Christ all the glory. Do you
have to have it? You have to have Christ. Those born again of God do. We
have to have him. Those that are born again of
God have to have the Lord Jesus. We have to have his gospel. The
Lord Jesus is our life. He's the bread from heaven. He
is eternal life. He is eternal life. We have to
have Him. He's our only acceptance with
God. And we have to have Him just
to make it through a day. We have to have Him to keep us.
We need the Lord Jesus and we have to have Him always. Go with me over to Philippians
3. There was a time when Paul The
apostle, when he was Saul of Tarsus, he didn't need the Lord.
He didn't need the Lord Jesus. He claimed to be looking for
the Messiah to come, but he didn't need him. He thought he was righteous. He gave that long list here in
Philippians 3 of all the things that he had put all his confidence
in. But when the Lord revealed himself
to Paul, this is what he said, verse 7, Philippians 3, 7. He
said, but what things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for
Christ, yea, doubtless. I'm sorry, I say three, Philippians
two, Philippians two, verse seven. No, I'm right, Philippians three,
seven. But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things, but lost for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom
I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them but
done, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ." That faith of Christ, that means Christ's
faithfulness. That's not talking about your
faith in Christ. If your Bible says faith in Christ, mark through
that and put of, because that's what the original is, and that's
what that means. It's the faith of Christ. It's
his faithfulness. He worked out the righteousness
we must have. And he said, I want to be found
in him having the righteousness which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God. God provided the righteousness
he'll receive. It's the righteousness of God
by faith. He's given us by faith. He said
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if
by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.
That's the heart the Lord puts in the heart of his people, in
his people. That's the heart he puts in his
people. We have to have Christ. We have suffered the loss of
all our former confidence and all our former religious works,
and don't count them any loss at all. We count them, but don't.
And we might win Christ. We want to be found in his righteousness
alone. And we have to have this gospel,
because this is how Christ feeds us, this is how he teaches us,
this is how he grows us in the knowledge of him, is through
the preaching of the gospel. have to have the preaching of
the gospel. This is the food. This is the
food for his children. This is the food right here.
Job said in Job 23, 12, I have esteemed the words of his mouth
more than my necessary food. That means more than the bread
on my table. You need Christ more than the
bread on your table? Listen, if you don't have bread on your
table, eventually you'll die physically. But if you have Christ,
you'll never die. You'll be with him forever. But
if you have food on your table, but you don't have Christ, you're
still gonna die physically. But then you'll die eternally.
You see, We need the gospel of Christ. It's more necessary than
the food on our table. Those with a mere profession,
they don't have to have Christ, but God's people do. The psalmist
said, how sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than
honey to my mouth. Any so-called church will do
for men that have a mere profession. They can leave one, no problem. and they'll go to a place looking
for a job, or they'll go there because they found a job somewhere,
and that's all they care about. Then when they get there and
get settled in, then they'll look around and see, was there
a church here? That's not how God's people operate.
We don't operate our life around, I mean, operate the gospel around
our life, fit in the gospel in our life wherever we can fit
in. We shape our life around where the gospel is. Where can
I hear the gospel? Now let me see if there's a place
I can work there. You see, you have Christ. He'll
provide the other things, but you seek him preeminently. But
those with a mere profession, it doesn't matter. They base
it on if they like the preacher, if they like the building, if
there's programs for the children, if there's lots of activity,
But it doesn't matter to them if they can mingle grace and
works, that's okay. But the preaching of Christ and
Him crucified, that's not necessary to them. But it is to His people. We can't leave the gospel. We
can't leave Christ. Our subject is the raven and
the dove. The raven and the dove. Men and
women who are ravens can depart from Christ and his gospel with
no problem. But those that God has made to
be his doves, we have to have Christ. We have to have his gospel. We have to have him. Now you
know the ark is a beautiful type of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
ark is, and Noah for that matter, beautiful picture of Christ,
beautiful picture of Christ. How so? Well, there were all
kinds of living creatures in the ark. God called all these
creatures into the ark, two of every kind, male and female. He called them into the ark so
that the species would continue. All kinds of creatures in the
ark. Well, brethren, among God's elect, those that God chose,
there's all kinds of sinners. All kinds of sinners. All are
one in Christ. made one in the heart by Christ,
have our oneness in Christ. But as far as all the physical
things and natural things about us, we're all different kinds
of backgrounds and all different kinds of centers. There's Jew
and there's Gentile. There's male and there's female.
There is some that grew up religious under the law called the circumcision. There's others that are the uncircumcision.
never were religious. Some are bond, bound, some are
free, some educated, some uneducated, some in great powers of position,
some not known at all, all kinds of people. You know, go with
me to 1 Timothy when, I think we talked about this not too
long ago, but we need to repeat it. When the scripture talks
about, when the Lord speaks of saving Christ coming to save
the world, or when it speaks of all men, it is not talking
about everybody in the world. It's not talking about all people
without exception. It's talking about all kinds
of people all over the world. That's what he's talking about.
Here in 1 Timothy chapter two, Paul said in verse one, I exhort,
therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now what's he talking
about? What's the next word? For kings,
for kings, and for all therein authority, that we may lead a
quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, For this
is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who
will have all men to be saved." Now, catch that word. He said,
God will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all. to be testified in due time,
whereunto I am ordained a preacher and apostle, I speak the truth
in Christ, and lie not, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and
verity. You see there, who will have
all men to be saved? Listen, whatever God wills, God
brings to pass. That's not a wish. That's how
men preach it. Men say, see, God, God, He would
have all to be saved. He wants all to be saved. That's
not what it says. It's not a wish. He's not frustrated. Whatever God wills, God brings
to pass. God will have all kinds of sinners
to be saved. He's talked about kings. He talked
about Gentiles. He will have all kinds of people
to be saved. Before creation, God chose a
people unto salvation, and God is willing they be saved, and
so by God's will they shall be saved. Some are kings and men
that he put in authority, some are poor and unknown men, and
there are some of all kinds in between. But all have this in
common, all are sinners. Guilty in Adam, corrupt nature,
come into the world spiritually dead and trespassing and sin,
and can't save ourselves, can't make ourselves willing to believe
God and trust God. The things of God are foolishness
to us by nature. They're spiritually discerned
and we have no spiritual nature. But see here, Christ, all those
gods willing to be saved, Christ ransomed them all. He ransomed
all. He bought them with His blood.
He justified them. So in due time, at God's time
that God predestinated, that's what Ephesians 1.5 says, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, at the predestinated time, God sends them on the gospel
and he calls them to him. Why? Because he's willing that
they all be saved. The Lord Jesus is going to send
the gospel of those he justified. And the Spirit of God is going
to create life in them that they didn't have. A new spirit that
they didn't have. And He's going to give them faith
that they couldn't muster up. And repentance from dead works
that they couldn't turn from. And He's going to make them trust
Christ. That's why I read to you 2 Peter chapter 3. When it said God's longsuffering
to us, that's His people. To us. Find out who Peter's writing
to. He's writing to God's people.
He's longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish.
Now listen, if God was not willing that any should perish, and yet
somebody he is willing to save perishes, that'd make God fail. That'd make God unable. Well
then what does the will of God have to do with anything? If
he wills for somebody to be saved but he couldn't save them, what
does the will of God have to do with anything? No, if God's
not willing a man perish, that man's not gonna perish because
God will save him. But he's longsuffering, he will
bring each one to repentance. That's why after that, Peter
said, account, impute, charge, reckon that the longsuffering
of God is salvation. He's waiting right now. He's
not destroying this world right now. You know why? He has a people
he'll save, and he will save them. You know, back there when
Noah was building that ark, when he was building that ark, God
did not pour out judgment until that ark was finished, and he
had called Noah and his family into that ark and brought all
those animals into that ark, and then the judgment fell. You
see, that's what Peter's saying. By the same word, this world's
held in store, because God's not willing that any of his people
perish. You know how I know there's still
some elect that he will call? This world's still held in store.
As long as this world's held in store, that means there's
some elect that Christ justified that he shall yet call. So that's
one way the ark's picture of Christ had all these different
kinds of animals in it and in Christ. There's gonna be all
different kinds of sinners from all different backgrounds, but
this we all have in common. Sinners saved by the grace of
God through the righteousness of God. Well, another way the
Ark's a good picture is, and the best way, is because that
Ark bore the justice of God. That's the picture there. That
rain coming down is the justice of God upon the whole human race. But God, before he rained down
judgment, he called Noah into that ark. Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. And he put him in that ark, shut
him up, along with his family. And then the rains fell. The
rains fell. Somebody said, you know, you
see these bumper stickers, smile, God loves you. I can't make that
statement to everybody without exception. Somebody said, what
if there was a sticker on the back of that ark that said, smile,
God loves you. If God does not save who he loves,
tell me this, what does the love of God have to do with salvation?
Paul said in Romans 8, nothing shall separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. Therefore in loving kindness
I've drawn you. Who God loves, God saves. Jacob
have I loved, he so have I hated. Is that too strong? That's God's word. Does that
make God unrighteous? No. He's righteous. Men earn damnation. But if we're
saved, we're saved entirely by his grace. Our own works damn
us. It's the work of Christ by which
we're saved. So God's righteous, whether He
saves or He damns, He's righteous. But God saves those He loves. You know back there in Genesis
6, in verse 14, it says there, Make thee an ark of gopher wood,
room shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it, within and
without, with pitch. That word pitch means atonement.
Atonement. Ransom. You know why the floods
of justice didn't touch Noah and that ark? Atonement. All
those God chose in Christ were in Christ on that cross, and
when the justice fell down on Him, it fell on all His people,
but we were in Christ. And He made atonement for our
sins. And that justice will never fall
on His people. Never. That's why I'm saying
to you, those God loved and chose in Christ, and Christ bore that
justice for and justified and made atonement for, they shall
be called because they've been justified. You see what I'm saying? It has more to do with God's
glory than it does whether you or me are offended by that or
any sinners offended by it. And God's people are not offended.
When you see you're a sinner, And God makes you know you deserve
nothing from God, that if he hadn't been gracious to you,
you would have been on the outside of the ark. That's when you find
out, I'm thankful God chose a people. I wouldn't have been saved if
he hadn't have. I would not have, I would not have. So that's how
that ark pictures Christ. Now, let's get to this, the raven
and the dove. I want to show you this raven
and this dove illustrate very well the two kinds of people
that are in this earth. There's only two kinds. There
are works religionists, lost men and women who either think
they're saved by their works or by their own goodness or by
something they've done or something in them. And the other is there
are those that God saves who trust we're saved by grace. There's
only two kinds of people in the world. Now the raven, at the end of
those 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark and verse seven
says, he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro until
the waters were dried up from off the earth. The raven left
and stayed gone. The whole time the waters were
on the earth until they dried up, that raven was gone. It went forth to and fro, to
and fro. Where'd the raven go that whole
time? Where'd it go that whole time? It couldn't fly the entire
time. Had to stop somewhere, had to
feed somewhere, had to eat somewhere. What'd it eat while the waters
were on the earth? The raven ate. And the raven
rested upon death, the floating bodies of people in the waters. Now, is that a good picture of
an unbeliever or a works religionist? That's a very good picture. The
raven pictures somebody who, maybe they're a professing believer,
maybe they profess to believe Christ, but they've not been
truly given a heart for Christ. They've not truly been taught
the gospel by the Lord. Christ is not their life. He's
not their rest. They're feeding upon death. They're
looking to the works of their hands. They're looking to the
things of this world. They love sin. They love their
self-righteous works, which is the worst sin. But they're feeding
on death. And they're resting in death.
Sure, they're going to be in glory. But it's all death. It's all resting in death. That's
so of every sinner. who has not been quickened by
God and given faith by God and made to rest in Christ by God.
That's the case with every single sinner. That was the case with
you and me. If we've really been taught by
God and know God, we can say, that was me. I was feeding on
death. I was resting in death, thinking
I was safe and thinking I have life. What are some of these
kinds of death that men feast upon? Pleasure. pleasure, sports
and entertainment and the pleasures of sin for this brief short season
called life. God declared that in our day,
it's going to get worse and worse and worse. And He said, men will
be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Does that not
describe the day in which we live? It's described every day.
in which God's people have lived. And it's getting worse and worse.
And it'll describe, it'll describe this world to the end. Men are
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. You know what
my prayer is? I preach this gospel and I pray for you and I pray
that everybody that hears the message, whether you're sitting
here like you are, or whether it's somebody hearing online,
or 20 years from now somebody listens to one of these messages,
you know what my prayer is? I pray that God give him a heart
to be like Moses. Moses was raised up in Pharaoh's
house. He could have had everything
this world had to offer. Pharaoh was the most powerful
man in the world at that time. And scripture says, he chose
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season. What grace, what grace of God
to give a man that heart. You know, three out of the four
hearers in our Lord's parable, three out of the four didn't
truly believe. Three out of the four. And this
is what the Lord said in Mark 4, 18. He said, of the thorny
ground here, where he said, these are they which are sown among
thorns, such as hear the word, now here's the thorns. He said,
the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and
the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becometh
unfaithful. Those people who hear the gospel,
this is sad to say, but our Lord gave a parable with four types
of hearers, four types of ground, and three out of the four never
did hear. It was all false. That tells
you the majority who hear the gospel don't believe. Is that
not sad? That's true, the majority. I
pray the Lord save us from the cares of this world, the deceitfulness
of riches, and the lust of other things. The majority in religion
hunger for and rest in dead religious works. Now that's just scripture,
that's just so. Most go to and fro from one false
church to another, Their hunger's church hopping. They like something
new. Their ears have to be tickled.
They want to hear something new. I call them fixers. We've had
a bunch of fixers come through through the years. They come
to a congregation, they try to fix it. And either they can't
fix it or they think they've done a good enough job and they
move on to the next one to fix it. Most are feeding upon the
dead corpse of ceremony. I was baptized. I joined a church,
I got my name on a church robe, feeding on the dead corpse of
wanting men to see me pray, wanting men to see me do alms, wanting
men to see me do good works, loving the praise of men more
than the praise of God. May God save us from that, because
I'm telling you something. There's a raven in you and me.
We're no different by our flesh. Don't ever, you know, Paul told
the believers the Gentile believers in Romans 11, he said, don't
get high-minded. You fear, because this same deceitful
heart's in you and me, and it'll be with us till we die. We depend
entirely on the grace of God. But most, and you know, you got
folks who'll stay, and they'll be seen committed, and then they
can be swayed by another preacher, they can be swayed by men, they
can be swayed by mom and dad, whatever it is. The Lord said,
among the chief rulers, many believed on Christ, but because
of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should
be put out of the synagogue. That was their corpse. Being
in the synagogue, that's what they were feeding on. That was
their pleasure, the death they loved and rested in, being in
the synagogue. They feared being put out, for
they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Just like this raven, brethren, Most who make a profession. You
have to learn this as a preacher. You don't want to see it. You
don't want to see it. You pray. The Lord keep His people. But most who make a profession,
leave it. That's the message of the Lord's parable about those
three out of four heroes leaving. Most who make a profession, leave
it. They go to and fro from one body of death to the other, feeding
on dead works and sin and the world and whatever. Now, but
some are doves. This is the good news, some are
doves. Verse eight, also he sent forth a dove from him to see
if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But
the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot. And she returned
unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the
whole earth. God's saints throughout scripture are compared to doves.
Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. God's people are not
fighting. We're not trying to fight, folks.
Lord made us see we're not any better than anybody else by nature.
We're sinners. Saved by God only, by his grace,
by Christ. We can't fight and condemn somebody. The one weapon we have is this
gospel. So be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But listen,
let me give you some things about doves. Doves make their nests
in a rock or in a good, safe place, secure place. That's where doves like to make
their nests. That dove found no rest for the sole of her foot.
She wasn't feeding on death. She couldn't eat death and she
couldn't find rest there. She came back to Noah in that
ark. A believer can't find rest in
this world. We can't find rest in our works. We can't find life
in our work. We have to have Christ to rock.
I saw this, I said this to you a long time ago, but I saw it
just a minute ago. I had to look this, I'm looking
it up on my, I got a Bible on my phone, I had to look it up.
Do you know Psalm 116.7? It says, return unto thy rest,
O my soul. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. That word rest, return
unto thy rest, that's from the same word translated Noah. Return
unto thy Noah. And that's what the dove did.
She went out, she couldn't find rest. Nothing but death. She returned to her Noah. You
know what God's people are going to do? We'll always return to
Christ. By His grace, keeping Christ
in our heart, He's going to keep you returning to Christ. What
did Peter say? Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life. We believe. We know you're the
Christ, the Son of the living God. We have to have you. Doves
don't feed on death. That's another thing. Doves feed
on grain. Bread. This dove went out, but
she couldn't find any food. She couldn't find any life out
there. Nothing but death. And she returned to life. She went back to the ark to Noah
where the bread was. Christ is our bread. He's our
life. He told him, except you eat my
flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. What is
that? That's believing Christ. trusting
Him for everything. You think what a good analogy
of eating and drinking is a faith. When you're eating something,
when you're eating a piece of bread, you're not eating anything
yet. You're eating that bread. When you're drinking water, that's
all you're drinking is water. And when we're eating and drinking
Christ, He's it. He's our life. None else. Another thing about a dove, doves
always watch their mate. You hear turtle doves, they watch
their mate, and they mourn when their mate's not there. That's
Song of Solomon, the bride's described as a dove, and she's
watching for her beloved, she's watching for Christ. That's the
church looking for Christ. God's doves keep an eye on Christ. works in us to keep our eye of
faith fixed on Christ. And He's going to keep you fixed
on Christ. He's going to keep your eye of faith looking to
Him. Looking to Him. And we're going to mourn if we
lose sight of Him. Don't you mourn if you lose sight
of Christ? If you don't behold Christ and
you start feeling cold and you start feeling lukewarm, don't
you Don't that cause you alarm and don't that cause you to fret?
You want to see Him. Well, the Lord's going to keep
His people. No, and we need Him to keep us and we need Him to
keep us looking to Christ only. Another thing about doves is
they love to keep company together. They love company together. That dove's out there by herself.
She's easy prey out there by herself. And she wants to be
with other doves. Well, the Lord, you know, all
God's people are born of the same Holy Spirit. We're born
of the same Holy Spirit. I can tell you this, if you took
all of the saints from Noah's, or let's say from Abraham, well,
from Moses' day, if you took all the saints from Moses' day,
I'm saying where there's a bunch of saints, you took them all,
And you could put them here today in this world with you that know
Him, born of Him. You know, we might not have anything
in common as far as day-to-day and things around it, but I tell
you what, we'd have everything in common with each other more
than we have anything else in common with the people of this
world. But why? Because we're all born of the
same Spirit, all given the same All taught the same gospel to
rejoice in the same Lord Jesus, all born of the exact same spirit. That's so of everybody God saves. And we want to be together. Scripture
says of God's children, they fly like a cloud and as doves
to their windows. And that's what we do, we fly
to Christ and we like to be together. assembled together. Don't you?
Is this, this is my favorite time. It really is. Y'all have
jobs, you have family lives around here, you have friends and stuff.
I don't. But that's, this is my life and
this is my family and this is my favorite time is being with
God's people. We're going to be together for
eternity. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity. And that raven found rest in
that ark, but she couldn't find rest in those bodies. A believer's
rest is Christ. We have rest from the curse and
condemnation of the law, we have rest knowing that eternal life
is ours. We have rest knowing that He's
going to keep us and preserve us. We have rest knowing that
whatever we need in this life, He's going to provide it. Why
is He providing the lesser things in your life? Because to keep
Himself preeminent to you. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness. These other things will be added.
And He does that to keep you to keep you from being taken
away by the cares of this world and the lusts of other things,
to keep Christ permanent in your heart. Go with me to Romans 8. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. who walked not after the flesh
but after the Spirit, for the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death. For
what the law couldn't do, and that it was weak to the flesh,
God sent in His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
forced sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled. He did it in our flesh. That's
what in us means, in our flesh. Who walked not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. and He did it in you personally.
But they that are after the flesh, they're the raven, they mind
the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit, to be carnally minded is death.
To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Christ is our refuge. At what time I'm afraid, I'll
trust in Thee. I'll fly to my ark, Christ my
ark. The name of the Lord's a strong
tower, the righteous run into it and they're safe. That dove
had everything she needed in that ark. You have everything
you need in Christ, everything. Justification, he justified us
from all our sins. Holiness, he's our holiness and
he's the holiness in your heart, keeping you looking to him. Peter,
he sent Paul to open the eyes of them that were blind to deliver
them from the power of Satan, from the darkness to light, that
they might receive forgiveness of sin and inheritance among
them that are sanctified by faith that's in me, Christ said. That's
how we're sanctified in Christ. And it's all to the praise of
the glory of His grace wherein He's made us accepted in the
blood. We have everything in Christ. Now, men and women give
all kinds of excuses for rejecting Christ. They give all kinds of
excuses for leaving the gospel. They give all kinds of excuses
for forsaking assembling with brethren to hear Christ. But
here's the truth. Men and women who are ravens
leave the gospel of Christ because they can. God's people can't. We didn't
do anything to make it so we can't. God did it, but we can't. We just can't. Those gods made
his dove keep coming to Christ, keep looking to Christ, we're
following Christ, we're going to Christ in glory, we're depending
on Christ, we're resting in Christ, we keep coming to hear his gospel
because we know it's Christ preaching to us. It's not a man preaching,
it's Christ preaching. When you hear the gospel in the
heart, I didn't do it, it's the Lord. He's the one that speaks
into the heart of his people. Now, let me say to you here that
don't believe him, If you find yourself believing Christ, if
you find yourself believing Him, and I pray you do, I pray you
do, I pray He won't let you find any rest or any life in this
world, and you come to Christ, just like that dove came to that
ark, you come to Christ, what's going to happen? What's going
to happen? And for you that know Him and
trust Him and believe Him, you keep coming to Him. You keep
coming to Him. Sometimes you go out into the
world like this dove went out into the world, but you can't
find rest, you can't find life, you can't find food, anything
you need, and you come to Christ, and you come to Him. What happens
when you come to Him? What happens when you keep...
See, we didn't get saved back yonder. We're being saved. We didn't come to Christ back
then, we came to Christ today. And we keep coming to Him. To
whom? Coming. We keep coming to Christ. What happens? For
you that, if a man just first comes to Christ and believes
on Him, what happens? And for you that do, when you
keep coming to Christ, what happens? Genesis 8-9, then He put forth
His hand and took her and pulled her in unto Him into the ark. That's what Christ keeps doing.
He keeps taking you and pulling you into Him. It's all of Him. If you can't find life and rest
in this world, that's of Him. And if He turns you to return,
that's repentance. He turns you to return to Him,
that's of Him. And gives you faith to know,
I'm going to Him. That's of Him. And when He brings
you there, what's going to happen? He'll take you and pull you to
Himself and bring you into Him. That's salvation. I pray that's
what the Lord does for each of us. Our Lord, we thank You for
this day. We thank You for this Word and
this Gospel. Lord, You've given us so many
illustrations in the Scripture that are easy to understand.
We thank You for them. We're simple people. And we pray,
Lord, You keep our hearts set simply on Christ. Make us keep
coming to Him. Thank You, Lord, for faith. Thank You for All the blessings
you've given us to make us see Christ is the one thing needful.
Lord, don't let us depart. Don't let us, oh, never let us
go, Lord. Forgive us of our sins. We ask
it in Christ's name, for his sake. Amen. All right. We're gonna go ahead and just
be dismissed, brethren. Adam's working the video, and
I don't want him to have to come up and lead us in song, so we'll
just, we'll be dismissed.