Open up tonight's service in
a soft back handle number 110, number 110, God is love, number
110. God is love, He loves us freely
With an everlasting love In eternal love He chose us And ordained
our place above God is love, see how he shows it. See his son upon the tree. God incarnate died for sinners
to forgive and set us free. God is love, in love He called
us, by His Spirit's grace and power. By Almighty grace He saved
us, at His own appointed hour. God is love, His love most tender,
Wisely rules this world below, For the good of all His people,
And all good He will bestow. God is love. He will preserve us. He will keep us to the end. He will never, never leave us,
nor will let us e'er leave Him. God is love and if we know him,
we will love each other too. And in love we'll walk before
him till our God makes all things new. Be seated, please. We're going to read from John
chapter 7 tonight for our scripture reading. Good evening. Herein, I was singing that hymn,
I was just thinking about what John said. Herein is love. Here's the definition of love.
Not that we love God. If we define love like that,
then it's pretty weak. But that he loved us and gave
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And I hope the
Lord will be pleased to reveal to us his love tonight. Verse
37 of John chapter 7, you have your Bibles open. In the last
day, that great day of the feast, this was the feast of the tabernacles.
And Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come
unto me. and drink. Will the Lord say to that woman
at the well, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that
saith unto thee, give me to drink, you would ask him and he would
give to you living water. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake he of the spirit
which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, said, of a truth, this is the
prophet. And others said, this is the
Christ. But some said, shall Christ come
out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture say that
Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the house of
Bethlehem where David was? So there was a division among
the people because of him. Still the case, isn't it? There's
a division among the people because of him. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit in power to unite
our hearts together in Christ. That there would be no division
here. That we would see eye to eye. That we would be brought,
each of us, to the foot of the cross. That we would experience
in our hearts your effectual love, your everlasting
love, your eternal love. We thank you that we have an
advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who intercedes on our behalf. We pray, Lord, that you would
bless your word to our hearts and cause him to be lifted up. For it's in his name we ask it.
Amen. You can remain seated for this
next hymn, Michael. We're going to sing number 290.
Number 290 in your hardback hymnal. Be still, my soul. Be still, my soul. you Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order and
provide. In every change, ye faithful
will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best,
thy heav'nly prayer. Through thorny ways, leads to
a joyful air. be still my soul thy God doth
undertake to guide the future as he has the past thy hope thy
God Fair dance, let nothing shake. All thou may'st steer, thou shalt
be bright at last. Be still, my soul, thou wades
and winds, still know his voice who rules. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on, When we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed, we shall
meet at last. I think we should sing that hymn
every time we come together. That's what I need. I need for
the Lord to still my soul. If you'd like to turn with me
in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55. The child of God lives his life with
a high level of frustration. He wants to be still and he can't. He wants to be content and he's
not. In Isaiah chapter 55 at verse
2, the latter part of verse 2, this is the title of this message
tonight. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness. And I mentioned Wednesday night
or Sunday morning, I'm sorry, that the first law of interpreting
the word of God is that the spiritual interprets the spiritual. We
go to the scripture, compare scripture to scripture to find
out what these things mean. And when we look at the word
fatness, we see that God uses it to illustrate the best of
the best. In Genesis, when Isaac blessed
Jacob, He said to him, God give thee of the fat of the earth
plenty of corn and plenty of wine. Might God give to you the
fat of the earth. It was a physical blessing that
Isaac was giving to Jacob, but it had spiritual direction to
it. It pointed to the best of the
best. The one who the scripture says
all the offerings in the Old Testament that were made by fire,
the fatness thereof belonged to the Lord. So when the scripture
speaks of delighting yourself in fatness, It's speaking of
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The psalmist
said in Psalm 63 verse 5, my soul shall be satisfied with
marrow and with fatness. Oh, that the Lord would enable
us to be satisfied with that which he's satisfied with, the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. And that we would eat of the
fatness of his grace and of his mercy. Turn with me in your Bibles
to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Jeshurun, which is a name used
to describe Israel, particularly in their rebellion, in Deuteronomy
chapter 32 verse 15, but Jeshurun waxed fat. not in the fatness of the Lord,
but in their own fatness, in their own contentment. They've
kicked and thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art
covered with fatness. Then he forsook God which made
him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. So if
we're fat in our own fatness, we're going to lightly esteem
the rock of our salvation. If the Lord's pleased to enable
us to eat of the fatness, to feed on the body and the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what Isaiah 55 is all about,
then we will be able, as the Lord says, to delight ourselves
in fatness. Let's look at verse one of this
text. I love what the Lord said in
Isaiah chapter 65. He said, before they call, I
will answer. And while they are yet speaking,
I will hear them. If the Lord enables us to hunger
and thirst after righteousness, to feed on the fatness of his
grace and his mercy, and to delight ourselves in the Lord, it'll
be because he caused us to do that. He caused us to do that. He said, while they called, I
was answering, and while they were yet speaking, I heard them. And if you're like me, You find
yourself often going to the broken cistern of polluted waters in
order to try to satisfy your thirst. It's just what we do. It's what we do. And the Lord is calling all of
his people here to come to the water of life. just as he said
to that woman at the well, just as he said on that day of the
great day of the feast in John chapter 7, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me. Oh, how sickening are the waters
of this world. We've all drank of them. And
in some degree or the other, we sip on them daily, only to
find them to be nauseating. Look at chapter 55. And the urgency is seen in the
very first word of this text, ho, ah, that hymn that we just
sang, be still my soul. That's what this word ho means.
It just means we're speaking to our, oh my soul. This is an
urgent matter. This is my life. There's no life
outside of what the Lord is doing here. Lord, enable me to hear
your voice. Enable me to delight myself in
fatness. Enable me to find the Lord Jesus
Christ to be that living water that would come forth from my
belly and the power of the Spirit of God. Oh, Lord, I've got no
place else to go. Look what he says, oh, everyone
that thirsteth. Oh, and we know that if we have
a thirst, it's because God gave it to us. It's because God gave
it to us. He will create a desire in our
hearts for him so that he makes his people willing in the day
of his power. If we have a thirst, it wasn't
because we just all of a sudden decided to get thirsty. Most
men are satisfied with the polluted waters of this world. Most men
are satisfied with the pollution of man-made free will religion.
They're satisfied with it. They're content. Only if the
Lord gives you a hunger and a thirst for righteousness and causes
you not to be able to be satisfied in those other means, will you
be able to say, I'm thirsting, Lord? And what does he say? Come
ye to the waters. Come. Come. Oh, the Spirit and the bride
saith come. The Lord said come. Why do we
not come more quickly? Why do we not come more often? Why do we not stay longer in
His presence? He's commanded us, He's called
us to come. Never has anyone come to Him
that's been turned away. Not one single time. Not one
single time in the history of the human race has anyone ever
come to Christ. If any man cometh unto me, I
will in no wise cast him out. If we don't come, it's not because
he didn't call us to come. We're at fault when we don't
come, aren't we? And here's the truth of the gospel.
If you're saved, it's all God's fault. And if you're not, it's
all yours. You say, well, that's a contradiction.
No, it's not. No, it's not a contradiction.
If you come to Christ, it's all the wooing of the Spirit of God
that caused you to come. And He gets all the glory for
you coming. If you don't come, it's all your fault. Now, that's
just what the Scripture teaches. And so, oh come, oh come to the
waters. He that hath no money, Lord,
what am I gonna bring? You see, we're always sipping
from this broken cistern of polluted religion, aren't we? We're recovering
Pharisees, and we think, well, I've got to bring something.
I've got to bring my prayers. I've got to bring my good intentions.
I've got to bring my repentance. I've got to bring my changing
of a new leaf. You know, I can't come right
now. I've got to get something worked out before I can come.
No! No. That's money. That's all that
is. It's our attempt to buy God's
favor. You can't buy it. If you're gonna
come, you gotta come just like you are, with all the filth and
all the sin and all the unbelief and all the... Come to the waters
without money. He that hath no money, come ye,
buy. Buy what? Buy and eat, yea, by
wine and milk. Now what is the wine and the
milk? The wine is a picture of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's his sacrificial death on Calvary's cross. That's what we celebrate when
we take the Lord's table, don't we? And we're acknowledging the
fact that the only way that I can be justified in the presence
of a holy God is that if God puts my sin under the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ and counts his sacrifice on Calvary's cross
as judgment for my sin, that's my only hope. How are you going
to buy that? If it was for sale, you couldn't
afford it. But it's not for sale. It's free. It's free. And the milk? What is the milk? It's his life. It's his body. That's our meat. He tells us
not to pursue the meat of this world, and not to make that our
life. Pursue that meat which is unto
eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. He's
the one that has to give us that meat. So he says, come, without
money, without price. Now what's the difference between
money and price? Money is that which we, it's
a picture of our gifts, our gold, our offerings, whatever it is.
Price is bartering. That's what it is. It's bartering. Say, well I know I can't buy
salvation, but you know, if God would save me, then I'll do this.
Or I'll do that. Or if the Lord would have mercy
upon me, I'll renew my... That's price. Don't come that
way. Without money. Without price. Eat of the fatness of His grace. The milk and the wine. Look what
he says. Without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread? Oh, we did it in religion, didn't
we? We did it in religion. I can remember being in a church
where we had a committee on committees. I promise you that's that's for
real. We had a committee on committees and everybody in the church had
a job. Give everybody a responsibility,
give everybody something to do, and that'll be the hook that'll
keep them there. We wore people out with religious
activity, didn't we? We ate the husk that the swine
did eat, and we found no satisfaction. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread? There was no salvation in that.
All that work. Oh, well, maybe we just need
to witness a little bit more. Maybe we need to take a witness
training class. Maybe we need to go down to the
rescue mission and serve in the soup kitchen. Or, you know, we'll
just do a little bit something more. Why do you spend money
for that which satisfieth not? Are those thoughts and those
ideas not still lingering in our minds and in our flesh? Why do you spend money for that
which satisfieth not? It doesn't satisfy. If we're
going to receive the grace of God, it'll be by pure grace. It'll be free. Look what he says,
Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread,
and you labor for that which satisfieth not? You know what
we do in this world, all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, why are
we so attracted to these things? Why? We're looking for satisfaction,
aren't we? We're looking for contentment
and happiness and hope. And it doesn't provide. And here's what the Lord is reminding
us. We're not talking about those
out there in the world. We're talking about me. We're
less than unfulfilled by these things. In fact, we are robbed of our
hope, and we're robbed of our true happiness when we pursue
happiness and satisfaction outside of the fatness of the Lord, outside
of Christ. Someone says, well, that's not
me. I'm satisfied. I hope God will be pleased to
speak to your heart and cause you to know by experience what it is to have
a burden for your soul. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and you labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me. Listen to what I have to say,
and eat ye that which is good. My body is meat indeed. That's what's good. Why callest
thou me good? The Lord said to the rich young
ruler, there's none good but God. Was the Lord denying himself
to be God? No, he was confronting this rich
young ruler with who he actually was. The Lord told Moses on Mount
Sinai, I will cause my goodness to pass before you. And David
said, oh, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life. There's only one thing good. Paul said, in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. He went on to
say, to will is present with me, I would like to be able to
do something good, but how to perform that which is good, I
find not, I can't do it. I can't do it. There is but one
that is good. And the Lord's saying to you
and me, why do you spend money for that which doesn't satisfy?
Why do you labor for that which satisfies not and you spend money
for that which is not bread? It's not good. And I know it's
not good, Lord. Oh, thank you. Thank you for
reminding me once again where my true life lies. It's not in free will religion. It's not in works of righteousness. It's not in the empty promises
of this world. And they are. They're so empty. I love when God calls the riches
of this world, he calls them the deceitfulness of riches.
Isn't that the truth? What is it? When someone's deceitful,
they're lying to you. They're telling you something
that's not true. What do the riches of this, what's this world
say? Oh, if you have that, then you'll be happy. deceitfulness of riches that
cannot provide what they promise. We're living in this world and
we're so easily deceived by the things of this world. Putting
our hope in earthly treasures, we're indulging ourselves in
the pleasures of the flesh and becoming becoming intoxicated
with that which feels good rather than drinking the water of life. Oh Lord. Let your soul, if this is your
experience, if you've learned by experience that the religion
of this world can't save your soul, If you've learned by experience
that the things of this world cannot satisfy your soul, then
delight yourself in fatness and come. Come right now, just like
you are. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come. This is not a, you know, we don't
preach the gospel and tell men, you know, you need to think about
this. You need to go home, you need to pray about it, you need
to consider this. You need to turn it over and
mull it over. No, there's no place in the word
of God where that kind of preaching takes place, is there? The urgency
of our souls is that today is the day of salvation. Right now. Right now. And the beauty of
the gospel is that it doesn't require anything physical to
change in order for us to be able to come to Christ. Nothing. You don't have to change your
seat. You don't have to change your clothes. You don't have
to change your work situation. You don't have to change your
spouse. You don't have to change anything. The beauty of the gospel
is that you come just like you are right now, right where you
are, right this very minute. Oh, are you thirsty? Has God
given you a thirst for Christ? Come right now in your heart. Oh, would the Lord enable me
to come? Delight yourself in fatness. Does this not remind us of what
the parable that the Lord told in Matthew chapter 22 when he
said, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king which made
a marriage for his son. He sent his servants out to bid
men to come to the marriage. And this is what he told the
servants to tell them. Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed. All things are ready. Come unto the marriage. And men
took it lightly and they didn't come. Matter of fact, they beat the
servants and they killed the servants. And the king became
enraged. And then he sent his servants
back out. Where? To the highways and the hedges.
Gather up those street people out there. Gather up those beggars. Gather up those folks that don't
have a meal to go to. They're hungry. They're thirsty. They'll come. They'll come. And they did. And the house was
filled. All things are ready. All things
are ready. The fatted calf has been killed.
The fattling of the Lord. Delight yourself in him. In him. Incline your ear. I say, well, how do I do that?
How do I do that? Incline your ear. Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. Why does
God use hearing as the means of faith? Why does He use it? Because hearing is completely
passive. It's passive. You don't make
any contribution in hearing. When we preach, that's the beauty
of preaching. If one of you stood up right
now and had an objection to make, we would excuse you from this
building. And you know that, wouldn't you?
And if you refused to go, two or three of our men would make
sure that you were escorted out. Why? Because this isn't a debate. And no one's asking for your
contribution or your opinion. We're declaring what God says. And the means that the Lord uses,
why does He use the foolishness? The world says what you're doing
is foolish. You're sitting there like a fool. You're being told what to believe.
Yep. And the foolishness of preaching
is the means that God uses to save his children. Why? Because
he's going to see to it that they have nothing to contribute. They're going to sit there quietly
and they're going to hear. And let him who has ears to hear,
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Oh, how humbling
hearing is. That's why when we get to, we
don't have Bible studies where we all sit around and pool our
ignorance and throw in our opinion as to what we think a verse of
scripture means. We share those things together
when we're discussing those things, but we don't do what we did in
religion, do we? Why? Because men love being able
to make a contribution. And God's gonna see to it that
they have nothing to contribute. Incline thine ear and come unto
me. Hear, hear, oh Lord, enable me
to hear. Hear and your soul shall live. Now that is a precious promise.
What a glorious promise that is. Oh Lord, give me ears to
hear. Not that man, not that sinner
that's standing up there in the pulpit. I don't want you to hear
my voice. That's not gonna help you at all. Not one single bit. Lord, would you cause me to be
taught of God? If that man is being faithful
to the word of God, would you speak your word effectually to
my heart? Father, I thank Thee that Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and You've
revealed them unto what? Babes. Even so, it seemed good
in Thy sight. Oh, the Lord's gonna humble His
children. He's gonna make them babes. He's
gonna make them listeners. He's not gonna give them any
work to do. Why? That Christ gets all the glory. He did all the work. Come by
without money, without price. wine and milk, the life and the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness and all our
justification before God. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you. These are God's promises. Can
you hear the voice of God speaking to you? Oh, I've asked him today
to speak to me and enable me, Lord, to come to believe what
you're saying to me right now. There's no place else to go,
not to have your thirst satisfied. If you can have your thirst satisfied
anywhere other than the Lord Jesus Christ, whether it be in
religion or whether it be in the world, then your thirst is
nothing more than the thirst of your own flesh. That's all
it is. It only proves that you have
but one nature. And that nature is the old man.
And he's able to find satisfaction in that which feeds the flesh.
The new man, the new man, he can't, he can't get any satisfaction
from things of the religion or the things of this world. He's
got to have Christ. He's got to have Him. He's got
to have the fatness of the Lord. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you. I will confirm that to your soul. Now, how is something everlasting
going to be made in time? Don't let this confuse you. The
covenant is an everlasting covenant. You can't make something that's
everlasting. There was never a time that it
wasn't made. God established a covenant of grace before time
ever began. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. God
chose a particular people, wrote their names on the land's book
of life before time ever began. It's called the everlasting covenant. It started from everlasting and
it lasts everlasting, and it's completely outside of time. All
the Lord's saying here is that when you come, In your experience,
in time, you're going to come to see that that covenant was
made to David. Not King David. It was made to
the son of David. That covenant was a work that
God did with God. And that's exactly what was happening
on Calvary's cross. God was doing business with God,
ratifying the covenant that had been established in eternity
past. All coming does is comfort your
soul in believing that you are in that covenant. You wouldn't
come to Christ if you weren't in the covenant. You wouldn't
be thirsty if you weren't in the covenant. You wouldn't have
any hungering and thirsting after righteousness if you weren't
in the covenant. You'd be listening to this and you would think,
well, yeah, all that's good, but you know what? I got something
better and something more that I need as well. You wouldn't
be prostrating yourself before the Lord and believing that Christ
was your only hope for salvation. You'd be coming with money, you'd
be coming with price, you'd be trying to barter with God, you'd
be trying to buy something from God. If you're able to come like
this, if you're able to hear, and your warrant for coming is
the command to come. That's the only warrant you need.
If you get called to court and a policeman comes by your house
and gives you a warrant, you're obligated now. You got that warrant
in hand. You don't show up in jail at
the courthouse because of that warrant, you're going to be in
trouble with the law, aren't you? Your warrant for coming is God's call
for you to come. Come. If you can come the way,
if you meet the qualifications for those who are coming, how
do you come? You come thirsty. You come without money. You come
without price. You come without making a deal
with God. You come as a sinner in need of God's grace, in need
of milk, in need of wine. Notice, that the Lord calls them
the sure mercies of David. Aren't you glad we have a surety?
This salvation is not a hit and miss thing. It's not a hope I
will or hope I can or God's gonna try to get you. No, it's a sure
thing. It's the only sure thing there
is. Turn with me to Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Look at verse 33 in Psalm 89. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness
will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. Oh, there's nothing, nothing
about Christ that was a failure. Behold my servant, mine elect,
whom I uphold. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. Nothing about him shall fail.
The first part of this psalm talks about the unbelief and
the rebellion of God's people. And then he says, nevertheless,
my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer
my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break. nor alter the thing that is gone
out of my lips. Once I have sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever
and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever
as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. Oh, think about that. Ponder
that. Believe that. What a precious
promise. Our Lord's assuring his children
that my covenant promises are sure. These are the sure mercies
of David. Alright, go back with me to Psalm
55. Behold, I have given him. Who? David. King David? Oh no. No, no, this
is the son of David. I have given him for a witness. In Revelation chapter 1 verse
5, the Lord Jesus Christ is called the faithful witness. What does he do? He witnesses
to the covenant promises. He witnesses to the faithfulness
of the Father. And the Father's faithfulness
to him is seen in his faith, in his believing the Father would
redeem him, would save him, would deliver him from hell, from death,
from the grave. And so he's called the faithful
witness. This word witness also is translated
martyr. Martyr. And the Lord Jesus Christ
witnessed to the sure mercies of David, to the promises of
God's covenant by his very life. That was the witness that he
gave. What does he say? Behold, I have given him. The father gave us his son. As a witness, to the people. A leader? That's his position. God has made him to be both Lord
and Christ. Now the word leader here is a
reference to him as the prince of peace, in his lordship. And commander is a picture of
his actual warring and work that he accomplished, his ministry
as the Messiah, as the Christ. So the Lord Jesus Christ is now
being told, the Lord's telling us that he's my witness, I gave
him as my witness, as Lord, and as Christ. He's going to save
His people. This is really all about Him,
isn't it? It really truly is. He is the fatness of the Lord. Delight thyself in fatness. Let your soul find rest in Christ
and drink of the water of the fountain of life freely. Freely, without money, without
price. Verse five, behold, thou shalt call a nation that knowest
not. Now in verse four, the father
is speaking about Christ and in verse five, the father is
speaking to Christ. And so he says in verse five,
behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified
thee. There's gonna be Gentiles. Now
this was written 7th century B.C. The Jews could not comprehend
the gospel being for the Gentiles even after the Lord ascended
into glory. It took them a whole generation
to figure that out, didn't it? And so the Lord's saying, there's
going to be a people. Who are those people? Here we
are. Here we are. Gentile dogs. That's what the Jews would have
called a Gentile. It's the dog. And we say with
the Syrophoenician woman, truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. Why? Because of the Lord thy
God and for the Holy One of Israel. The salvation of sinners is not
first, foremost, and last for the sinner. It's not for you. It's not for me. We're the beneficiary. No question about it. But for
all eternity, it will be for Him. And that's what the natural
man can't see. That everything in this world,
everything we're going through, every experience you had today,
Everything that's happening in the microcosm of your life and
my life and in the big picture of the world is all for His glory. This is God's world, it's God's
salvation, it's God's people, and He is going to glorify Himself. What does the Lord say to me
and you in light of all of this? Seek ye. Aren't you glad the
Lord said that? Seek ye, Charlie, Tricia, Chris,
seek ye. Seek ye, Adam. This isn't for the person sitting
next to you. And I'm not saying it as if it's
for you without me. This is seek ye the Lord while
he may be found. Don't you know Zacchaeus heard
that the Lord was coming and what did he do? He got up in
that tree. Why? So he could see the Lord. He
was seeking the Lord. He knew he had one opportunity
to see him. Zacchaeus, come down. I'm going to your house today.
Salvation's coming to your house, Zacchaeus. And then in that same city of
Jericho, you have Bartimaeus crying out for the son of David
to have mercy on him, knowing that this was his one and only
opportunity that he was ever going to have in his life, to
have an audience with Christ. And he begged the Lord, seek ye the Lord right now while
he may be found. Don't presume that his grace
and mercy is going to be available tomorrow. You may not be here tomorrow.
Today is the day of salvation. Oh, oh my soul. Oh, the urgency of this. Are you thirsty? Come, come right
now. You know religion can't satisfy
your thirst. You know that the works gospel
does you no good. You know that your will is not
strong enough to influence God. You can't come with money. You
can't come with price. You know you need milk and wine. You know that you've got to feast
on the fatness of the Lord. So come, come right now. And when you get home, come again.
And when you wake up in the morning, come again. To whom coming? To whom coming? That Shunammite woman, you remember
her son had a heat stroke and died. And she told her servant,
she said, saddle up the ass. We're going to see the prophet. and run to the prophet and don't
stop. Her husband saw her leaving and said, what's up? I'm going
to see the prophet. Why? All is well. That's what she said. She told
her husband, all is well. Our son's dead, but all is well.
I'm going to get the prophet. And she told her servant, don't
slow this ass down until he gets to the prophet. And what did
Elijah do when he came back? He laid prostrate over that boy.
The scripture says, mouth to mouth, hand to hand, feet to
feet. What do we see there? A picture
of our union with Christ. I was crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. The
life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and died for me. Oh, and what happened? That boy
came alive, didn't he? He came alive. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way. Oh Lord, there's so
much wickedness in my heart. Give me the spirit of repentance. And the unrighteous man, his
thoughts. Lord, that I would forsake the
thoughts, perish the thought, Perish the thought that I would
abuse grace by thinking that it gave me a license to sin.
Perish the thought that I would presume upon your grace. Lord,
perish the thought. Let the wicked man repent. Lord, do this work for me. Draw
me to thyself. Let him return unto the Lord.
and he will have mercy upon him. He will. No question about it. You believe that? I mean, you
really, were you, are you willing to stake your soul on that promise? Come like you are, without money,
without price, and I will save you. I will. Look at the last part of verse
seven. For he will abundantly pardon. That's what I need. Oh, I need
a mercy that won't end. I need an ocean of grace that
cannot be exhausted because if it's exhaustible, I'll exhaust
it. I will. Now, I stand amazed that I haven't
already exhausted it. stand amazed that God would keep
putting up with me. He will abundantly pardon. Let's
pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the clear call of your word. We pray that your Holy
Spirit would give to us the faith to believe it and come. Come
to Christ, for it's in his name we ask it. Amen. for the bird. Number 107 in the South Pac-10.
Now let's stand together. Free from the lost great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law and all
the laws command have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord, established
by His hands. No cup with the Lord can now
with us exist. Completing Christ, we stand by
grace, both free and ever blessed. No more the dread of wrath. no more constrained by fear. We worship and we serve our God
with gratitude and cheer. In Jesus we are free. In Jesus we are free. Free from all sin and from all
guilt. We live in liberty. We'll join the happy song. With all the blood bought throng. and sing the praises of the Lamb,
whose grace makes us His own. Hold on.