now it's not
going to be long after that you're going to find yourself looking
at your sin again. And you come back, don't you?
You just keep coming. That's why Peter, when he talked
about coming to Christ, he didn't say, well, you come to Christ
once and settle your business with God and nail it down, and
then you're good to go. No, he said, to whom coming. We keep coming to Christ, don't
we? Because we keep needing to be saved. Lord, I know you saved
your people in the eternity past. I know that Christ was successful
on the cross in accomplishing salvation for your people. And
I think, Lord, that you did open my eyes back there when I first
heard the gospel, heard it effectually, heard to ask the gospel and believed
it. But Lord, I find myself in my
sin again. I need to be saved right now. Lord, save me. And Lord, if you
don't save me in eternity, the worst trials are yet to come,
aren't they? Samuel brought a suckling lamb
and offered it as a burnt offering unto the Lord. Now you know what
that's a picture of. That's Christ on the cross. That's
the fiery wrath of God's justice like on Mount Carmel that fell
down on the sacrifice and consumed the sacrifice and all the water
that was on the altar. That's the fiery wrath of God.
God says, not only is my fire Consume the sacrifice, but the
sacrifice has quenched my fire. There's no more fire, no more
wrath. My justice is settled. Rejoice,
rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. You
say, well, you don't know what I'm going through, preacher.
No, I don't, but God does. And that's not my words that
I just gave you. Those are God's words. I don't know what you're
going through, and you don't know what I'm going through. But God knows the heart, and
He knows what we're all going through, and God says, rejoice
in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Let
your moderation be known unto man, for the Lord is at hand.
The Lord's at hand. You've got reason to rejoice.
Child of God, don't get caught up in a pity party. Don't get
caught up in trying to get people to feel sorry for you. Ask the Lord to be pitiful to
you. And when he is, he will lift up your head and you'll
no longer need pity from other men. You'll have the one who
you need pity from having pitied you and taken away your sin.
And you will have the encouragement and hope of knowing that he has
saved you. saved you. And whatever else
happens, it will all be part of His salvation warning. 1 Samuel chapter 11, the Amorites
now come against the Philistines. And the Amorites are going to
overpower the Philistines, like the Philistines did in the previous
chapter. Now the Amorites are coming against Israel. And Israel
goes to the Amorites, because they know they're outnumbered,
and they say, make a covenant with us. Make a league with us,
so that we can be at peace with one another. And the Amorites
said to the children of Israel, we will make a covenant with
you under one condition. We're going to gouge out the
right eye of every man in Israel. And then we'll be at peace. Now, what was the point of that?
Well, if you've only got one eye, you don't have good depth
perception. You can't swing a sword or engage in battle. So take
out one of your eyes. And the children of Israel said
this. Give us seven days. And if there
be no man to save us, then we will come out to you and make
a league with you. Give us seven days, we're gonna
ask God to give us a leader, give us a man. And that's when
God raised up Saul and Saul was a picture of Christ in that story. And Saul came and led the children
of Israel against the Amorites and they defeated them and they
didn't lose their eye. Give us seven days. And if the
Lord will raise up a man to lead us, that's exactly what the Lord
has done. He's raised up a man. The Lord
Jesus Christ is our Saul. He has gone against the Amorites so that we don't have to sacrifice
our eyes. No, to the contrary, he opens
up the eyes of our understanding, doesn't he? And he saves us by
revealing Christ to us. 2nd Kings chapter 7. There's
a famine in the land. Children of Israel have been
disobedient and God has sent a famine and Elisha prophesied
of that famine and now the Syrians have have surrounded Jerusalem
and the people in Jerusalem have run out of food and they've resorted
to cannibalism and Joshua says or Elisha says
To the king, he said, tomorrow this famine is going to be broken.
And nobody believed it. But all along that very night,
there's four lepers sitting at the gate outside of the city.
They're not allowed in the city. They're lepers. And you know
what lepers sees a picture of. It's our sinfulness before God,
isn't it? And they're sitting outside the gate and they're
talking to one another. They haven't heard the prophecy that tomorrow
the famine's going to be broken. And they discussed it with one
another. They said, well, if we go into the city, we'll die.
They're all dying and eating each other. If we stay here,
we're going to die. But if we go and cast ourselves
on the mercy of the Syrians, perhaps they will save us. And if they don't, well, we're
just going to die anyway. We've got nothing to lose. If
we die, we die. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Elisha. He has broken the famine. You know what happened when the
lepers went into the camp of the Syrians, the Lord had already
scattered the Syrians and the provisions were abundant. And
the prophecy of Elisha came true the very next morning and the
bread was abundant and everything that the children of Israel needed
was provided by God. If we stay where we are, we're
gonna die. If we go into the world where
they're engaged in cannibalism, and that's exactly what they're
doing in the world in which you and I live, they're eating one
another. Okay? Whatever can be to their profit,
they're taking advantage of one another. Go out there, we're
going to die. Cast yourself on the mercy of
God. What have you got to lose? You're going to die anyway. Oh, I'm here to tell you not
just perhaps. Save us, oh Lord our God, and
he will save you. You've got his promise on that. Turn with me back a few pages
to Psalm 80. Psalm 80. The Holy Spirit of God, as we
saw in the previous hour, is the only one that can drive this
truth home to our hearts. Some will leave here with their
head cocked. Yeah, I wonder what that's all about. Some will hear
a message like this and mock. And the Spirit of God will smite
the hearts of God's people and cause them to cry, Lord, save
me. Save me. I need to be saved.
I need to be saved for myself. I need to be saved from my sin.
I need to be saved from Satan. I need to be saved from this
world in which I live. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel. He's only the shepherd of Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
the shepherd of the world. Father, I pray not for the world. I pray
for them which thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou hast given them unto me. I have kept them. The
shepherd of Israel, thou leadest Joseph like a flock. Thou that
dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. What was between
the cherubims? The mercy seat. Where did the
blood put the, where did the, the priest put the sacrificial
blood once a year on the day of atonement on the mercy seat? And what did God say here? I
will meet with you. Come before God, pleading the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God says, I'll meet
you between the cherubims. I'll meet you right there at
the mercy seat. I'll save you before Ephraim and Benjamin and
Manassas stir up thy strength and come. and save us. This is not an obscure topic
in the scripture. This is what it's all about.
This is repeated over and over and over again. Lord, save us.
Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall
be saved. Lord, if you'll turn my heart,
if you'll give me faith, if you'll cause me to cast my care upon
him that careth for me, and rest all the hope of my salvation
in Christ. Lord, you turn me and I'll be turned and you save
me and I'll be saved. And you'll get all the glory. Nothing else matters. The world will eat you alive. They noticed, go back with me
to our text. Save us, Oh Lord, our God and
gather us from among the heathen. Now let me try to make something
clear and I want to speak particularly to our young people. I hope that some of the older
folks already know this. Every child of God believes themselves
to be the chief of all sinners. Every child of God knows that
no one in this world has been given more light and more blessings
and more opportunity and more truth and remain as unbelieving
as they are. And they believe themselves to
be in need of grace more than anyone else. Now that's just
a fact. But that does not make what the
world does right. Say, well, I'm the chief of all
sinners anyway, so I might as well indulge myself in the sins
of the world. Don't do it. Don't do it, young
people. This world is contrary to everything
that's true and everything that's right. Don't think because we
talk about being sinners that that makes sin okay. It's not. If you do knowing what you know,
what they're doing, your sin will be multiple times worse
than theirs. Amen. Just because we're humbled by
the spirit of God to believe ourselves to be the chief of
all centers doesn't give us license to engage in the things that
the world's engaged in. Does that make sense? Isaiah 33 verse 22, for the Lord
is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us. Lord save me. Or I will, I will
follow the ways of the world if you don't save me. If you
don't keep me. Hosea chapter 14 says, Asher
shall not save us. Now Asher translated means steps. Steps. You're not gonna be saved
by making steps. Well, if I do this and then I
do that, and then I do the other, then I'll make my steps towards
God and God will save me, no. Asher shall not save us. Salvation
has to come down from heaven. The Lord said, when you make
an altar, don't put steps on it. You know those altars they've
got down in Mexico? with the, they made, the old
Mayan Indians made their sacrifice in there. The Lord said, don't
do that. Why? He said, because when you walk
up that altar to make your sacrifice at the top of the altar, all
you're going to do is expose your nakedness to the people
that are under you. So the Lord said, you know this
picture there. Don't make, Asher can't save
you. Don't make yourself some procedures
that you've got to follow. Well, if I join the church and
I get baptized and I do this and I do that and I read and
then I'll work my way to God. Asher shall not save you. All
you're doing is exposing your nakedness. You see, if we look
to anything we've done, we just expose our nakedness before God. There's only one thing that clothes
the nakedness of a sinner, and that's the righteousness of Christ.
That's that pure white robe of Christ that covers our nakedness.
Asher shall not save us. Horses shall not save us. Neither
shall the work of our hands. Lord save me. Salvation is of the Lord. I can't
make any contribution to it. All I can come is one in need
of being saved. Turn me, turn me, and I shall
be turned. Go back with me to our text,
Isaiah, Psalm 106. Save us, O Lord our God, and
gather us from among the heathen. Now that word, gather us, is
the same word that's used in the New Testament for church. the called out ones, the gathered
together into an assembly away from the world. Lord, gather
us together. Here's a good paraphrase of that
verse. Lord, church us out of the world. Gather us together. And what
a blessing it is to be gathered together. This is the place where
the Lord has promised to save his people. This is the place
where the gospels preach. You're not being preached anywhere
else. You don't hear the gospel anywhere else, unless you're
listening to another gospel preacher. This is where God saves his people.
And this is where he promised to make himself known. Young
people again, don't don't sacrifice whatever the world offers you.
They will eat you up to get you out of the church. Satan is a
Satan's alive and well. And he's doing everything he
can. To fight against God and against
his people. And he will make you all sorts of offers. And
to accept those offers, you're going to sacrifice being gathered
together with God's people. And adults do it. You know, you
get some big offer, promotion, and they take off. Michael, I can remember you were
out of work for months, years ago, using everything. You were in trouble. And he got
a big offer to move to Washington, D.C. or Virginia or someplace
up there. Big salary, big offer. He went
up and looked at the job. Checked it out, can't do it. Can't leave the church. Came
back here and God gave you a job, didn't he, right? Just right
away. This one jobs were scarce, not
like they are today. The world might be offers. There's nothing like gathering
together with God's people And you know it's not the same. When
you have to stay home and. And you're sick or whatever,
and you've got to watch online. It's not the same, is it? And
we've got believers that are watching right now. That don't
have a church. And I'm very encouraged with
them. They support the work here. They pray for us. This morning. This morning, I
got an email. Every day, this is from a lady
that lives on a resort island in the West Indies. I mean, a
place where the world calls it paradise. Barbados. Every day, You and Trish and
all the others in Grace Gospel Church come into my thoughts
and I pray often for you. I miss you all. She was here
last summer, baptized her. I miss you all and long to see
your faces again. Come every Sunday, the desire
to come together with God's people and to sing and worship our Lord
is so strong that unless my thoughts are on the Lord only, it is easy
to feel sorry for myself. For we do not have a preacher
and a like-minded souls to meet with here. While I do not have
control over my situation, I know that it is in God's hands and
perhaps he will give my desire to be able to either find some
safe souls here, bring the opportunity to come back to you all. Perhaps
he may even send a preacher someday to Grenada. I say Barbados, Grenada. To bring the gospel of Jesus
Christ for lost sheep here. Whatever the Lord does is good.
When people tell me Grenada is paradise, I think to myself,
the only paradise on earth to me is Christ and his people who
congregate to worship him. That is paradise on earth. Now
brethren, that came to me this morning. She's watching right now, weeping,
wishing she could be here. Save us, O Lord our God, and
gather us together from among the heathen. Lord, I need to
be saved. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that you would make your word effectual to our hearts. We pray
that you would bless Jeanette and Donnie and all those that
are not able to gather together with your people, Lord, provide
for them. As you provide for us, we ask
it in Christ's name, amen. 191, let's stand together, number
191. Just remain seated, 191. Here, O my Lord, I see thee face
to face. Here would I touch and handle
things unseen. Here grasp with and eternal grace, and all my
weariness upon thee lean. Here would I feed upon the bread
of God. Here drink with thee the royal
wine of heaven. Here would I lay aside each earthly
load, Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven. I have no help but thine, nor
do I need another arm save thine to lean upon. My Lord, enough indeed. My strength is in Thy might,
Thy might alone. Mine is the sin, but Thine the
righteousness. Mine is the guilt, but thine
the cleansing blood. Here is my robe, my refuge, and
my peace. Thy blood, thy righteousness,
O Lord my God. The simplest and briefest gospel
message we can preach is the Lord's table. His body is blood. His life is
death. Sinless perfection, righteousness
before God, and satisfaction. The Lord said, as often as you
do it, do it in remembrance of me. Just one of the blessings that
our brethren that the Lord has scattered about, some of them
unable to get to a church, miss out on, is the Lord's table. Such a clear, clear picture of
what God's satisfied with, the death of Christ. For God said,
when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you,
I'll be satisfied. I'm content. What Samuel do?
He brought that land and the Lord heard him and we bring the
land and the Lord hears us. Lord save us, save us. All God's people said, amen. Lord saved me. Don't quit praying
that prayer or it saved me. Let's stand together. Noah, we're
so proud of you. Would you close us in prayer,
please? Heavenly Father, we are just
humbled and thankful that you have brought us in unity here
again.