I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 29. Proverbs 29. This blessed book
that we've been going through now since 09 has been such a
blessing to us. The Lord has been pleased to
bless it to my heart and I pray to yours too. And I want to deal
with verse 18 of chapter 29. A passage that I've heard quoted
many times, but was truly made to be very dear to my heart today. Where there is no vision, the
people perish. But he that keepeth the law,
happy is he. I want to deal with this subject
of, and I've entitled the message, Where There Is No Vision. But
what I want to be talking about is the grave need and importance
of being able to hear from God in God's ordained fashion through
the preaching of the gospel. I want us, by the grace of God,
to understand something. What are we doing here today? Now, for every sinner, for every sinner to possess spiritual
life, for every sinner, and every man born in Adam is a sinner,
But for every sinner to possess spiritual life, God has got to
meet the need of that sinner. Now let me tell you what a sinner
needs to have life before God. And you think, I want you to
realize how foolish It is for somebody to tell somebody
else, all you have to do is just pray this little prayer. All you have to do is just pray
this little prayer and ask the Lord to come into your heart
and the Lord will save you. Now let me share something with
you that's not in the scriptures. That's not in the word of God,
so I'm telling you right now. That's made up. Let me tell you
what a sinner needs. Sinner needs for his debt before
the law. Whenever Adam fell in the garden,
man ran up a debt before God that he cannot pay. He ran up
a debt. He got a debt before God. And
what is the debt? He owes the law that he's broken. Now here's what scripture says.
Sin is the transgression of the law. What does that mean? That means whenever you break
the law, you owe the debt. If I run a stop sign and get
caught, I'm still guilty. I just didn't get caught. A lot
of us done that. But if I get caught and the debt
is given, it's administered, it's owed, how much is it gonna
cost running a stop sign? I don't know how much it is.
Aaron told me, he said, most tickets now start around $200
to $300. I thought, that's a lot of money. But if
you get caught, you owe the debt and a sinner, owes the debt to
God's broken law. Now what's the debt? Here's the
debt. Death. Eternal death. Here's
the debt. Death in hell. That's the debt. So we come in here into this
world owing a debt. So what's a sinner gonna need
for God Almighty to be Pleased with him. I'll tell you this,
his debt is gonna have to be paid. And not only is his debt
gonna have to be paid, let me tell you what else he needs.
He needs a righteousness before God that he can't produce. I can't pay the debt and live.
If the debt's paid by me, I'm gonna die. and I have to have
life before, I have to have righteousness. I need my debt purely paid, wholly
paid, completely paid, and I need to be standing before God with
no record. No record. No record. That's
what justified means. No record. There can be no chargeable
guilt due. And the only one that can pay
that debt is God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that
can do that. I can't do it. I can't do it. This is what I
need. I need a new nature. I am born
a sinner. I need a new nature. I need to
have Eternal life. I need spiritual life. I'm born
dead. Spiritually dead. I need spiritual
life. I need life from heaven. I need a new nature. I need a
new nature. I am born a sinner. But I need to have a nature in
me that does not sin. I need a nature that doesn't
sin. I need a new man in me. One that does not sin. I need
a new nature created in righteousness and true holiness. I need to
be able to have a new ear, a new hearing ear to hear the voice
of God. I need a new eye, a new eyes
that see, that can behold and see by faith the Lord Jesus Christ. I need a new nature that is now
willing to come to Christ and bow to him. I need a new nature
that longs after fellowship with God and God's people. I'm going
to tell you something. The way I was born, I won't speak
for you, but I know you're just like me. I was born with a nature
that didn't want to have anything to do with God. Oh, I had to
go to church because my mama made me want to come into college,
especially. I had to go to church. You know, I'd do it, but I didn't
want to do it. I'd go to please her. But I need life. I need faith. I need a new man. God's got to robe me in the righteousness,
the wedding garment of the Lord Jesus Christ. Make me fit to
be married to the bridegroom himself. I need to be washed
continually. You know what? Unless God Almighty
saves me and meets all of my need, I'm telling you right now,
that little so-called prayer, somebody's telling me, this is
all you gotta do. No, this is what I gotta do.
and I can produce this much of it, I can't do anything. All right, now here's my question. How does all of this come about? How are these things
known? Because I can tell you this. The Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, you must be born again. And that's another thing I can't
do. I had no input in my first birth. If somebody would have told me,
said, now all a baby has to do is just to be born is just will
himself, will himself to have life. Somebody said, well, that's ridiculous.
Well, I agree with you. Well, I can tell you this, except
you be born from above, born of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
told Nicodemus, you will in no wise see the kingdom of God,
unless God does something for you that you can't do for yourself,
because if you can do it for yourself, then salvation was
by your works, and you know better than that. You know better than
that. not by works of righteousness
that we've done. You know, that should eliminate
the whole ball of wax, Neil. That should eliminate 99% of
what's being preached in this world today. Not by works of
righteousness that you have done, but according to his mercy. Now,
how are these things, how are these things gonna be? How does
God, how is the Lord gonna give this to me? How does this work?
Where can I go to hear things like this? Well, according to
the good pleasure of God, Almighty God has been pleased to raise
up churches, a church, an assembly, and he sends pastors that he's
taught the truth concerning salvation by the grace of God. And these
pastors are sent according to the Lord's good pleasure, Jeremiah
3.15, and they're going to feed the people with knowledge and
understanding. And they're going to tell the
people about their inability. They're gonna feed them with
knowledge. You know a man needs to be told that he can't do things?
He can't do this. You can't birth yourself because
if you could, you'd boast in it. That's all we do. That's
what I told you, I told people. I didn't do much, but I did birth
myself into the kingdom of God. It wasn't, you know, I did it
humbly. No, you'll boast in it, that's
all you're gonna do. God Almighty must teach a man. He must teach a man what it is
to be satisfied before God, to be accepted of God. And God Almighty
is gonna send a pastor, and that pastor is gonna teach people,
he's gonna teach them about how The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
for his people. How he came into this world.
God gave him a people. And how God Almighty saves his
people. Now, these things must be heard. They must be heard. Why? Because
the scripture says, Faith cometh by hearing. and
hearing by this word right here. Now, what I'm about to tell you,
according to Proverbs 29, 18, this declaration of divine revelation,
that's the interpretation of the word vision, vision, vision. Whenever you, in this scripture
right here, a sinner must hear about God's divine revelation
to his people. It's a vision. Hold your place. Just turn over to Isaiah 1, 1. Isaiah 1, 1. Just look at, I
just want you to see a word here. Isaiah 1, 1. The vision. of Isaiah, the son
of Amos. Now, let me tell you, it's not
where he saw a vision into some, you know, thing or something
that he saw that we didn't see or something. No, that word right
there means divine revelation. Almighty God gives a divine revelation,
a vision, to men that he's called to preach
the gospel. And this vision, divine revelation,
is proclaimed. It's told forth. And the scripture says in Proverbs
29, 18, where there is no vision, where there's no vision, where
there's no open proclamation of the gospel, the people perish. Our margin says they're naked.
lack of restraint, unbridled. The vision is the proclamation
of God's word, God's will, God's purpose through preachers. I'll give you pastors according
to my heart. But here's my next question.
I know God's going to have to do something and God's going
to send preachers to tell people what God has to say. But I got
this question. With so many men standing in
pulpits all over the world, preaching so many different things, how
can one know who to believe? That's a pretty good question,
isn't it? That's a pretty good question. Because I'm going to
tell you something. Everybody and their brother has
got a different way to God. Just ask them. There's so many
different things that's being said. How can I know? Because I'm gonna tell you right
now, if any person, any man, woman, any sinner, if you leave
this world without the knowledge, the knowledge of how God reconciles
a sinner, and if God hadn't given you life, faith to believe it,
I'm gonna tell you right now, You're going to die. You're going
to die and you're going to be cast out from hell. I'm promising
you that. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. Tell me whatever you
do, tell me the truth of what that scripture means. Because
if you lie to me, I'm going to be forever in hell. Don't you lie to me. By the grace
of God, I'm gonna not lie to you this morning. I want you
to turn to 1 John, 1 John 4. 1 John 4. 1 John 4, verses one to three.
1 John 4, one to three. Beloved,
believe not every spirit. That means preacher. divine,
somebody standing in a pulpit. Believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false
prophets are going out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit of God. Here's how you're going to know
when God, the Holy Spirit, is speaking through a preacher.
little less spirit, every man standing in a pulpit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of Antichrist,
which ye have heard that it should come and even now already is
in the world." Now, here's what God says. Every spirit, every
man standing in a pulpit that confesseth, that is continually
confessing, preaching, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Now, what does that mean? Does
that mean that, I mean, everybody believes that, don't they? I
mean, demons believe that, that he's come in the flesh. Well,
obviously, just that, that declaration that he actually came into this
world, that being a fact, that agreement with the historical
fact that there was a Lord Jesus Christ in this world is not what
John is saying. So tell me, what is he saying? I want to understand. What does
it mean, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ, every man
that is standing in a pulpit confessing that God Almighty,
Jesus Christ, that the man, that the God man, that every Every
spirit, every man preaching, says that God Almighty, united
with human flesh, came into this world. He's come in the flesh. Now here's where we have to understand
something. You have to take the totality
of what the scriptures have said concerning the Lord Jesus Christ
coming in the flesh. What did He come to do? Daniel 9.24
says to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and
to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness. Okay, here's my next question
then. He's talking about that, that's what he came to do. Who
did he come to do it for? Now tell me that. Don't take an isolated scripture
and try to build your whole theology on that scripture without taking
in the whole word of God. Who did He send from far? Who
did He, you know, call His name Jesus? For He shall save His
people from their sins. Okay, then I
got another question. Who are His people? Well, Ephesians 1, 4 says that
we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Oh,
so you're saying now that every spirit that confesseth that God
in human flesh came into this world to save those that the
Father gave Him? Is that what you're saying? That's
what I'm saying. He died on the cross, right?
Yes. Who did he die for? John 10,
15. John 10, 15. I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep.
So you're telling me that God Almighty in human flesh came
into this world to put an end, to put an end to the iniquity
of his people. That's right. That he laid down
his life for his people. That's right. And this one that
came into this world to save his people. He prays for them. That's what
he said in John 17 9. He said, I pray for those that
you've given me. I pray not for the world. Write
these down. I pray for those that you gave
me. Well, then this Jesus Christ
is coming to flesh. He's the one that laid down his
life for the sheep, yeah, and died at Calvary, put away their
sin, right? That's what he said. That's what
he said. And he's praying for them only? That's what he said. That's what
Christ said. And he's gone back into heaven,
interceding for him right now. He's ever living to make intercession
for the sheep, for the people, for us. And he's coming back
for us. Yes, he is. And in the day of
judgment, he's going to separate the sheep from the goats. And
turn over to Matthew 25. And what's gonna happen in that
day? What are you telling me? I'm
telling you in Matthew 25, verse 34. He's gonna put the, 33 says,
he'll set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34, then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come, ye blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So you're telling me, you're
telling me to not believe every spirit, but try the spirits. And how do you try the spirits?
What do you think I'm going to say? Try the spirits by this
word. Find out who the Lord Jesus Christ
has come into this world to save. Find out who it is. That's what
the angel told Joseph. Call his name Jesus. He's gonna
save his people. And how did he get them? God
gave them to him before the foundation of the world. Came into this
world and he lived for them, establishing a righteousness
that they will be robed. Died for them. What he said,
John 10, 15. He died for them. And he promised
that they were going to come to him. John 6, 37. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. John 6, 37. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise, no wise. He's talking about thankful. No wise. I've given him a lot
of reasons to cast me out. I will in no wise cast him out.
And you're telling me that there's a kingdom prepared for them before
the foundation of the world? Yeah, that's what he told them. They're heirs of God, heirs of
God? Yeah. Joint heirs, joint heirs
with Christ, yeah. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is coming to flesh. By the spirits, every spirit
that confesseth that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh according
to these scriptures, these scriptures, is of God. And every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ, not merely the fact, but according
to these scriptures, every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. God didn't send
Him. Now there's places to hear this.
Places to hear. These things, and they're referred
to, these places, turn over to Revelation 1. There's places
that God is raised up to hear this truth. Revelation chapter
1, and these places are called golden candlesticks. And wherever
God sends a preacher, he calls them stars. Revelation 1, 19 and 20. Write the things which
thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which
shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars
which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the
seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. So God Almighty is going to raise
up an assembly and he's going to send a pastor after his heart
and he's going to teach a pastor, call him and teach him the truth
of the gospel of God's grace. And he's going to show him these
things and he's going to instruct that pastor. You tell my people,
you give them instruction and understanding. into these things,
that's what God does. And faith from above cometh by
hearing, hearing these things, hearing those things. God gives
faith to believe. Now where these places are, Almighty
God has been pleased to bless in the calling out of his elect. But there are, there are times
when this, this, Vision. When Almighty God, for reasons
known only to the Lord, the Lord may raise up an assembly like
this one right here. And I'm telling you, we have
nothing in which to boast about being here but the grace of God.
That's all we got. Almighty God didn't have to raise
up, except it pleased him to do so, a place at Katy. He didn't have to. He did it
because he wanted to. But there are times known only
to the Lord, when the Lord may be pleased to remove an assembly,
or actually move it. His word's gonna be, as long
as there's people in this world, there's gonna be places to hear.
Turn back to Revelation 2. Revelation chapter 2. The Lord,
there's been times that the gospel has been in different places,
all the seven churches, that John was instructed to write
to. There's no churches there now. There's one right here at Katy. I'm convinced God's raised up
this assembly and blessed it. He sent us a faithful pastor
too for many years we sat under him. For that I'm thankful. but almighty God may be pleased
to move the candlestick. He may. Revelation 2, 1 to 5,
unto the angel of the church at Ephesus write, these things
saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who
walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy
works, thy labor, thy patience, and how thou hast not bared them
that are evil, thou hast tried them which say they're apostles
and are not, and has found them liars, and is born and has patience,
and for my name's sake is labored, not fainted, nevertheless, I
have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent,
do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Now, beloved, Let me say this. If Almighty God says that He
will remove the candlestick and put it somewhere else, if He
says He will do that, accept, then He means it. He means it. In 1 Samuel, I want you to turn
over to 1 Samuel. Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel. First Samuel. First Samuel 3. First Samuel chapter 3. First Samuel 3. Verse 1. And the child Samuel ministered
unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious. It means it was rare. in those
days, there was no open vision. What does that mean? There was
no public proclamation of God's word. The eyes of Eli had begun
to wax dim and got old and he couldn't see and there was turmoil. There was no open vision. It
was precious in those days. It's rare. Believer, oh, may
we learn the value, the value, the value, the preciousness of
being able to dwell where the vision of the Lord has been allowed
to be freely proclaimed. If the Lord withholds, and there's
places, he said in Amos 8, I dealt with this a few weeks ago, Amos
8, 11. He said, I'm gonna send a famine, not a famine of food
and water, bread and water, but of the hearing of the word of
the Lord. If the Lord withholds, how precious
would the slightest token of God's favor to be able to hear,
how precious would that be? Let me just share with you this
quickly and I'll begin to wrap this up. If the Lord withholds the open proclamation, the vision,
that's what it means, divine revelation. If the Lord withholds
for reasons known only to Him in a place It's the Lord withholds in a
certain place. Hearing of the Holy Scriptures,
the proclamation of the Scriptures. Let me tell you what you'll have.
You can have a Bible. You can have a Bible in your
hand. You can have the Word of God. But without a pastor, sent of
God, instructed of God, proclaim the knowledge and understanding
that he said, I will send pastors to do without that. You know
what you have? You have you have the scriptures
and you can read them. But without the hearing of the
gospel. There's there's turmoil, there's
turmoil, it's it's it's stressful. There's places, there's precious
places. In this country that we know
of, where the Lord's been pleased to remove a pastor. And the people, they have men
come in. They have men come in to preach.
But it's not the same. It's not the same. Ask them.
Ask them. It's not the same. Where there's, scripture says,
where there's no vision, the people perish. where there's
no hearing of the gospel, they perish eternally. If there's
a withholding from it, the Lord teaches, instructs, instructs
us how precious it is, how precious it is to have a place that we
just come and just, we're right here. This burden to my heart,
I was going over this I woke up early this morning thinking
about this passage of scripture right here and how precious it
is. And I thought, I want to express
the preciousness of being able to come together and hear and
support and pray for. Pray for me. I've told you before. I want to do this, Mitch. I want
to. And I'm telling you, it, it,
humanly speaking, just human, physically speaking, mentally
speaking, emotionally speaking, it's, it's a, it's a draining,
it's a, it's a labor of love, but it's a draining labor. But this is what God calls pastors
to do. And they do it. Where there's
no vision, The people perish, but he that keepeth the law."
Happy, happy. Now, let me say this, wrapping
this up. Not the keeping of the moral
law for righteousness or acceptance with God, for no man born in
Adam can do that. But he that's been instructed
of God through the means of God's providing, The hearing, the hearing
of the gospel. Faith, faith to believe it. Faith to believe Christ. Keeping
that law. Let me show you, I'll show you
this. Turn to Romans 3.27. Romans 3.27. This is a sweet passage of scripture.
Romans 3.27. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. The law of faith. The law of
faith. Where there's no vision, the
people perish, but he that keepeth the law of faith. They keep the
moral law. But that law, that truth of faith
in Christ, happy. Happy, happy as he there. Happy
because they've been taught of God, in agreement with God's
word. Through the hearing of the word,
they've been given faith to believe. And they're comforted concerning
life eternal. Through the hearing of the word,
they're happy because they walk by faith. David said in Psalm
119, 105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet. It's a light unto
my path. And through the hearing of the
word, the sheep know that there's nothing that can separate them
from the Lord. Hebrews 13.5, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. Beloved,
may we hold precious this dear, precious privilege to be able
to assemble ourselves together and hear the truth. I'm not talking
about just somebody said, well, they just they go to church.
A lot of people go to church. But tell me the truth. Tell me
the truth of how God saves sinners. Tell me the truth. of what God
has done in the salvation of his elect. Tell me the truth
about what is it? What happens here? Because I'm
going to die. I'm going to face God and you
will too. Pray for us here. Pray for us. Pray for us as a assembly. Pray
for me. Encourage one another. We're
frail creatures of dust, and we need each other's fellowship. By this shall all men know you're
my disciple. You have love for the brethren.
I pray God bless this to our heart, for Christ's sake. Amen. All right, let's take a few minute
break.