Now, remember who's doing the
speaking. It's our Lord who does the speaking
here. Remember who He's speaking to, and try to ascertain in your
own heart why He made this command. Our Lord speaking
to His people He said, this do. Why? In remembrance of me. Do it in remembrance of me. This
do in remembrance of me. Now, if you don't get anything
out of what I'm about to say in regard to our text, which
is found in verse 35, I hope that this will be of some help
to you. This do in remembrance of me."
Now, we'll skip a few verses here. And the verses that I'm skipping
has to do with self. There was a division
among the disciples, and they wondered who would be great and
greatest among them." There's a strife among them.
Who's going to be the greatest among these eleven or twelve
that's gathered here? Well, our Lord kind of set them
straight there in that matter and told them that, "...he that
is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that
is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater he that
sitteth at meat, or he that serveth, is not he that sitteth at meat,
but I am among you as he that serveth." Our Lord said that
of the two, the one that sitteth at meat was the greater. But
our Lord said, I myself serve. I serve. I have taken the position
as a humble, lowly servant And I came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister to. I come to serve, and I do serve."
And he manifested that lowly, menial attitude in girding himself
about with a towel and washing the disciples' feet. But notice
now, he said, Ye are they which have continued
with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto
me." Verse 30 now, "...that ye may eat and drink at my table
in my kingdom." Now, what is significant about this 30th verse? that ye may eat and drink at
my table in my kingdom." You remember in another place, in
another narrative of this same situation, our Lord said that
I shall not eat or drink with you until we drink anew in the
kingdom of God. He says, I appoint unto you a
kingdom, as my Father hath appointed a kingdom unto me, that ye may
eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." Now, as I read this
in preparation to using the 34th or 35th verse
as a text, I asked myself, what is the significance here? that
ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." And I wrote in my Bible, if I'm
going to eat at this table, if I am going to eat at this
table, verse 30, maybe I better start eating at the table in
verse 19. Do you see what I'm talking about? Now what makes you and I think
that we'll be participants at this table in the kingdom to
come if we do not participate in the observance and the eating
of the bread and the wine in the table in verse 19. Keep in
mind now, and I asked myself this question
as I read that, this due in remembrance of me, and I said to myself,
have you forgotten God? Have you forgotten God? And then
I thought, well, there's many occasions that I have in talking
to men and women who profess to be Christians and give some
evidence of being Christians, but they never sit at the table
of the Lord. Never. And I thought, well now, maybe
the next time I have a conversation with folks of this nature, I
ought to, in a very tactful way, I ought to ask them, have you
forgotten God? And I know what they're going
to say. When you ask an individual who's
religious or professes to be a Christian, you ask them a question
like that. Have you forgotten God? Well,
immediately they are insulted. And they are offended. And they'll say, no. We have
not forgotten God. What makes you think we have
forgotten God? Well, I would say, I thought
maybe you had forgotten God because I never see you at His table. This do in remembrance of me. Is that what he says? This do
in remembrance of me. Well, I just throwed that in. I just throwed that in. It had
nothing to do with my sermon. It had nothing to do with it.
I just kind of throwed it in. It doesn't cost anybody anything.
It's free. But I think it's true. I think
it's true. I really do. Now, let's get to
this verse. Well, let me read some more. Verse 31, And the Lord said,
Simon, Simon, Behold, Satan hath desired to have you. Satan hath
desired to have you. He wants you. And they tell me
that this should be read with this understanding, that Satan
had desired to have them all, really. He desired to have all
twelve of the apostles. But anyhow, he desired to have
you. that he may sift you as wheat. But," our Lord said, "'I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and
when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.'" Now, keep in
mind that our Lord is not telling him here, I prayed for you, that
Satan won't get you. He's desired to have you, but
I stepped in between him and you, and I'm not going to let
him put one hand upon you. That's not what he's saying.
He's saying, I prayed for you that your faith fail not. Now,
we know that faith is a gift of God, but yet at the same time,
it's our faith. Faith is foreign to us. God must
give it to us. We say, We say faith is the means
whereby we come to fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it is. Christ saves. Our faith doesn't
save because we don't have faith. Faith is a gift of God, but yet
it is our faith. It's our faith. It's a faith
that we exercise, although we don't have it. God gives it to
us. Now he says, I pray that your faith fail not. Because
I'm going to turn you over to Simon and let him bounce you
around a little bit. But he said, I'm praying for
you that your faith fail not. That is, that you do not utterly
and completely apostatize. Utterly and completely and finally
fall away completely. that you cannot never regain
what ground you've lost. Now, when you're converted, Peter
was already converted. You understand that? Peter was
already saved. This is the fellow that said,
Our Lord said, I've got to wash your feet. And Peter said, No,
never, never. You'll never wash my feet. And
Our Lord said, Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part
with me. And Peter immediately said, well,
if that's the case, if I can't have any part with you, he realized the importance and
the seriousness of what was going on there. He said, if by my refusing
to submit my feet to your hands to be washed, will deny me fellowship
with thee, and deny me of being with you, why, he said, wash
my whole body. He said, Peter, your whole body
doesn't need to be washed. He said, your body has been washed. You've been washed once. But
he said, your feet needs to be washed. Well, you know what that
means. He's talking about how we contract
evil and sin in the daily course of our living. And we get our
feet dirty. And we need to come before God
and confess our sins. And Daryl read that verse of
Scripture over there. It says, if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. and cleanses
from all unrighteousness. Now, listen to Peter, verse 33. And he said unto him, Lord, that's
Peter said unto our Lord, he said, I am ready. In other words, Peter said, send
them on. I welcome this fight. He said,
I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid of the devil. The Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath decided to have you that he might sift you
as wheat. Bring him on. I'm not afraid of him. I'll fight
him tooth, claw, and nail. I'll fight the devil. Lord, bring
him on. I'm not afraid of the devil.
I'm not afraid of punishment. I'm not afraid of being sifted
and tossed about. As a matter of fact, I'm not
even afraid of dying. You know what he said? Lord,
I'm ready. I'm ready. Here's a fella that
didn't know his own heart right here. Here's a fella that really
didn't know his self. Well, our Lord said, and I tell
you, Peter, and the reason that I can tell you, Peter, is I know
you. You don't know yourself, but
I know you. You're doing a whole lot of talking here, Peter. You're
ready to confront the devil, and you can wrestle with him
in combat, face to face. Peter, I tell you, and I'm telling
you because I know you, that the rooster shall not crow three
times until you deny me. You'll deny that you even know
me. All right, now here's our text. And he said unto them, who's
he talking to? He's talking to his chosen people. And he said unto them, when I
sent you without purse and script and shoes, lack ye anything? I think he has reference to,
just hurriedly let me turn over here to the 10th chapter of the
book of Matthew. He has reference to, I believe, 10th chapter of the
book of Matthew, was it? Look here, in the 5th verse, the 12 disciples,
these 12 Jesus sent forth. and commanded them, saying, Go
not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans,
enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, and as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,
Raise the dead, cast out devils, freely ye have received, freely
give. Provide neither gold, nor silver,
nor brass in your purses, nor script for your journey, neither
two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, for the workman is
worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town
ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide
till ye go hence. And when ye come into a house,
salute it. And if the house be worthy, let
your peace come upon it. And if it be not worthy, let
your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive
you, nor hear your word, when ye depart out of the house or
city, shake off the dust of your feet, Verily I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah,
which are dust and ashes now, in the day of judgment than for
that city." Now that's what he had reference to when he says,
I sent you without purse and script and shoes. When I sent
you out to preach the gospel, to preach the kingdom of God
as at hand, to heal the sick, to cleanse the leper. When I
sent you out, I sent you out without purse, without script,
and without shoes. Now the question is this, did
you lack anything? Did you lack anything when I
sent you out? What was their answer? And they
said, nothing. We lacked nothing. Alright. He sent them out without the
necessaries of life. They didn't have any proper accommodations
for a journey of this particular nature. They had no gold. They didn't have any brass. They didn't have anything to
barter with. They didn't have any money. Their
pocketbooks were empty. They didn't even have the common
blessings of life. They didn't have food or drink
or clothing or lodging. They didn't have none of that
when He sent them out. Now, He's reminding them that
He provided their necessities. Everything that they received
on their journey, He said, I provided for you. Wherever you went, you
had friendly accommodation. You had a good place to stay.
The houses and the hearts of the people were opened unto you
by Me. Did you lack for anything? Did you lack for anything? And
they said, nothing. We lacked nothing. This is what
I'm driving at. I'm saying this morning, brethren,
In Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we lack nothing. He has provided, God has provided
all that His law requires in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If the question is proposed to
you this morning, Is there anything that you need? Anything that
you need? And if you're a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ and have any understanding of what the gospel
is, you'll have to say in answer to the question, Lack ye anything,
you'll have to say, Nothing! Nothing! I lack nothing. I have
everything that's needful and necessary for my sojourn here
on this life. I have everything that's needful
to make me comfortable in this life. I have everything that's
needful to stand me in good stead before God when I die. I need nothing. Lackest thou
anything? Nothing provided me everything. Well, in Him, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we lack nothing. I know that those of you that
are believers, you're a believer in Christ Jesus. He's your Lord. You've been brought to the place
of helplessness and hopelessness. And you've tried everything else. You've tried religion. You've
tried ceremonies. And there's no help there. You're
like the woman that had the issue of blood and spent all that she
had in the positions of this world. Instead of getting any
better, she got worse. Most of us have liked that, we've
tried it all, but we finally, by the grace of God, under the
leadership of the Spirit of God, we finally arrive to a place
in the dust before God, a place of hopelessness and helplessness,
into a position whereby God could speak to us in grace. God can
only speak to you and I in grace as we are before Him in the dust,
in our helplessness, in our nothingness. He can speak to us then in grace. That's where He brought us. If
we're saved this morning, He has brought us to the end of
ourself, into the dust, into the dust. And He spoke to us. in grace. And he said, come unto
me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I'll do something
for you. I'll do you good. I'll give you
rest. Rest for your soul. Rest for
your spirit. Rest for your body. I'll give
you everything that's necessary in order that you might be at
peace with God. I'll give it to you. come to
me when he found us in the dust." We was like that baby there in
Ezekiel that was cast out into that waste, howling wilderness.
Was not salted. Was not swaddled. His navel was
not cut. Left there in its own loathing,
in its own blood. But when the Lord passed by,
when I passed by, I said, live! I said, live! That baby lived. That's the way we were. That's
the way we were. You see, in Him, in Christ, we
lack nothing. We lack nothing. And I know that we do mourn and
we do grieve for inbred sin. That is in us, in our hearts. Daryl read to us, if we say we
have no sin, we make God a liar. And that is serious business,
to make God a liar. And I sure would be the last
one to say that I haven't got any sin. I don't know, there
is someone that may be that forceful and that bold, but I sure wouldn't
want to say that. I am pretty bold and I am pretty
mean. But I'll tell you, that's where my meanness stops right
there. My boldness stops when I come before God and tell Him
that I don't have no sin. I know I've got sin. I know that
there's inbred sin in my heart. I know there's something about
this natural sin. There's something about original
sin. I know something about that. And I mourn for it and grieve,
and so do you. You grieve about that, but listen,
I want you to know this morning, if you're like I said you was,
if you've been brought into the dust and God spoke to you in
grace and brought you to see Him high and lifted up, dying
in your stead, paying your due, being the satisfaction of God's
holy justice against you, if you've seen that, if you've seen
that, I know that you mourn for sin and sins, whether it be original
sins, whether it be the depravity of your nature, whether it be
sin of the heart, or whether it be practicing, whatever it
might be, on the lip, word, thought, or deed, you mourn, you mourn,
you hate it, you hate the sin, you don't plan to sin because
the Lord Jesus Christ is your As you look upon Him and as you
see Him, you realize that it was your sin that nailed Him
to that grave. It was your sin that caused Him
the anguish and grief and the suffering. And certainly in light
of that, we don't premeditate. We don't plan to go out here
and deliberately sin against God. We mourn. We mourn because
of even thinking about it. It even crosses our minds. But
I want you to know this. I want you to remember that none
of these sins can condemn you if you are a believer. If you
have really been quickened by the Spirit of God and have life. Have life. Really and truly,
now I'm not talking about just made a profession, some five
cent profession that, you know, you just made. I'm not talking
about that. And I'm not trying to be smart this morning either.
And I'm not trying to rob you of your religion. I'm not trying
to take your faith away. No, that's not my purpose, but
I'm saying this. If I can take it away, you ain't
got much. If I can take your religion away
from you, if I can challenge you and become a victor in my
challenge and destroy the foundation on which you're resting upon,
you ain't got much. And you better listen to me then,
see. You better listen to me if I can shake you. If I can
shake you, you better listen. All right, I'm saying this now.
None of these sins shall condemn you. Now, you've learned to mourn
because of your sins. I want you to learn this this
morning. I want you to learn that sin, that sin that we're
talking about, whatever type of sin it is, is not yours. It was laid upon His head, you
see. It's not yours now. Now what
did he die for? Did he die for all your sins
or did he just die for part of them? Thank God he just didn't
die for part of them. Now when the high priest, when
Aaron got that scapegoat out there and put his hand upon that
scapegoat, what did he say? Did he confess over the head
of that scapegoat part of the sins of the people that he represented? Or did he confess all of the
sins of the people he represented? I'm going to tell you what he
did. He confessed All of the sins of the people that he represented,
all of them, past, past sins, present sins, future sins, sins
to come, he confessed them all. And when Christ died as his people's
representative now, as he died for his people's representative,
he died for all that was due them. He paid all that they owed
for every sin. Now, ever since, past, present,
and future was laid on His head. You see that, Pat? Laid on His
head. Well, is it yours? It's not yours now. He took it. It was transferred from you to
Him. You believe you're righteous
before God? By and through His righteousness, how'd you get
it, Pat? It was imputed, transferred from Christ to you. Well, you
can't have one without the other. You see, my sins was transferred
to Christ. His righteousness is transferred
to me. So therefore, if my sins is laid
on Him, then they're His, they're not mine. Learn that. If you
learn that, it'll give you some peace, I'll tell you that. It'll
give you some comfort if you can learn it. If you can learn
it. Alright? You see, Your standing is not
in yourself. It is in Jesus Christ. Don't, oh, I hope that you could
be delivered and I could be delivered from any thought that we might
entertain of having some sort of standing before God in ourselves. whether it be a literal standing
now or hoping maybe we will get better and thereby create a better
standing for us before God. Listen, if we are those that
have been brought into the dust whereby God can speak to us in
grace and have made known unto our hearts the Lord Jesus Christ,
as the satisfaction of everything and the suitableness of our every
need. I want you to know that your
standing is not in yourself. Your standing is in Christ, our
representative man. We stand in Him. We stand in
Him. Before God right now, we stand
in Him, if we are believers. You see, It is in Christ. Your acceptance is not in yourself,
but is in the Lord. You know the old, old, old story? He who was once despised and
rejected of men, that's the Lord. Christ Jesus, the Lord. He occupies
the honorable position of a beloved son. Where's that at? That's on the right hand of God. That's where He's at now. He
who once was rejected and despised of men now occupies a place of
honor on the right hand of God Almighty. That's where He's at
right now. He's not down here doing miracles right now in person. Like He was when He walked the
face of this earth and got hungry and stopped at the side of Sychar's
well, and when He lay His head down on the boat and went to
sleep, and when He performed miracles by the touch of it.
He's not here like that now. They crucified the Lord Jesus
Christ and put Him in the grave, and at the end of three days,
He came forth from that grave, and He went yonder to heaven,
and right now He's on the right hand. That's where He's at. That's
where it's at. Look until you're blue in the
face, and you'll never see Him walking down the road out there.
You'll never see Him in the sky. I remember when I was first saved,
I used to go out at night and look up in the sky. I'd heard
so much about these holy rollers and Pentecostals seeing visions,
and I wanted to see one. And I'd look around, and I'd
look real close, and I'd try to visualize a form, a picture
of some man up there in the stars, thinking that maybe I'd see Jesus.
I could have wore my eyes out looking. Never seen. Never seen. I'll tell you where He's at.
I'll tell you where He's at. He's on the right hand of God.
And if you ever see Him and if I ever see Him, we'll see Him
by faith and through the eyes of faith. That's when we'll see
Him. Right now, that's where He's
at. The right hand of God is a place of majesty and it's a
place of honor. And our Lord is His people's
representative. And when He died for them, they
had rest. And when He rose again, they
had perfect liberty. And when He sat down at His Father's
right hand, they had favor, and they had honor, and they have
dignity. They are in Him at God's right
hand. We are in our representative.
I wish I could get that story across. I wish I could get some
people to hang on to what I'm saying. To hang on to this, and
to study this, and to pray that God would open their eyes to
this marvelous truth. Because I'm telling you, this
morning, brethren, under God I've been in this thing for thirty
years, and if you don't see what I'm talking about this morning,
I'm not going to say that I'm selling tickets to this train,
and there's only five minutes left, and if you don't buy a
ticket real quick, you're going to miss out. I'm not saying that.
But I'm saying unless you see what I'm talking about, you can't
have no peace before God, or you can't have no enjoyment.
You can't even worship God. You can't even worship God. Now,
the elevation. The elevation of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the elevation, the acceptance, the enshrinement
of His people, for He is their head and their representative. So, sitting at the right hand
of God is to be looked at in this respect. or is to be seen,
is to be viewed as the acceptance of the person of the surety and
the reception of the representative, and therefore, the acceptance
of our soul. You can't stand in yourself.
I don't care what good intentions you have. I don't care how good
you think you are, or I don't care if you've never cussed for
50 years. I don't care if you say, well,
I haven't done anything that's just of a derogatory sense. I don't care. I don't care. Listen
to me. God requires that you be absolutely
perfect. And you are not perfect and you
will never be perfect, but there is one who is perfect, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you can get in Him, if
you can get from over here into this man, this man Christ Jesus,
who is on the right hand of God, if you can get into Him, then
His acceptance is the acceptance of your souls, and you stand
now in Christ on God's right hand. Honor and power and majesty
and splendor and dignity. Now, listen to this. Listen to
me now. I've said that in order to say
this. Now, if that's so, what I say, I'll stake my life on
Him. I'm going to my grave believing
this. Now, who shall condemn the people
who are in Jesus at God's right hand? Who? Can or will? Does not the Bible say, that
He has all power in heaven and in earth? Did not I just tell
you that the right hand of God is the place of power? Now, who
shall condemn the people who are in Christ? And where is Christ? on God's right hand. Does Christ
have power? He has all power, all power. The Bible says that God hath
given him power over all flesh, power over the heavens, and power
over the earth, and power underneath the earth. He has all power,
Bob, all power. Now, in light of that then, listen
to this. Who shall attack or make an assault? Or who shall fight against the
people who have such power vested in their captain or their representative? Who would be so foolish to load
his gun or to string up his bow or to pick up his stick and say,
well, I think I'll fight against that fellow? when that fellow
has all power in heaven and in earth vested in his hand. And some fool is going to come
along and say, well, I'll fight that fellow. No. No. No way. No way. Even if there was such
a simpleton or such a nimbusel. Even if there was such a dumbbell.
Why? Why, God would just lay his hand
on him and throw his hip out of the joint like he did old
Jacob. Remember when Jacob wrestled with the angel, you know? Jacob was wrestling with God,
that's who he was wrestling with. God said, well, they prevailed. There was combat, face to face.
Eyeball to eyeball. And Jacob looked like he was
getting better at the match. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the
heavenly angel, this angel, the Son of God in human or in angel
form, He said, let me go! He said, I won't let you go.
Let me go! He said, it's getting daylight,
let me go. They wouldn't let Him go, so the Son of God just
put His hand on His hip. And what happened? Just threw
His hip out of joint. Just threw His hip out. It was
to tell Him, say, well now, Jacob, I'm just going to let you get
a little taste of this power right here to let you know that
I can prevail. I can overcome you without any
problem. I'm going to let you know that though. Well, you know
the story. So old Jacob went limping off,
didn't he? I can see him limping down the
road there. What happened? I was fighting with God. I was
fighting with God. I seen God! He said, I was fighting
with God! Who won? Well, you know who won. God won. That's what I'm saying,
brother. Who will attack or fight against
the people who have such power vested in their captain? Who
would do that? Listen, who can destroy your
soul if omnipotence be your helper? You see what I'm talking about?
I'm trying to spiritualize in this 35th verse where it says,
Did you lack anything? Did you lack for anything? And they said, nothing. And I
want you to be able to say at the conclusion of this service,
if you are a believer in Christ Jesus, I want you to be able
to say, I lack nothing. I need nothing. I desire nothing
more than that which I've got. What is it you've got? I've got
Christ. How did you get him? I got him
by the grace of God. You mean you paid for it? No!
I didn't have anything to pay. God gave him to me! I got him
by grace. He was free. Listen, who can
destroy your soul if omnipotence be your helper? You know the
answer to that question. If sin Death and hell are all
vanquished by the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are represented
in Christ? Can you be destroyed? Not on
your tin type you can't. You're complete in Him. You don't
lack anything. If you're in Christ, you don't
lack nothing. I love to preach this. This is the gospel. You
don't like anything. If I had to go out and preach,
you know, well, why don't you accept Christ as your Savior,
and Christ has forgiven you of your past sins, and from now
on in, it's up to you and Christ. It's up to you and Him to make
it on in now. You're not complete now. Well,
He's forgiven you and all that, and you need Him, and He's a
good man and everything, and He died for sins. But now, after
you have accepted Him, it's up to you. It's up to you now. Now,
over here is the Ten Commandments. You better not break one of them
Ten Commandments. Inward or outwardly, if you do,
you're gone. And if you die, if you die with
a bad thought in your mind and everything else, everything that's
happened prior to that, it's no good. You're lost. If I had to preach the gospel,
I just wouldn't preach. There's no good news to that.
Any good news to that for me to tell you to do the best you
can and maybe you'll make it to heaven when you die? What's
the good news about that? If you're honest, you know that
you can't make one step in perfection towards heaven. Not one! My soul, we need someone! Bless
God, we need someone that can, someone that will, someone that
has! And I'm telling you, brethren,
there's someone that has. Here's a man. There's a man in
glory. It's said that there's one mediator
between God and man, and that's who? That's the man. Christ Jesus. Whoever lives on God's right
hand to do what? To make intercession for His
people. Lives to plead for them. Alright.
Over in John chapter 15, verse number 9, there's a verse that
goes like this. Let me read it to you. It says, As the Father
loves the Son, or as the Father hath loved the Son, so have I loved you. As the Father hath loved the
Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ says, so have I loved you. Well, what does that mean? Alright,
it means that the Father loves the Son, And in the same manner,
the Son loves those for whom He represents. I'm not saying
that He loves everybody. I'm saying that He loves those
whom He represents. He represents somebody. He died
for somebody. He lives for somebody. And those
somebodies that He died for and those somebodies that He lives
for, He says, I love them in the same manner that my Father
loves me. That's more than I can take right
there. That filled my cup right there. that the Lord Jesus Christ loves
me. You mean that's what the Bible
says, that the Lord Jesus Christ loves me? In the same manner,
just like His heavenly Father loved Him. Why, He was perfect. Our Lord Jesus Christ was perfect. He never sinned. He was perfect man and perfect
God. He never sinned, not even one
time. Not one time did anything flash
across that heavenly, pure, and holy mind that was wrong. Not one time. I can understand
how God could love him. I can understand that. But I
can't understand how the Son could love me. What love? Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we might be called the sons
of God. If He loves us, it is for Jesus'
sake. Oh, my soul. Listen, let me tell you a few
things, and then I'm going to quit. Jesus loves His people, even
as the Father loved Him. Now, God the Father loves the
Lord Jesus Christ without change. That is, I am the Lord, I change
not. He loves Jesus Christ without
change. That is, that we might understand
it. He doesn't love Him a whole lot
one day and then love Him less than a whole lot the next day. He loves Him without change. His love for the Lord Jesus Christ
has been without change always. Always. Now, as the Father hath
loved me, in the same manner I love you. I love you without
change. I know many times I preach here,
and I feel, when I get through, I feel, I just feel like, well,
I struck out. I didn't do nothing. I just struck
out. It's just a waste of time. A
waste of time. I wasn't prepared like ought
to. I ought to have been better prepared. I wasn't prepared.
Something matters. Something matters. I was just
bound. I couldn't say what I wanted to say. I felt like I hadn't
done my best. And I went home. And I just get
to think, well, boy, I'm glad today's over with. New day tomorrow. New day tomorrow because I haven't
done my best today. I just know I haven't done my
best. I don't feel like I did. And I feel like a heavy cloud
comes over me. And my pride has been offended
a little bit. And I think, well, God's surely
not pleased with me. Well, that's the way we think,
you see. That's the way we think. But the truth of the matter is,
The truth of the matter is, God's success doesn't depend upon me.
If it did, He'd never be successful. And another thing, God's love
doesn't fluctuate like a thermometer. It doesn't go up and then it
doesn't go down. God loved me just as much when I was in the
state of despondency and felt that I hadn't done my best as
He did if I had done my best or felt that I had done my best.
You see what I'm talking about? He hasn't changed. The Father
loves the Son without change. The Son loves His people who
He represents before God's right hand. He loves them without change.
You mean God could love me? You mean God could love me? He
could. He could. I don't know whether
He does or not. You'll have to find that out.
But God could. He loved that thief. He loved
old Manasseh. And if He loved me, and if He
overcome, if He overcome what He's overcoming me, you'd be
no problem. You'd be no problem. He'd have
an easy time with you. Listen, God the Father loves
the Lord Jesus Christ without change. God the Father loves
the Son without any end! No end to it! No end to it. Isn't
that something? God the Father loves the Son
without end. The Lord Jesus Christ loves His
people whom He represents. He represents them on the cross.
He represents them now in their intercessory work on the right
hand of God, that place of power and honor and dignity. He loves
them without end. No end to it! No end to it! What am I saying? This is what
I'm saying. I'm saying that the love of Jesus
Christ for His people is deep as a well with no bottom in it.
That's what I'm saying. It's deep as a well with no bottom
in it. And God the Father loves His
Son without measure. And Jesus Christ loves His people
without measure. That is, from everlasting to
everlasting. That's what the Bible says. The
Bible says that God hath loved His people, loved His Son. Well,
listen now. He loves them as much now as
He ever did. And He will still love them as
much as He ever did when this world is on fire. And when they
live in glory, 50 billion years, he'll not love them anymore at
the end of 50 billion years than he does right now. Doesn't that
stagger you? It does me. I read an article
the other day about a billion. A billion dollars. Do you know how much a billion
dollars is? Do you know how much a billion dollars
is? You think you do, but you don't. You don't know how much
a billion dollars is. You just think you do. Let me tell you
how to measure a billion dollars. A billion dollars in compared
to time. Do you know how long a billion seconds
are? Make a guess, Pat. Real quick. Pat says a billion seconds is
15 years. A billion seconds is more than
30 years. What do you think of that? That
staggers you, doesn't it? A billion seconds! You think
of that when these politicians now are talking about, I need
a billion dollars for this project, a billion dollars for that project.
If you spent a dollar, if you spent a dollar every second,
it would take you over 30 years to spend it. At the end of 50 billion years! That's what I'm talking about.
At the end of 150 billion years! Our Lord Jesus Christ will not
love you any more than He does right now. I ought to give my
all to this man, oughtn't I? Oh, what a privilege! What a
privilege it ought to be for me to serve the man Christ Jesus
who so loves me now with such love without end, love without
measure, love without change. Boy, oh boy. This is true, brethren. I'm telling you the truth here.
All right. Got to go on, though. He that's
in Christ. Oh, back to my text again. Lack
ye anything? You that are in Christ, do you
lack anything? You say, well, preacher, up to
this point, if what you've said is true, we don't lack nothing.
We got more than we bargained for. Like anything? And they said, nothing. You say,
nothing this morning, preacher. We don't like anything. Listen,
he who is in Christ is so well off, he can't possibly be any
better. Did you know that? That's the
way we used to talk about people when I was a young fellow. Someone
had mentioned somebody's name, we'd say, well, he's well off.
What do you mean he's well off? Well, he owns his own home. Back when I was a young fellow,
not too many men, too many people owned their own home. Only those
that owned their own home was well off, am I telling you the
truth? Brown? Harris? A man owned his own home,
he was well off, wasn't he? If he had a team of horses, he
was well-off, wasn't he? If he had a plow and a wagon,
he was well-off. If he had a barn, he was well-off.
If he had a couple of cows to milk, he was well-off. If he
had a job, he was well-off. You say, well, I know some people
that are well-off. They own two or three houses.
They have a bank account. They have two bank accounts.
They have bonds. They have a home in Florida.
They have a motor home. They have a fine car. They have
fine clothes. They're well-off! They're well-off! Listen, he who is in Christ is
so well-off that he can't be any better. That's how well-off
he is. He's well-off! I remember a verse
of Scripture there in the Old Testament that goes like this.
It says, "...say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him." It
shall be well. You're well-off. WELL OFF! LACK ANYTHING! NOTHING! NOTHING! WHAT DO YOU WANT? NOTHING! NOTHING! HAVE EVERYTHING! NEED
NOTHING! So well off, listen, he can't
possibly be any better. Let me tell you what he's got
again, one more time. He's got a perfect conscience.
A believer's got a perfect conscience. Why do you say that, preacher?
Well, I'll tell you why I say that a believer has a perfect
conscience. You say, well, I don't have a perfect conscience. I'm
not talking about only in the matter. Only in the matter of
your standing between you and God. Now, you may have a bad
conscience as to the way you treat your wife. You may not
treat your wife as you ought to, and shame on you if you don't.
If you don't love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave
Himself for it, then you've got some problems. And wives, if
you don't submit to your husbands and love your husbands supremely
and become obedient to them, then you've got a problem. And
you may have a bad conscience in your relationship in this
matter. Or it may be that you've got a bad conscience because
you're not doing today's work. You may not be given eight hours
for eight hours' pay, and you might have a bad conscience about
that. But I'm talking about a good conscience, a perfect conscience
toward God in the matter of our relationship to Him. Now I'm
saying a believer. A believer who was in the dust,
in the dust, and God came and spoke to him in grace and raised
him from the dunghill and made him to sit where princes sit.
I'm talking about that fellow. He's got a perfect conscience.
I'm going to tell you why he's got a perfect conscience. Get
it now. Because he's got a perfect sacrifice.
A perfect sacrifice. If you've got a perfect sacrifice,
you've got to have a perfect conscience. Got to! Oh, when
I thought about that. When I thought about that, that
just run chills up my back. That a man, if he's got a perfect...
You remember I preached to you not so long ago, where I said,
it shall be perfect to be accepted. God will not accept anything
that's not perfect. It shall be perfect. My Lord
Jesus Christ offered Himself, the Bible says this, He offered
Himself without spot. He offered Himself. A perfect
sacrifice. Therefore, brethren, if God has
taught me, instructed me, revealed unto me the perfection of the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the acceptance of that sacrifice,
and where I am, then I've got a perfect conscience. See? A
perfect conscience is so good. A Christian is so well-off. that
he couldn't possibly be any better off because he has a perfect
conscience, because he has a perfect sacrifice. And secondly, he's
well fed. He's well fed. He feeds upon
the flesh and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the children's bread. That's all that He wants is the
children's bread. That's what sustains Him. That's
what nourishes Him. He can't get anything off the
700 Club. He can't get anything off that
other fellow there in Charlotte, North Carolina. He don't get
anything there. No! He's got to have the children's
bread! He's got to feast on the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember I
told you here the other night at the Lord's Supper, when I
said, the Lord said, take and eat! This is my body! This represents my body! Take
it and eat it! What's that mean? That means
to take the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is sound
doctrine, which is the perfect sacrifice, which is the Word
of God, Take it! Masticate it! Eat it! Chew it
up! Chew it up! Chew it up! And digest
it! And it'll nourish your soul.
And I'll tell you, when you come down to die, you'll not be afraid
to die. Because you'll have some enjoyment
of this perfect sacrifice. Alright? He's well fed. He has a perfect conscience.
He's well clothed. He's well clothed. What clothes
does the Christian wear? He wears the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The imputed righteousness. When
I say imputed righteousness, I mean, like I told Pat here,
when our Lord Jesus Christ, what was incorporated in the Gospel,
is when Christ died, He paid that which was my due. And God,
on the basis of who Jesus is and what Jesus done, could then
freely and merciful show mercy and forgive me of my sins for
Jesus' sake, because Jesus satisfied the demands of God as law. But
at the same time, I must be accepted by God. I can't be accepted in
myself because I still have inbred sin. I still have a bad heart.
Now, I must be accepted. How can I be accepted? I can't
be accepted myself. Then I must have a perfect righteousness. I haven't got it, though, preacher.
I know, but He has. See, when He died, He died in
your stead, in your place, and in your room, and paid that which
was your due, and freely give to you as you gave Him your sins. He gave you His righteousness. And so now we are clothed from
the top of our head to the bottom of our feet in what? In the perfect
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, brethren,
I'm telling you today, Daryl, that the man in Christ is so
at all, he couldn't possibly be any better. He got a perfect
conscience. He's well-fed, he's got the right
food, and he's got the right clothes. Well, I could go on
with this. He's well-housed. Where does
he live? He dwells in God. He dwells in
God. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Not only does he dwell in God,
but God dwells in him. Do you remember over there in
the 7th chapter of the book of Genesis when it says that