Alright brethren, let's go to
Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4. If a sinner will believe on Christ
and be saved entirely by Christ, then he must look to Christ only. Must look to Christ only for
everything. If you and I who believe will
go forth and bear witness of Christ, then we're going to have
to look to Christ for everything. If we as believers together would
serve Christ, service is over, you and some brethren are going
to work on the building, you're going to do some things around.
If we would serve Christ, we're going to have to do so looking
to Christ only, for everything. Now the Lord is preparing Moses
to be sent by God to be His minister to Israel. He has shown Moses
much here. He has revealed Himself in the
burning bush. He has spoken to Him, telling
Him what He shall do in Israel and with the Egyptians. He has
revealed Himself in those signs showing how through the gospel
God's people are made to hear Christ and believe Christ and
how the judgment is poured out by the same Word. And after all
this, Moses answers again and he still has some reluctance
to go. We read in Exodus 4 verse 10,
And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent,
neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant. But I am slow of speech, and
of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who
hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb? or deaf? or the seeing? or the blind? Have not I the
Lord? Now therefore go, and I will
be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. Now in all things our sufficiency
is of the Lord. In all things our sufficiency
is our Lord Jesus Christ. Sufficiency means competence,
to be made competent, to have ability. It means to be fully
provided, to have sufficiency, full provision. Now, we're not
sufficient. Of ourselves, we are not sufficient. But brethren, God has made us
so that we are not sufficient. God has made us so that we are
not sufficient. And the reason God has done this
is to teach us our sufficiency is entirely of God. In all things, in everything
we do as God's people, our sufficiency is of the Lord. Now first of
all, always remember this. Get this and remember this. We
are not sufficient of ourselves. We have no ability of ourselves,
no provision of ourselves, no competency of ourselves. We are
not sufficient of ourselves. Moses says in verse 10, Lord,
I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto
thy servant. It seems like he thought God
was going to make him eloquent. if he just kept talking to him
a little more. He said, since you began talking
to me, I'm not eloquent. I'm still not eloquent. And he
said, but I'm slow of speech and of a slow tongue. Now Moses
here said, I'm not eloquent. Now we're going to be talking
some about the preacher. But as we talk about a preacher,
I want you to understand this doesn't just apply to a preacher.
This is so of all of us. Every believer whether he's believing
on Christ, trusting Christ to save him, whether he's bearing
witness to somebody of Christ, whether he's trying to serve
in some capacity. Whatever it is, this is true
of all of us. The Lord said here, Moses said
here, I'm not eloquent. I'm not eloquent. I don't speak
impressively with what the world would call beautiful manner of
speaking and wisdom of words and what have you. I don't speak
that way, he said. Now that's what the world wants
in a preacher. And that's what the world requires
of a believer. You have to have a qualification
before you come to Christ if you listen to worldly preachers.
You've got to clean your act up and impress them to a certain
point before they'll even let you join with them. and they
feel the same about a preacher. They want the preacher to have
an impressive education and they want him to speak impressively.
They want him to speak Greek and Hebrew and let folks know
that he knows how to speak Greek and Hebrew. They want him to
speak above the heads of the people most of the time. They
want him to speak intellectually. One thing I despise, one thing
I despise, is to hear a man step into a pulpit and speak differently
when he starts to preach than he does when he's sitting in
a pew. I despise that. I despise it. Nothing will cause
me to stop listening to a person faster than when he starts trying
to sound intellectual. I can't bear with it. Get to
Christ and get to Him right quick. Don't try to impress me with
your ability to speak. God doesn't use eloquence to
declare the Gospel. God is all power and all wisdom. He does not need the eloquence
of a little ant at all. And He doesn't use it. He just
doesn't use it. In fact, eloquence and intellectualism
makes the Gospel of no effect. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. Eloquence and intellectualism
and wisdom of words makes the gospel to be of none effect.
Look at this, what Paul said. He said, Christ sent me not to
baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom... 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 verse 17. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words. not with
wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
effect." There's no way that I'm going to be able to make
you hear the gospel. And when a man thinks that he
can speak in such a way that he can convince somebody to believe
on Christ, that gospel is going to go out the window. Because
in order to make it palatable to a sinner, you're going to
have to take the fence out of the cross. You have to not preach
Christ, not preach the blood, not preach depravity, not preach
that a sinner can do nothing to save himself. You have to
do away with all that if you are going to make a natural man
make a decision for Christ. And anything that is intellectual
or used to impress people, that's why Christ said don't do your
arms before men. That's why He said don't pray
before men. We don't want a person's desire for Christ to be conjured
up within them because of something in us. We want it to be by the
power of God, not in anything we did to draw them in. We want
it to be of God. Not only was Moses not eloquent,
he had a speech impediment of some kind. He said, I'm slow
of speech and I'm slow of tongue. Later he's going to call it,
I'm of uncircumcised lips, unclean lips. That's how he viewed himself. And we all have the same problem
Moses had. We all have the exact same problem
Moses had. It might not necessarily be a
speech impediment, but we got the problem Moses had. We look
to ourselves for sufficiency. And that's what Moses was doing.
His problem wasn't his speech. It was the fact that he was looking
at how he spoke to determine if he was sufficient to go forth
and preach. There was much more in Moses
than his speech that made him insufficient for the work. That's
true of us. There's a lot more than just
a speech impediment that made Moses insufficient for this work. And the same for us. Brethren,
we were conceived in sin. That makes you insufficient right
there to start with. We came forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies and never did a good thing in our flesh.
And as God's saints, that same old sinful flesh is still mixed
with everything we do. So there you go. We've got a
lot more than just a speech impediment making us insufficient for this
work. Left to provide for ourselves, you know what we'd do? We'd totally
fall away. If we had to provide for ourselves,
spiritually or temporally, we would totally fall away. If God
left us to persevere by ourselves, by our strength, we just wouldn't
do it. We don't have any strength to
do that of ourselves. You remember when Christ said,
you cut the branch off the vine, what's going to happen to the
vine? It's going to wither away. We get everything from Christ.
We depend entirely upon Christ. In our flesh dwells no good thing. That's worse than not being able
to speak eloquently, isn't it? That's worse than having a speech
impediment, isn't it? And that's true of me and you. Not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. Not anything. But our sufficiencies
of God, Paul said, He made us able ministers of the gospel.
Not just ministers, but able ministers of the gospel. He made
us. And that's true of me and that's
true of you. We are all, as believers, to one degree or another, we're
ministers of Christ. ministering to one another, ministering
to other saints, ministering the gospel, ministering in help
with the preacher. We're ministers to some degree
or another. All of us are. Who made us able
ministers? God did. We don't have any sufficiency
in ourselves. And you think about this. It's
pride if we think that only one or two faults make us insufficient
to save ourselves or to serve Christ. Isn't that pride? If
we think it's just one or two things that's making us insufficient
to believe or serve Christ, that's nothing but pride. The opposite
of saying I'm not eloquent and I'm slow of speech, the opposite
of that is, is saying if it weren't for these two things, I'd be
fully prepared for the world. What's the difference? If it
just wasn't for these two things, I'd be fully sufficient for this
work. If we heard a man say that, we'd say, how proud. But we hear
a man say something like Moses and we say, he's so humble. No,
he ain't. If it wasn't for those two things,
he'd say, I'd be sufficient for the work. We have no sufficiency
in ourselves at all. None. We can't believe, we can't
repent, we can't rest in Christ, we can't continue resting in
Christ, we can't speak a word in season, we can't minister
to one another, we can't do anything if it's not by Christ. Christ
is our strength. Now look at this next thing.
What God made His people to not have any sufficiency in ourselves
on purpose. He made us not to have any sufficiency
in ourselves on purpose. He said here in verse 11, the
Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? For who maketh the dumb, or deaf,
or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? You think about these things
He just listed there. Take a man who's dumb, he can't
speak. None of us by nature could speak
the gospel. We didn't even know the gospel.
We were dumb by nature. We were silent when it came to
the truth of the gospel. Oh, we could speak a lot of our
own opinions, but we never said a word of truth. We were dumb.
We were deaf. We couldn't hear the gospel.
We couldn't hear the truth. We couldn't see. We were totally
blind. And you know what? It was God
who overruled everything that happened in the garden so that
when Adam sinned and sin entered in and we became all these things
spiritually, that was all according to God's purpose. Why? Because Christ comes forth and
He said, go tell John what you see. Go tell John. The dumb speak. And the blind
have sight and the hearing hear now. And the lame leap for joy. See, all this work of saving
us A to Z is to glorify Christ. That's the reason and that's
the purpose. That's how come we come into
this world with nothing but wounds and sores from the top of our
head to the soles of our feet that are not bound up or mollified
with ointment and there's nothing we can do about it. Not for ourselves
and not for one another. Why? Why did God make us that
way? Why did God leave us that way
until He came and poured in the balm of Gilead? Why? To show
us we can't do anything of ourselves. That's why. And why has He, now
that He's created a new man in you and called you and brought
you to Christ and now He's using you in the cause of Christ, why
has He left you in that old body of death? For the same reason. To teach us we need Him. Him
alone. Moses was not eloquent because
God made him not eloquent. God made him that way. He had
a speech impediment because God gave him a speech impediment.
You remember this. Moses was educated under Pharaoh. And Moses, the Scripture says,
was wise. Moses was... He had been taught
how to speak. But the more he was educated
and the more he was taught, the more God brought him down. He
brought him down. and He gave him a speech impediment.
It probably got worse and worse as time went on instead of better
and better. By giving His servants infirmities,
God keeps us from being lifted up in pride. I'm talking about
you who believe. He keeps us from being lifted
up in pride. Do you have a problem with some
infirmity? Do you have some infirmities
that causes you to do what you would not do and you hate it
and you Whatever it is, do you have that? Why couldn't God just
remove it in an instant? Of course He could. Why hadn't
He? Well, what if Moses had been eloquent in speech? What if Moses
didn't have a speech impediment? What if you could justify yourself
by your works? What if you could stop sinning
just simply by your own effort? you'd never ever look to Christ
at all. We'd never ever depend upon Christ
for anything. What if I could sanctify myself
by my works? What if I could provide for myself
spiritually and temporally? I'd never look to God for anything.
I would be so proud and so arrogant, I would be just like I was before
God saved me. I can do it. I'm a self-made
man. I can do it. We're self-made
men, alright, but what we made ourselves by ourselves is sinners,
unable to do a thing. So God kept us in this body of
death to keep us humbled before Him and dependent upon Him. God's
preacher, he depends entirely upon God to give the message
and to help him preach the message, give him the ability to preach
the message. But it's so easy after you've preached the message,
it's so easy to get lifted up like you did something. It's
the easiest thing in the world. But it won't be very long after
that God will put you back on your face to know, you didn't
do this. You didn't do this. You depend
on God to do this. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 12.
I want you to see, we see this in Paul. 2 Corinthians 12. Remember, the Lord gave Paul
all that revelation. He was taken up to the third
heaven and he saw things that he said not lawful to be uttered. That would probably make a man
be sort of proud, don't you think? Don't you think that would lift
a man up a little bit and exalt a man if he had revelations above
any that any other man had? Sure it would. Look here what
the Lord said. Look what Paul said. 2 Corinthians
12, 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations. Isn't that something? You know
what a revelation is. A revelation is God revealing
to you what you could not have known otherwise. And we're such
sinners that we'll get exalted over something that had to be
revealed to us. But Paul said, lest I should
be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations
there was given to me. He's saying God gave it to me. He gave me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan to buffet me, to beat me, to put me down. Lest I should be exalted above
measure. Do you notice when the Lord gave
him that increase in the new man, when He gave him that increase
in revelations, the Lord gave him a decrease in the flesh,
didn't He? He did it on purpose. He gave Him an increase in the
new man, He gave Him a decrease in the flesh. Now brethren, do
you want to be used of God more? Do you want to understand and
know Christ more? Those are things we ought to
desire. But know this, if He increases you more, in the new
man and increases your usefulness more, you can be certain you're
going to receive also a decrease in your flesh to keep you from
being exalted. That's so. You can expect it.
Read on with me. Verse 8. For this thing I besought
the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He
said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. My strength will be manifest
to you to be the strength by which you are able to hold up
under this thorn and to do what I tell you to do. My grace will
be manifest one way, by you seeing you have absolutely no strength
in you. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. Most gladly therefore, Paul said,
will I rather glory, I'll thank God and I'll rejoice in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I will rather go
before God and confess to God, Lord, I have so many infirmities,
there is no strength in me, I cannot do anything. the power of Christ resting upon
me. Paul is saying that is what I
do. I go before God on my face and I glory in my infirmities.
I confess to Him I am absolutely nothing. I am the chief of sinners.
God, I need the power of Christ resting upon me. Would we do
that otherwise if He had not given us a thorn and brought
us down to our face to say, Lord, I am so weak. All I can do is
say, I'm totally weak. That's rejoicing in your infirmity
before God, on your face, saying, I need Christ or I have no strength. We wouldn't do that if He didn't
give us this thorn and bring us down to our faith. And He
said this, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, when I am weak, then Am I strong? When are you going to be truly
strong? When am I going to be truly strong? When Christ is
our only strength. That means we can't find any
in ourselves, in any way, any shape, any form at all. Christ is our only strength.
We can't find any help from our brethren. We can't find any help
in our religion, in anything we do. We can't find any help
anywhere but Christ. That's when we are strong. When
I can't make myself righteous, and I can't make myself holy,
and I can't redeem myself, and I can't make myself wise, and
I don't have any power, and I don't have any ability to come before
God whatsoever, and I need Christ to be all these things for me,
then I have strength. You get that? Salvation is... You ever heard that old illustration
about, I believe it was Roland Hill, he was at a carnival, kind
of a fair one time, His fellow was over there, you know, barking,
trying to get everybody to come in and buy his goods, you know,
and he was trying to get them, you know, talking to them about
what all he had and how good it was and all this stuff. And
the old preacher told him, he said, the difference between
me and you is you're trying to get people up to your price. I'm trying
to get them down to mine. It's free. Why is it free? Because we don't do any of it.
God does it all. We are made to see that. This
is what true salvation is. Knowing I can't do anything. I hear sometimes young people,
sometimes older people tell me, I just don't understand some
of the words you preach. And I don't understand some of
the language God uses in the Scriptures. Let me be as simple
as I can. Salvation is right here. Knowing
and confessing of God. I cannot do one thing to save
myself. I need Christ to do it all. A
man comes to God with that spirit and that heart, God will save
that man, I guarantee you. I guarantee you. The Lord chose
to save and He chose to use sinners that are totally insufficient,
thoroughly unimpressive, in order to bring the pride of man to
nothing and to make His people glory only in the Lord. He chose people who were totally
unimpressive, people who were totally insufficient for anything
to bring us down, to humble us and to make us glory only in
the Lord. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. 1 Corinthians 1.26. You see your
calling, brethren. You visited around, you've seen
some churches, you see your brethren sitting here beside you. You
see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many naturally wise men, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. That's on purpose. God did that
on purpose. Why? Verse 27, But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty. And base things of the world
and things which are despised hath God chosen. Who were they
despised by? They were despised by the world.
They were despised by me and you too when we were dead in
our sins. These things God's chosen. to
bring to nothing things that are. He has chosen things that
are nothing to bring to nothing things that are. And He is saying
what He said. He chose nobodies to bring people
who think they are something to nothing. Why? Verse 29, that no flesh should
glory in His presence. Why Moses, why did I choose you
who are not eloquent and who has a speech impediment? Why
did I choose you? Why am I sending you forth? You
barely can even speak to where people can hear you and understand
you. So that you won't glory in you.
And when I save them, they won't glory in themselves. You see,
preaching is a means God has chosen and the ones He sends
to do the preaching are chosen by God in order that none of
us can glory. Preaching is the most humbling
thing I've ever experienced in my life. One week, you think,
well, it came kind of easy this week. I guess I'll do it this
way next week. It'll come easy next week if
I do it this way. You do it that way next week, nothing. You're right up to the last minute
being wrung out like a wet dish rag. Well, I better not try it
that way next week. That was tough. I'll try it a
different way. And God just keeps showing you, it ain't of you.
Try it any way you want to. It ain't of you. If God don't
give it, you won't have it. Only by Him giving it so that
nobody will glory in His presence. But look at this. Here's the
other part. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus. Of Him are you in Christ. Who
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. So that according as it is written,
He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. You see that? That's the purpose. That's why
God's chosen whom He's chosen. That's why He's chosen the means
He's chosen. is so that we can't glory in our flesh, we can only
glory in the Lord. Now let me go to the third thing
here. Well, if we're not sufficient, and God made us not to be sufficient,
well then, what's the purpose of all this? The Lord alone is
our sufficiency. He said here in verse 12, Now
therefore, go, He told him, ìI made you this way, Moses. Now
therefore, go, and I will be with thy mouth, and I will teach
thee what thou shalt say.î The Lord is our sufficiency to go. The Lord is our sufficiency to
go. Christ tells His child to go,
and He makes him do so. Itís called being sent. Paul
said, How shall they preach except they be sent? How beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. How shall they preach unless
they be sent? Several times since I've been
here, I've had at least two different men contact me, maybe more than
that. But they've contacted me letting
me know, I didn't know these fellows, they contacted me letting
me know that they're just out of seminary and they're looking
for a church. If I know anybody or could connect
them with somebody and introduce them to some new contacts, whatever,
because they're looking for a place to preach, a pulpit. You know
how much further it went past that contact? When they contacted
me, you know how much further that went? It didn't go anywhere. I didn't tell a single soul.
You know why? A man that's having to look for
a place to preach, God hasn't sent him. God has not sent him. When God has sent a man, He's
going to raise up a people for that man and raise up that man
for that people. And He's going to unite them
together. And He's going to do it in such an abundant way that
you'll know that when He opens the door, no man can shut it,
and when He shuts the door, no man can open it. You see, with
every open door, there's going to be a shut door too. And I've
seen this happen so many times. I've seen the door be open when
God's going to send a man somewhere and at the same time, He's slamming
doors behind him. So that man can't turn around
and go back the other way. He'll make it certain. If He's
sending you, you'll know it because He'll open the door and He'll
slam the door shut behind you. You ever seen that? We used to
go to the sale barn when I was a kid, when you take your cows,
and your pigs, and your goats, and your horses, or whatever
you're selling. You take it in there to sell
it. Have you ever seen them when they're running those old hogs
down a chute? They'll run them into one pen. As soon as they do, they drop
something down behind them, a door down behind them, so they can't
go back. And they open the next door they want them to go through,
and they drive them into that door, and they drop another door
behind them. That's how it is. When God's going to move somebody,
He's going to open a door in front of you and slam one shut
behind you and you're going to go the way God will have you
go. You know, if you have to say, well, I'm not sure if this
is what God would have me to do, don't move a muscle. Don't
go anywhere because you don't know yet. Don't wait until you
know, I can't do anything but this. And if faithful men say
something negative and try to stop you, and you say, I got
to do it. If a man can stop you, you haven't
been sinned. But if you can't do anything
but go, that's when God sends you. And that's for His preacher,
that's for His people. Whatever it is we're doing, if
you're trying to figure out which way to go, this way or that way,
and you don't know, Don't go. But He made it abundantly clear
that Moses didn't. He said, Go! Moses didn't. Well, I think the Lord is trying
to teach me something. No, He ain't. The Lord doesn't try to
teach you anything. If He is teaching you something,
you will know. Go! And you will know it's time to
go. That's right. Christ keeps His servant from
speaking and makes His servant speak according to what the Lord
would have him to speak. Let me show you that, Ezekiel
3. You say, well, I'm afraid I'm going to say, you know, I
don't know whether I should say this or not say the other. The
Lord is going to keep His servant from speaking when He will not
have him to speak, and He's going to make His servant speak when
He will have him to speak. Watch this, Ezekiel 3, verse
26. He's talking to Jeremiah, and
he said, I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth,
that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover,
for they are a rebellious house. I'd hate to be the person to
whom God shut up the mouth of His servant so that he could
not speak to me. That's what He said. I'm going
to make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth so you
can't speak to these people because they are rebellious people. And
watch this, verse 27, But when I speak with thee, I will open
thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord
God. See that? He sends His preacher
where He will have them go. He opens their mouth when He
will have them speak, and He shuts their mouth when He won't
have them say a word. And the Lord is all sufficiency
who teaches His servants what to speak. He teaches them what
to speak. He told Moses, ìIíll be with
thy mouth and Iíll teach thee what thou shalt say.î Look at
Jeremiah chapter 1. When he first was sending Jeremiah,
look at what he said to him. Now remember, this goes for all
of us as brethren. You know, just like if you donít
know where to go, donít go. If you donít know what to say,
donít say anything. If you know what you ought to
speak, itís because Godís going to give you that word to speak.
You'll know. I don't have any doubt. You'll
know. Watch this. And He'll teach you what to say.
Jeremiah 1.6, Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak,
I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say
not I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee,
and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid
of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the
Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth,
and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. David said, O Lord, open thou
my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Remember what
Christ told the disciples when He sent them forth? He said,
When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall
speak, Don't be anxious. It shall be given you in that
same hour what you shall speak, for it's not you that speak,
it's the Spirit of your Father speaking in you. Apostle Paul
said to the saints, he said, pray for me. Why? That utterance
may be given unto me. Well, Paul, you wrote three-fourths
of the New Testament. You don't think you know what
you ought to say? You know the Gospel, don't you? I've had men
tell me, you know the Gospel, you know what to preach. That utterance may be given unto
me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the Gospel. You can't do it if He don't give
it to you. I'm telling you, it's so. It's so. But how then, once
the Word is delivered, how are sinners made to hear and believe
it? How are they made to hear and believe it then? Christ is
our sufficiency in the Word that goes forth. Do you remember back
in those two signs that we looked at there in Exodus? Remember
he said they're going to hear the voice of the sign? He kept
saying that they're going to hear the voice of the sign. That
voice is Christ. The voice of the Gospel is Christ. It's not a man's voice, it's
Christ's voice. We preach the gospel and the
only way a sinner is going to be made to hear the law, he's
been looking to the law, he's been trying to go to the law,
he's been trying to work out an obedience by the law, and
the only way he's going to hear that law speak is to hear Christ
speak to him and say, you've been hearing men say to you that
adultery is just outward in the act. But it's in your thoughts,
it's in your heart. If you look on a woman, you've
committed adultery. If you've just been angry with
a brother, you've murdered him. And a man can hear me say that,
and he can say, oh, I understand that. But you let Christ tell
him that. You let Christ speak that to
him, and he won't be able to even lift his head up to God.
I'm guilty. He won't have a place to hide.
He'll be like Adam when the voice came walking in the garden, the
same voice, and said, Adam, where are you? Al, I heard your voice and I
hear it because I'm naked. But you got on fig leaves, but
I'm naked. I've heard your voice now and
I know I'm naked. But you're hiding amongst a bunch
of trees. Men get in amongst the trees of righteousness in
the church, they think they're saved. When Christ calls them,
they realize, I'm naked. I'm open and it's just right
out, flat out, in the open, naked before God. He sees me. Christ
has to speak to make you know that. He said, my sheep hear
my voice and I know them and they follow me. He said, the
dead is going to hear my voice. They are going to hear the voice
of the Son of God and they are going to live. That's the only
way we are going to be made alive. He told Pilate, he said, to this
end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I
should bear witness unto the truth. And listen to this, Everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice. Everyone of them. I just don't understand why he
won't believe. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. He speaks that and makes you
see you're guilty. You can't look to yourself. And
then we start trying to figure out, well, I'm going to have
to do something now to make myself alive. I've got to be born again.
And preachers have been telling me steps A, B, C, D, what I need
to do, how to be born again. I need to do this so I can be
born again. How am I going to know that that's
useless? Christ speaks and He says, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except you be born of the water and
of the Holy Spirit, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
And He makes you understand, I'm dead. I'm dead. How can a dead man understand,
I'm dead? I'm dead unless God gives me
life. How can he understand that? Because that word's come forth
and he's given that dead man life. That's how. For the first
time he realizes this is not of me, it's not of my will, it's
not of my works. He did it. He's made me alive.
And I see now I'm lost and I'm undone. How then is he ever going
to find out that there is salvation in none other but Christ? How
is he going to be made to come to Christ and bow to Christ and
trust Christ to be his righteousness and his holiness? How is he going
to be made to do that? Lord, what must I do to be saved?
Lord, what's the work of God that I must do to be saved? This
is the work of Him that sent me, that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. That you believe. that
you don't do a thing, that you trust Him to do it all. That's
the work of God. The work of God is that you labor.
Oh, tell me what I need to do to labor. I'll labor. Just tell
me what to do to labor. Enter into rest. Only Christ
can make you understand what that means. And you'll start
resting in Christ then. How are sinners made to see that
He's the only righteousness of His people? How are we made to
see that He really laid down His life for a particular people
and He really justified that people and He really is the righteousness
of that people? And how am I going to be made
to know it myself that He died for me and that He's my righteousness?
How am I going to be made to know that? I've heard the preachers
preach on that a thousand times. I don't believe it. One day Christ
speaks and He says, I laid down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep,
and I give my sheep eternal life, because they're righteous. I've
justified them. I give them eternal life, and
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand." And he speaks that, and he makes you know. You're
one of my sheep. I've done this for you. You just
find yourself believing it now. Instead of putting yourself on
the side with the non-elect, you start putting yourself on
the side with the elect for the first time. It takes Christ to
make a man do that. You ever notice that? Every time
you declare the truth to somebody, an unregenerate sinner automatically
puts himself on the side with the non-elect. Automatically. Well, that's not fair. Why did
He choose me? When He says, why don't He give
all men a chance, what He said is, why don't He give me a chance?
Because salvation ain't by chance, that's why. Salvation is by purpose. God determined it in the end
from the beginning. And He makes a man hear that,
He makes him know it, He makes him believe Him for the first
time. How is He made to repent from
all His vain works and continue to repent from them and believe
only Christ? He says, I am the bread of life.
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. He
speaks affectionately into the heart. He says, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. He speaks into your heart. He
says, there is no more offering for sin. Stop trying to offer
offerings to God for sin. There is no more offering for
sin. When you have no sin, And He makes you to know, I put away
your sin. He says, I have come to be the
light in the world, and whosoever believeth on Me shall not abide
in darkness. And He says, now you show yourself.
Come out of the back of that cell you are in, trying to hide
in that little sliver of darkness. And He draws you out into the
light for the first time. You come out into the light of
Christ and you start confessing all your works. But not your
works, they are all wrought in Christ. He did them all for the
first time. And that's why He came forth.
And as that word goes forth, the way this is done is Christ
begins to speak just like He did that leprous man. When that
leprous man came to Him, bowed down and said, Lord, if You will,
You make me clean. He said, I will be Thou clean.
He was clean from that minute. He comes to the man that's lame,
that can't walk, who's never walked, who's never done anything
godly in his life and he says to him, Arise, take up thy bed
and walk. For the first time he's able
to stand, spiritually stand. He comes to the blind man and
he He puts this gospel upon him, and he begins to speak to him,
and the man starts seeing a little bit, but it's blurry to him,
and he can't see very well, and the Lord keeps working on him,
and the next thing you know, he sees 20-20 vision. This is the work of the Lord.
The Lord sends the preacher, the Lord blesses the Word, He
says to the man sitting in the pew, he begins to speak, he says,
Behold, I stand at the door and I knock, and if any man hear
my voice and open the door, I'll come in to him and we'll suck
with him and he with me. And the man sits there and he
says, I've heard that preached before. When I'm good and ready,
I'm going to open that door. I'm just not ready yet. Oh, when
I'm willing, I'll open the door. I'm just not ready yet. And he
doesn't know what's happened to him, but in a minute he finds
himself believing. It's because Christ has said
that word to him and then reached his hand through the door and
unlocked it. He let himself in. And he finds himself believing
on the Lord. You see, what I'm saying to you, brethren, is our
sufficiency is not of ourselves. Our sufficiency is of the Lord.
He sends the preacher. He makes him an able minister
of the gospel. He sends him forth. He tells
him what to preach. And he takes his old stuttering,
stammering lips and he speaks through those stuttering, stammering
lips. And God blesses that word when it comes forth to the hearts
of those He's seeking out, to the hearts of those He's redeemed,
to the hearts of those He's loved from everlasting. And He affectionately
makes them believe Him. And He keeps on doing that same
work through the same means of the gospel being preached from
the first hour we believe until the very last hour we believe.
That's how He keeps His saints together and keeps calling out
the rest of His saints. And others that will not believe
Him, that are hardened against Him, that harden their hearts
against Him, He takes the same word and He hardens their hearts
more in judgment. But He makes that word affectual.
No word spoken by one of His saints falls to the ground void. He makes the word affectual.
He sends it forth to accomplish whatever He would have it to
accomplish and He always makes it affectual. So whether we are
in a pulpit or we are serving Him by bearing witness of Him
in our job or to another child or whoever, or whether we're
ministering in His cause in some way. Whether we're hammering
some shingles on a roof at the church building or whether we're
whatever, picking up sticks around the church yard, whatever. I
was out here the other day. I went out to the back corner
over here. First I went out looking at those ducks. That's not by
accident that God put 30 ducks, mallard ducks here every morning.
Do you know how much I liked to duck hunt when I was growing
up? Now I get to pull up here every day and watch these ducks
come in and land right there in the creek, right beside where
I'm preaching. And I walked down there and was looking at those
ducks. And then I got to seeing some deer rubs down there. I
got looking at that too, deer tracks all over the place. And
I spent a good bit of time down there and started walking back
up here to the church building. As I'm walking up to the church
building, here comes a fellow walking across the parking lot.
We met right here at this corner. And this fellow is bawling his
eyes out telling me that he thinks God saved him, but he don't know.
He just feels lost. I said, I sure hope you are.
Man, I hope you are lost. That would be a good thing if
you are lost. God got you that way. And so I got to preach the
gospel to him right there. Who controlled my steps and his
steps and made us meet right there? I had just such clarity
to speak to him. And He went on His way. I've
been looking for Him. I haven't seen Him since. But
I don't know what came of it. But it didn't return void. I
know that. God's going to use it. God's going to use it. See what I'm saying? Our sufficiency
in everything is not us. It's Him. It's not us. It's Him. And God is able to make all grace
abound towards you. that you always, having all sufficiency
in all things, may abound to every good work. I promise you
this, if God is going to use you in any way for anything in
His kingdom, God will give you the grace to do it and He will
show you that the sufficiency is all of Him. And He will make
you abound in it, whatever it is He is going to have you do.
Because that is how God operates. All right, I've gone longer than
I expected. We'll be dismissed. Brother Eric, you come sing and
you close in prayer when you finish.