Good morning. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 37 from your hardbacked hymnal. Number 37,
how great thou art. And let's all stand together
for hymn number 37. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook,
and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration
and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! ? How great thou art ? Please
be seated. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me, we'll be in Mark chapter three this morning, Mark chapter
three. Good morning. I want to thank Robert and Michael
for being so faithful to preach the gospel to you last Sunday,
and what a blessing these men are, these brothers, to us. Let's
ask the Lord's blessings on this time. Our merciful Heavenly Father, the hope that you've put into
our hearts that we would we would see a little more of truly how
great thou art this morning. We come before you, Lord, as
needy sinners. In hopes that you would be pleased
to meet with us. To reveal your glory and your
grace to our hearts. Our hope is that you would Be
pleased to give faith and cause us, Lord, to hang all the hopes
of our life, our salvation, our souls on thy dear son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, that you would cause
him to be lifted up, that we would be drawn to him. Lord,
that you would give to us the hope of eternal life. We ask it in his dear name. Amen. If you have your Bibles open to
Mark chapter three, I'd like to read one verse. And from,
verse eight, I'm sorry, verse eight. And from Jerusalem and
from Idumea and from beyond Jordan, and they about Tyre and Sidon,
a great multitude, when they heard what great things he did
came unto him. When they heard what great things
he did, they came unto him. Now the spirit and the bride
say, come. God calls his people to come
to Christ. We know that what He requires,
He must provide. For the Lord also said, no man
can come unto me unless the Father which sent me draw him. We are
completely dependent upon His grace for the ability to come. But these people came because
they heard what great things the Lord Jesus Christ had done.
Where did they come from? Scripture says they came from
Idumea. They came from Jerusalem. They
came from beyond Jordan. They came from Tyre and Sidon.
I mean, these are the Edomites, the Phoenicians, the Romans.
These are people of every language, every culture, every land, every
nation. And that's where God's people
come from. They come from Lots of different places. You know,
I don't know of anything else in the world that cuts through
every culture and every generation like the gospel. We have generational differences
with our children and our grandchildren, don't we? I mean, we like different
types of music. We dress different. We have different
experiences. And those things are fine. The
Lord said that this gospel would knit the hearts of the fathers
to the children. I don't know of any other message
that stays the same for a 15-year-old as it does for an 80-year-old.
It's exactly the same message. And it's exactly the same message
whether you're rich or poor, whether you're a man or a woman.
Whether you're a Jew or a Greek, it's exactly the same message.
It is relevant to every age, every culture, every language,
and it doesn't change. We don't try to make the gospel,
you know, that's real popular today in a lot of religions is
try to make the message palatable and relevant to the culture. No. We preach exactly the same
gospel that the Apostle Paul preached. We preach exactly the
same gospel that Isaiah preached. And there's no need to try to
make it relevant. It is relevant. It is relevant. We're not trying to dress up
the gospel to make it look appealing to a particular group of people. If anything, we're trying unpackage
the gospel, if you will, expose it, reveal the Lord Jesus Christ
by lifting him up. And he said, if I be lifted up,
I will draw all men, all men to me. The Lord doesn't have
to change his nature or his appeal or his, or anything about him
to attract one person over another. These people, what does that
say to you and me? It says to you and me, it doesn't
matter where we come from. It doesn't matter who we are.
It doesn't matter what our experiences are. It doesn't matter what we
have or what we don't have. It doesn't matter. It's the same
message. It's the same gospel. We all think of ourselves as
being different, don't we? Well, I'm just, nobody's exactly
like me. Well, I guess that's true. Our Lord knows each of His children
better than they know themselves. And He calls us out from every
place, every circumstance. Jerusalem, Idumea, that's where
the Edomites lived. Those were the descendants of
Esau. There they are, just coming from
everywhere. Why did they come? Why did we come? Well, they heard
something, didn't they? They heard something. Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God. To be able
to hear is a miracle. It is. It's a miracle to be able
to hear His voice. The natural man cannot hear.
He's deaf, we come into this world deaf to the things of God.
We just, it is impossible for us to hear. And yet the Lord
said, let him who has ears hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches. So the Lord's got to give us
ears to hear. And then we were reminded of that, horrible condemnation
that Isaiah declared and that is repeated more times in the
New Testament than any other Old Testament passage from Isaiah
chapter 6 when the Lord said they will have ears but they
will not hear. Now what's the difference between
hearing with your ears and hearing with your heart? When you hear with your heart
it's because you know and you hear what you heard in the ear
is for you. It's for you. That's the difference. But the spiritually dead can't
hear. And so the Lord has to give us
life. He has to unstop our ears. He
has to cause us, not just to hear doctrine, but to hear the
great things which he hath done." And why did they come? They came
believing that perhaps what we've heard the Lord did for others
he would do for me. Is that possible? That the Lord
would be merciful to me? Blind Bartimaeus heard that Jesus
was coming by. He physically couldn't see the
Lord, but he heard something, didn't he? You know, I've had
a thought recently, and I know the Lord, everyone that belongs
to the Lord are going to hear the gospel one way or the other.
There's no question about that. He's not going to lose one of
his sheep. Everyone he chose in the covenant of grace is going
to hear his voice and they're going to follow him. But I can
remember back in religion where we were signing the messages
that we were preaching for people who were unable to physically
hear. And I don't know of anybody doing
that with the gospel. And I just thought about it,
you know, but what about deaf people? The Lord would get the
gospel to them one way or the other, but wouldn't it be wonderful
for us to... Physically, people hear, but
spiritually they can't hear. They can't hear. And after having preached the gospel
for as long as I've been attempting to do, it's amazing to me how
how dull of hearing we can be. And here's the difference. Believers
are grieved over the fact that they are dull, that they often
slumber, that they're like that woman in the Song of Solomon
where the Lord comes and he knocks on her door and she's asleep
and she doesn't get up. And then she smells the aroma
of his grace and she does get up, but by then he's gone. He's
departed from her. And then she goes seeking after
him. We grieve over the fact that we're so dull of hearing.
We're slow to hear. The unbeliever, the one who's
never heard, doesn't grieve over the fact that they don't hear.
It doesn't bother them a bit. They've never heard, they don't
know what they're missing, and they're not concerned about the
fact that they can't hear. They just go along not being
able to hear and not concerned about the fact that they can't
hear. But here's the means by which the Lord speaks to his people. Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God. Is it possible? Here I am I, an Edomite, a Gentile
from Tyre or Sidon, or maybe a very religious person from
Jerusalem. Is it possible that the Lord
would do for me what I've heard he's done for others? Even me? Could he save me? Would he save
me? Oh, Lord. You remember when John
the Baptist was in prison and he began to wonder, aren't thou
the one or should we look for another? And he sent his disciples
to ask the Lord that question. Now, the Lord had already got
it, already revealed to John that Jesus was the Christ, but
John was confused. John was the last of the Old
Testament prophets and the first of the New Testament preachers,
and he was in that period of time where the Spirit of God
had not yet given full understanding of the gospel. He was like the
disciples. He thought that the Lord was
going to establish an earthly kingdom, and he couldn't reconcile
the fact that here I am in prison, they're fixing to take off my
head. How can this be? And what did the Lord say to
the disciples of John? Go back and tell John what you
have seen and what you have heard. Tell him that the blind see,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised and the gospel is preached unto the poor. Tell
John what you've heard, and when John hears what you've heard,
it'll strengthen him. John had his head taken off within
just a few days after that, believing without a doubt that Jesus was
the Christ, the son of the living God, because of what he heard,
because of what he heard. Lord, give me ears to hear, not
just to hear some doctrinal truths, but to hear you and to hear what
you've done. Look what he says, a great multitude And the church is a great multitude. Thousands upon thousands and
ten thousands upon ten thousands will be gathered together in
glory of every generation, of every kindred, of every nation,
of every tribe, of every tongue. And they'll all be praising Him. The multitude came when they
heard what great things he had done. When they heard about him giving
sight to the blind, the blind came hoping that he would do
for them what he had done for others. When they heard about
Him healing those who were lame, they brought those who were lame
to Him, didn't they? And like those men that lowered
their friend down through the tiles in the roof, the Lord healed
them. Take up thy bed and walk. When they heard, have you heard
what the Lord has done? When they heard, have you heard
that he has made the law of God honorable? That he is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth? Have
you heard that? Now here's the difference. Have you heard that
he did it for you? Have you heard that you are not
under the law, but under grace? Are you looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ for all your righteousness before God? Does he comfort your
heart in knowing that the law has been satisfying? There's
no wrath, there's no judgment. God's pleased with what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done. Have you heard that he has put
away the sins of his people? Most folks only have heard that
Jesus made an offering to man to be received or rejected by
which your sins will either be forgiven or not forgiven. And
that's what most folks are hanging their hopes on. Well, I've accepted
his offer. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
make us an offer. He made himself an offering to
the Father. See, all the sacrifices that
were made in the Scriptures were made to God. They weren't made
to man. Those Old Testament lamb that were slain, the blood that
was shed, that wasn't to man, that was to God. Christ made
an offering to the Father and His offering was to put away
all the sins of all of His people of every generation and when
He gives you ears to hear what great things He had done, You
hang all the hopes of your justification before God on the sacrifice that
Christ made. That blood that he shed is the
only hope that you have. It's the only hope you have. Those children of Israel in Egypt,
they were in the house, weren't they? What was that house a picture
of? The house is a picture of Christ. and the father of the household
would take the blood of the lamb and put it on the door post and the lintel of the
house and what did the Lord say? When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. That's what I want. You know, when the Lord told
Moses that the death angel was coming through Egypt and was
going to kill the firstborn of every household. God did not
say to Moses, I'm going to kill the firstborn of every household
of the Egyptians. He said, I'm going to kill the
firstborn of every household, Jew or Egyptian, it doesn't matter. The only thing that's going to
make a difference is whether or not there's blood on the door.
That's the only thing that's going to make a difference. And
when I see that blood, then I'll pass by. In the house, behind the blood, have you heard what great things
He has done? He's the Lamb. We're talking
about John the Baptist. What did John say? Behold, there
He is, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. Now, if that means that he actually
took away all the sins of all the world, then, you know, what are we doing?
Everybody's saved. That's just universal redemption,
isn't it? That's not what the Lord meant. Everybody in the world, doesn't
matter where they're from, Idumea, Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon, doesn't
matter, all the worldlings, That's who the Lord came to save. He paid the ransom price in full. In full. Hosea went down to the
slave market and bought Gomer, who had destroyed her life as
a harlot, and he paid the ransom price for her as a slave and
brought her home to himself, didn't he? And that's exactly
what our Lord has done. He's paid the ransom price for
harlots, those who have given themselves to another husband,
those who have played the harlot spiritually. And he's paid that
price and he's brought them home to himself. Have you heard? These people came to Christ because
they heard what great things he had done." And this is still
the means by which he draws us to himself, isn't he? When we declare what great things
he had done. Have you heard what great things
he's done? He actually finished the work. I came to finish the
work which the Father has given me to do. Well, the very first
words we have recorded in the scriptures that our Lord spoke
when he was 12 years old in Jerusalem, did you not know, speaking to
his mother, that I must be about my father's business? And then
the very last words that we have recorded before he hung his mighty
head and gave up the ghost was, it is finished. Father into thy
hands, I commend my spirit. Have you heard? He finished it.
There's nothing left to be done. It's done. It's all done. Every bit of it. Everything that
God requires from a sinner, the Lord Jesus Christ provided. He's
our surety. He ratified the covenant of grace,
that covenant that he struck hands with the Father on in eternity
past before time ever began, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
everything necessary in that covenant. Have you heard? He's
our surety before God. Have you heard that the Lord
Jesus Christ has prepared a place for you? You see, that's the
difference, isn't it? We can hear truths and we can
hear doctrines we can hear with our physical ear things that
are things that are intriguing things that are interesting things
that are but when God gives you spiritual ears to hear then you
understand this is for me this is where I'm hanging all my hopes
this is this is my salvation you can say with David this is
all my salvation and all my desire, all my desire, He's all I've
got. Men will come to Christ when
they hear what great things He has done for others and they
will come believing that what He did for others, He'll do for
me. That's the only reason He'll
come. Have you heard that he's prepared
a place? He said, you believe in God?
Believe also in me. For in my Father's house are
many dwelling places, many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
called you. I didn't keep anything back from you. I go and prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place,
I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I
am there you may be also. Don't let your hearts be troubled.
Don't let your hearts be troubled. When the Lord Jesus Christ as
the word of God returned back to the father, the scripture
says that the word of God would not return unto him void. It would accomplish the purpose
for which God sent it. Now, what purpose did God send
His Son into this world? To save sinners. Did He accomplish
the purpose of the Father? Yes. Did He take with Him the
names of those for whom He lived and died? And does He ever live
right now to make intercession on behalf of His church, His
bride, those people whom He purchased? Yes. Yes. Where is He right now? seated
at the right hand of God, making intercession for His people. The question that you and I have
to ask ourselves is, is He making intercession for me? Is He making intercession for
me? Is He doing for me what I've
heard Him do for others? You'll come. We'll come, won't we? We'll come
when we believe the great things that He did for others, He did
for us. Have you heard that death has
been conquered? The grave has been opened? Satan
has been defeated? That the Lord Jesus Christ has
has conquered that final enemy, that he is the firstborn among
many brethren, that death no longer has its power. The sting
of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Thanks be
to God. Through Christ Jesus, we're free.
The law's been fulfilled. It's been satisfied. Death no longer has its power.
You know, there's something about not being afraid to die in there. Oh, there's something great about
it. Having hope. Men live all their lives in fear
of death. And they'll do everything they
can to avoid it. And I know that in our flesh
there's something There's a connection that we have to this physical
world. And when we get sick, our bodies are going to fight
tooth and toenail to stay alive. But there's another nature that
the child of God has that says with sincerity, for me, for me,
to live is Christ and to die is gain. Precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of one of his saints. We can say with our brother John,
there at the end of the book of Revelation, come Lord Jesus,
even now come. There's a longing to see him
as he is and to be made like him. That's how I know that I've
heard it from me. I've heard the great things that
He did and they are for me." They came to Him because they were needy. That's
who the Lord Jesus Christ came to save. He came to save the
poor and the needy. The well don't need a physician. I came to save the sick. That's who, that's who came. They came from all, there were
a lot of folks who didn't come, obviously. But those who heard
the things that he had done for others and had that same need
for themselves, they came running. that came to him because they
were poor and they were needy now simply put poor means you
don't have anything and needy means you can't do anything does
that describe your condition before God you don't have anything
you can't you can't offer God anything to persuade him to save
you and and you can't do anything. That's who the gospel's for.
Those who can't help themselves and those who have nothing to
offer. How do we come without money
and without price? You come to Christ without moving
a muscle. As I said, it's a miracle of
grace. In the history of our country,
there's a period of time in the middle part of the 19th century. The heyday of it was 1825 to
1835. It was called the Second Great
Awakening. It wasn't a great awakening at
all. It was a religious revival And
it will be better termed the great deception rather than the
great awakening. But a lot of people got religion
and a lot of people changed their outward behavior. And a man by
the name of Charles Finney was the leader of that movement. He was the father of modern day
evangelism. And he believed that if you could,
he was a Presbyterian by the way, grew up a Calvinist, but
decided that, you know, that man really wasn't spiritually
dead, that he had the ability to respond. And so we just need
to provide the right kind of stimuli to get him to make the
response we want. And so he's the one. It wasn't
until 1835 that any church anywhere in the world had the idea of
people. Now, I'm going to explain something now that some of our
young people don't even know anything about because they've never seen
it. But in most churches, most Baptist churches in this city
and in this town, at the end of the service, the preacher
will offer an invitation. And Charles Finney is the one
that came up with that. Asking people to get up from their pew,
walk out to the aisle and come down front and kneel and pray
and have the preacher pray for them and make a public confession
of faith. And some of you young people
are thinking, they actually do that in churches? Yeah. Yeah, they
really do. What was the purpose of it? Well,
if we want men to come to Christ, we've got to give them something
to do so that they will feel as if they've come. And something as simple as that. And it's been going on ever since.
Been going on ever since. I want to call us right now you
and me to come to Christ without moving a muscle, without opening
your mouth, without saying a thing, without... You see, that's why
it's a miracle. Because it's something that has
to be done in the heart and it's something that God has to enable
you to do. Lord, give me faith to come. Cause me to come. You come without
money and without price, not bartering with God, taking of
the water of life freely, freely. Now in closing, turn to me to
Hebrews chapter 12, please. Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 18, for you are not come unto the
mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto
blackness and darkness and tempest. Now, what mountain is Paul talking
about? He's talking about Sinai, isn't
he? The mountain of the law. and the sound of trumpet and
the voice of words which voice they that heard entreated that
the word should not be spoken to them anymore. You go, what
did the children of Israel say? They were so afraid of that mountain.
You go and talk to God for us. We don't want to have anything
to do with him. For they could not endure that
which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it should be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake." Heard best message I ever heard
on the fear of God. John Chapman preached it up in
Lexington. And I told him yesterday, I said,
brother, you can preach that message when you come here next
week. But he introduced the message by saying, have you ever feared
God? And if your answer to that is
no, then you've never met him. You've never met him. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of an angry God. Our God is a consuming fire. That's what this mountain's all
about. So how do I come to a God that
I fear? You come in fear and in faith
and knowing that the safest place to be in the presence of God
is to be in Him, to be in Him. And so the Lord said, you don't
come to this mountain of the law. You're not going to approach
God by your obedience to the law. never been able to keep any of
God's law, and God requires perfect obedience, and He will not allow
one sin to go unpunished. So how am I gonna come? But,
aren't you glad when God puts a but in there? Verse 22, but
you are coming to Mount Zion. What happened on Mount Zion?
The Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life for the sheep as the
law keeper, as the law giver, you'll come to Mount Zion and
unto the city of the living God and to a innumerable and to a
heavenly Jerusalem and an innumerable company of angels to the general
assembly in the church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of
just men made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new
covenant. and to the blood of sprinkling
that speaketh better things than that of Abel. You come just like every other
child of God's ever come, just men made perfect who are all
in Christ, all in Christ, made perfect before God by coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. whose blood, who was sprinkled
on Mount Zion, put away our sins, satisfied God's justice. There's
no more wrath. There's hope. Come, come. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. Whether you're from NJ, whether
you're from Jerusalem, whether you're from Tyre, whether you're
from Sidon, wherever you come from, Have you heard what great things
He has done? Yes. Come believing that He's
done them for you. That's what faith is. All right,
let's take a break. th th