Bring your Bibles with me to
Ecclesiastes chapter 7. I have been thinking about death. I spent some days with a good
friend this week who is very, very sick. And yesterday I went to a memorial
service for Miss Santa Maria, for the Jaime's mother, Nathan's
grandmother, David's grandmother. So I've been thinking about this
some and as painful as death, the death of a loved one is.
It's good for us to be confronted with death that we might consider
that death is our end. Wednesday morning, Miss Santa
Maria woke up very early and other than a preparation she
was making for a surgical procedure she had that morning, everything
went pretty much routinely. As I understand it, she even
made her special Cuban coffee and poured a cup for Brother
Jaime and sat and visited with him as he drank it. Later, Sharon
and the rest of the family, Jaime, David, everybody went about their
business. Sharon took Jaime, Brother, Miss Santa Maria to
the hospital, and Brother Jaime went to work, and David went
to school. Even after Sharon dropped off
Miss Santa Maria, she had some things that she had to do, some
responsibilities to take care of. She went about her business
doing that. And at the same time, every one
of us were going about our daily business. We all had our plans
for this weekend. Some of them were important plans,
perhaps some of them not so important, but they were all important to
us because they were our plans. And all our planning Everything
that we plan on thinking about tomorrow and the next day and
what we'll do this afternoon and all those things we're feasting
Taking for granted this thing called time We're Feasting on those things
that bring us joy and kind of help ease us from the the day
in and the day out and the the humdrum of the daily routine,
the daily grinds, you know, we feast on those things. Well,
that was the case with us, that was what we were all doing, but
in the midst of all of those plans that we esteemed all too
important to be broken, and that's how we esteem most everything
we plant, all too important to be broken. In the midst of all
of that, God broke those plans for us. He stopped us. He just interrupted
us and He took us from the house of feasting to the house of mourning. Nobody but the Lord knew that
morning that that was the hour from eternity
that the Lord God had appointed for Miss Santa Maria's time on
this earth to end. Nobody knew that but the Lord.
Nobody but the Lord knew while we were busy making all our plans
that we would be remembering her now. Solomon was a man that was great
in wisdom, God-given wisdom. And by divine inspiration, he
wrote this. And I want you to follow with
me today. I want you to open your Bible, put it on your laps,
young and old, and I want you to follow with me. Ecclesiastes
7 verse 2. He said, it is better to go to
the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for
that. Death, mourning, is the end of
all men. And the living will lay it to
his heart. I want you to do something with
me. Every one of us right now, right
here, you just take a real deep breath. Every one of those are numbered
by the Lord. And very soon, every one of us
will take the last one. But that won't be the end. After
that, we will face God in eternity. In the book of Generations, I
want you to look over to Genesis chapter 5. I want you to see
something. Genesis chapter 5. This is the generations of Adam.
I want you to see if you can find what these folks all have
in common. All the sons born from Adam. That's what you are. You are
a son born from Adam. Genesis 5.5. And all the days
that Adam lived were 930 years and he died. Verse 8. And all the days of Seth were
912 years. Man, he lived a long time. Look
at those next three words, and he died. Look at verse 11, all the days
of Venus were 905 years, and he died. And you just keep reading
through that and you see those same three words over and over,
and he died. And that's how it will be with
you and me. It's appointed unto men once to die. The number of
our days are determined by God. The number of our months are
with God. He's appointed our bounds and we can't pass that
point. Just as Mrs. Santa Maria's hour,
her appointed hour, came at just the time God had appointed, just
as He stopped all of our plans and broke everything that we
had planned, just as he had a purpose to do. When God brings you to
the hour he's appointed for you, no matter what you deem right
now as so all important, so absolutely necessary in your life that you
don't have time to seek God, when that hour comes, in that
moment, God will stop you and you will be brought face to face
with God. We hear that. You hear me saying
it now. We hear it. We think about it.
We know it's true. We know that's true. And yet,
when we hear about death coming near to us through a death of
a loved one, we hear about it. Even Mrs. Santa Maria was 94
years old. Even when we hear that, we're
still just disbelief. It's shock, isn't it? And we
know, we know it, we know it. Have you laid this to your heart? Have you thought about that,
that this is the end of all men and then we must face God in
judgment? If you have, I want to ask you to listen very carefully
this morning. I have a few things I want you
to consider. We have a life to live, we have a death to die,
and we have an eternity to face. and how we spend this time will
determine how we spend eternity. That's so. That is so. The psalmist said, so teach us
to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Teach us to consider how brief
our days are, how fragile our life is. That's what he means
by teach us to number our days. It's called in Scripture, our
life, the number of our days, this fragile thing called life,
this thing we have called time. It's compared in Scripture to
a hand breath. It's compared in Scripture to
a vapor that appears just for a little moment and then vanishes
away. Described as going by faster than a weaver's shuttle. Described
as a flower that springs up and then is just cut down. full of sorrow and full of trouble.
That's how it's described. A shadow that fleeth and just
vanishes away. You can't stop it. You can't
stop it. It just slips right through your
fingers. So he said, teach us to number
our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Have you ever
applied your heart to wisdom? We apply our hearts to a lot
of things that God explicitly says in the word not to apply
our hearts to. It won't do us any good. But have you ever applied your
heart to wisdom? God is wisdom. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy
is understanding. God is wisdom. God is holy. Everyone whom He calls, Christ
is made under them, the power and the wisdom of God. And those
who are called unto Christ are holy in Christ the Holy. He's wisdom, He's holy. Have
you ever applied your heart to seek God? I mean really, seek
Him. And I mean apply your heart. You know when you hear that saying,
boy, He's all heart. David, if that's somebody out
on a soccer field, and you say, he's all heart, that means, and
he gives it everything he's got. He goes 100% full steam ahead
all the time. Apply your heart to wisdom. One
of the lines that stuck out to me yesterday in those poems Miss
Santa Maria wrote was this. She wrote this. If the Lord spits
the lukewarm out of his mouth, what will he not do to cold hearts? Hearts worse than lukewarm, just
cold hearts. Listen to this promise of God.
In fact, I want you to read it with me. Turn to Proverbs chapter
2. And listen to this. Now, this
gospel we preach are the promises of God. He's not a man that he
should lie. He has nothing to gain from me
and you. This is a promise He makes. And
He's making this promise to somebody, to a particular people. He's
making this promise to them. And this is what He says. Now
listen. Verse 3. Proverbs 2, 3. Yea, if thou cryest
after knowledge. See the You see the fervency
in this? If you cry after knowledge, and
lifteth up thy voice for understanding. And those endings there on those
words in the King's language means you do it and you continue
doing it. You don't stop doing it. If he
does this, if he seeks wisdom, seeks knowledge, seeks God as
silver, and searches for her as for hid treasures, listen
to this now, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord,
and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom, out
of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. with such
a sure promise as that, such a sure promise from God who cannot
lie as that, won't it be a complete abuse of time and a complete
waste of the time God's given you for you to pass through this
earth into eternity and never truly begged God to make himself
known to you? Have you ever really just applied
your heart to wisdom? There's two things that are certain.
If you find yourself crying after Him, if you find yourself crying
after knowledge, if you find yourself seeking after it like
silver, like hid treasure, it'll be because God has already sought
you. I guarantee that. And I guarantee
you something else. Guarantee you another thing.
If you do it, if you do it, you'll find knowledge. You'll find wisdom. God will make himself known to
you. Guarantee that. I know it because
God said it. I believe it shall be even as
it was told me. He'll do that. You know, blind
Bartimaeus. He was out there on a highway,
sitting by a highway, a blind beggar is what he was. People
passed him every day, didn't care anything about him whatsoever.
He was little and nobody to everybody, even in his own eyes. He was
just a blind beggar. But Christ came to where he was. And the gospel, the truth, that
the truth had come, he heard it. It said he heard, when he
heard it was Jesus of Nazareth. You know what he did? He began
to cry. Cry out and say, Lord have mercy
on me! And all those folks around him,
they said, would you just hush? Oh beggar, nobody wants to hear
anything from you. Won't you just hush over there? Can't you
see all the important folks around here and the folks that are with
him and following him and how important this one is? Won't
you just hush? And they couldn't stop him. They
couldn't stop him. He cried more earnestly. He cried
greatly. Lord have mercy on me. Listen
to these words. And the Son of God, the Son of
Man, the Lord Jesus Christ stopped. He stopped. And He commanded, bring that
man to Me. And He brought him to Him and
He said, what is it you want? He said, I want my sight. And
He said, your faith has made you whole. And he had his sight
right there. That woman with the issue of
blood had been to doctors. She had suffered from this for
years and years and years. Spent everything she had. Spent
all her money for that which wouldn't cure her. Just like
any of you have spent all your days for bread that won't satisfy. Trying to find joy where there
is no joy. Comfort where there is no comfort.
Peace where there is no peace. Healing where there is no healing.
This woman had spent everything she had and she was no better
for it at all. And she heard Jesus Christ was
coming through and she said, if I can just touch the hem of
his garment. And she did. And she was made
whole. And he stopped that touch, that
longing, that desire stopped him. Stopped him. He said, who
touched me? They said, look at all these
people. We can't tell who touched you. And he turned around and
he said, somebody touched me. And she came to him. You know
how she came to him? She came to him, bowed down. worshipping Him at His feet and
she told Him everything. Told Him her whole story. She
just spilled it all to Him and told Him all the troubles she
had had, all the useless remedies she had tried, all the everything
she had done and how she was no better and how all her heart's
desire was is just to know Him. Just to touch the hem of His
garment. And He said, Your face made you
whole. It's made you whole. We could go through countless
examples like that, countless examples. What's this fear of
God? If you find yourself crying after
this knowledge, what's this fear of God? What's this understanding
of the holy? What's this going to involve?
What are you going to find out? I know there's three things that
you're going to find out. You're going to be convinced
of sin, you're going to be convinced of righteousness, and you're
going to be convinced of judgment. That's when you'll begin to know
something about true wisdom. First thing is, this fear of
God and this true wisdom, this true understanding has to do
with finding out what you are. What you are. Why do we die? Why do we die? Why do we Why
do we age and our skin get more wrinkled? And why do we get sick?
Why does the ground out here, Joshua and Will, they'll be out
here playing after services out here in the back, back here in
the woods back there. And there'll be briars back there.
There'll be thorns back there. Why are they there? Why are those
things there? Why do we physically die when
The Lord told Adam in the garden, God said, in the day you disobey
me, in the day you cease believing on me, looking to me alone, trusting
me alone, in that day that you eat this fruit, thou shalt surely
die. And when Adam ate that fruit,
he didn't die physically right then, but he died spiritually
right then. Man was made upright and man
has sought out many inventions and they started right then.
False religion started right there when Adam started trying
to make fig leaves to cover himself. A false refuge started right
then when he heard the voice of the Lord walking in the cool
of the day. The carnal mind is what he had
now. That's all he had. And that carnal
mind is not subject to the law of God. It's not subject to the
voice when he hears the voice. It's not subject, neither indeed
can it be. And we see it so clearly because
when he heard the voice, he sought a false refuge and he went and
hid himself in the trees of that garden. sin had entered in, and
death by sin. What does that have to do with
you? How does that affect you right now where you're sitting
here today? Because death passed upon all men because you have
sinned. You have. The natural man. How we are, we don't receive
these things of God because they're spiritually discerned. They're
spiritually discerned. That's what this spiritual death
is about. Why is it that you love tonight? If I said to you right now, let's
me and you this afternoon, we're going to go see this movie over
here that's showing. You'd be ready. You'd be excited
about it. This morning when your mother
and your father said, we're going to church this morning. I wish
I didn't have to go there. Why? Why is that? Why is that? It's this little three-letter
word, S-I-N. That's what it is. That's what
it is. What did it have to do with you?
It passed to you. What Adam did pass to you, not
only in imputation, not only being charged to you, though
it was because he was your representative, your federal head, but it passed
to you through corrupted seed. It passed to us in nature. It's
what we are in nature. You see, when the Lord says the
lips are unclean, that which comes out of the mouth is unclean,
it's because it comes from nature. It comes from the heart. It comes
from the pollution we are. We've got to be brought to behold
what we are. And not only spiritual death,
but sin entered in. I mean, not only spiritual death,
but physical death entered in. The ground even became cursed.
This is what God said to Adam. He said, Cursed is the ground
for your sake. He said, it's going to bring
forth thorns and briars. And He said, you're going to
eat it, all your bread, all your days in sorrow. There's going
to be trouble for you from here on out. You're going to eat it.
And He said, in the sweat of your face, You think, I wonder if, Adam
never sweated before. Now you're gonna, it's gonna
be toilsome, it's gonna be labor intensive, it's gonna be, it's
gonna be a burden on you. And until, it's gonna be that
way until your body dies, because it's dust, it was made from the
dust, it's just gonna go right back to the dust. The infirmities
of the flesh, disease and sickness. Have you been sick lately? There's
proof to you, you're a sinner. You're going to die too. You're
a sinner. That's the toiling, the labor,
the priors, the thorns. This is all the effects of the
curse of sin. Consider how sad this is. God
saw everything he made and behold, it was very good. Man included. He made man upright. Then listen
to this, in the days of Noah, he saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented
the Lord that he made man on the earth and grieved him at
his heart. That's the first thing it's going to have to do with.
It's going to have to do with you finding out what you are,
sin. The second thing it's going to
have to do with is this applying our heart to learn of God. And
when we finally come to some understanding and a fear of God
and a wisdom of God, it's going to have to do with knowing who
He is and how He saves. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he
heard this, holy, holy, holy. And the result was, he said,
woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips. When you see God and you find
out God is holy, holy, holy, that's when you're going to begin
to understand something of how wretchedly sinful you are. What's
He require? What's God require of you? God
requires for you to be as good as God is. That's what He requires
of you. That good. That holy. Purely perfect. Purely holy. Purely, absolutely pure in the
perfection of holiness. That's what God requires. And
you can't do that, brethren. I can't do that. I can't do that. Let me give you something here
to think about. This may be for some of you that
trust the Lord, believe Him, that have a problem with sanctification
and with holiness and those things. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, Of God
are you in Christ Jesus, and of God is Christ made unto us.
Sanctification. Simplest way I can say it is
it means separate and holy. He said, I sanctified myself.
He is separate from sinners, higher than sinners, above sinners.
As the man, Christ Jesus, the man, He is holy in this. He is the holy man. That's who
He is. And when God makes Christ's holiness
unto us, He makes us to believe, to trust, to count that Christ
Jesus really is our holiness with God. He is the perfection
of that holiness God demands. And the way we enter into that
is we're born of incorruptible seed recreated after the image
of God. We lost it, spiritually speaking,
when we were born of Adam. He had a son after his image.
We've got to be recreated after the image of God. And when his
holy seed enters in us, it says he creates us in righteousness
and true holiness. Everything God makes is good.
I don't see any good in me. I don't know anything. But I
know there's no good in my flesh. There's no good in what I am
by Adam. But I know this, whatever God has worked in me, if God
did it, it's good. Not because of me, because of
him. And this is how I enter into the fact that Christ really
is my holiness. It's true. He is. Now, what that
does is it separates me from unbelief to truth. You see, there's
a separation. It separates me from unbelief
to truth. It separates me from darkness to light. It separates
me from vain works to Christ in whom I'm complete. But if
I start looking at those ways in which I'm separated now, And
I start looking at those things that I do now that I used to
not do. And I start counting those things
as my holiness. I've missed it. I've missed it.
Because my separation is from thinking those kinds of thoughts
and thinking that vain way and thinking that there is some holiness
in what I do and who I am. And it's separated from that
into Christ who is my holiness. There's where we've got to be.
We've got to be brought to see that He is the Holy One. He is
the One God's pleased with. And when we behold that, that's
when we'll begin to see there's not any in me. And so following
after holiness, It's quite literally following after Christ the Lord. That's in Hebrews 12, and if
you read the first verse, it tells you, run the race set before
you. Looking where? To Christ Jesus,
the author and finisher of faith. Looking to Him, running after
Him, following after Him. If you follow after Him, you'll
follow after holiness. And no doubt about that. No doubt
about that. But if you start following after
you and your holiness, Oh, that's what we've got to be safe from,
brethren. Does that make any sense to you? I hope it does. All right. We've got to be brought
to see how holy He is. And here's something else. We've
got to be made to see God requires absolute satisfaction because
He is holy. I don't even know how to describe
the holiness of God. It's not an attribute, you know,
like like His omnipresence and His
omnipotence. It really is who God is. He is holy. He is love. Holy is what everything else
about Him is. His love is holy. His justice
is holy. His mercy is holy. It means it's
perfect, pure, right. Everything about it. And so that
very wholeness requires that he demands satisfaction. If he
goes save you and you're a sinner, he can't do that and just sweep
your sin under the rug and just pass it by. And you don't want
him to do that because if he did that, at any point he could
just pull it back out and say, okay, I just changed my mind.
We want an unchanging God. We want a holy God. We want a
God who requires satisfaction. We don't realize that's what
we want by nature, but that's what we want. We want a rock. I want a firm foundation. I've
had enough of shifting sand. I want a firm foundation. The
soul that sinneth shall die. He set out by no means clear
the guilty. He just won't do that. The wages of sin is death.
Either you will suffer the eternal wrath of God yourself or somebody
else will satisfy God on your behalf. One of the two. One of the two. There's a multitude
of sinners who've been chosen of God. They've been given to
Christ who shall and must be saved. And here's why they shall
and must be saved. Christ was made flesh for them.
Christ was made under the law for them. Christ was made sin
for them. Christ was made to bear their
stripes. Christ made satisfaction for them. Christ made them the
righteousness of God. And so by that very same Justice that very same holy justice
that demanded that sent him that he had that made him have to
come and do all those things Because he has done those things
that same holy justice that same holy Satisfaction God is wrong
is the friend Of those who trust him now because that same only
justice says You can't touch them You can't touch them You remember the first day at
school? I don't know if they may, probably don't do this now
that you have computers and stuff. I think they send it all to us
at home on a computer. But when I was in school, your
first day of school, first day of college, you went in and you
would go up to the classroom and there would be something
written there, all the names of whoever was in that class.
And you'd go to this one and look. And you always went to
the teacher you wanted first. And you looked and, well, it's
not there. And you went to the next one and looked, it's not
there. But you went and you looked, and you looked down that whole
list trying to see, is my name on that list? There it is. It's
there. It doesn't matter if you're the
best ball player. The pastor was here recently
and we were talking to him about how Will likes to play baseball
and how he's pretty good at baseball. And the pastor said, Will, I
hope you enjoy baseball and I hope you're extra good at it as far
as you can take it while you're playing here in town and at school
or whatever and that you don't get to take it any further than
that. And I hope that too. I hope that too. You know, So
what if you get all the degrees in the world? So what if you
get all the honors and all the medals? So what if you get all
the riches in the world? What shall it profit a man if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Here's the thing I'm asking.
As much as you've applied yourself to those things, That list, like
that list outside the teacher's classroom. Have you ever applied
your heart to truly see, seek, find out, beg God, ask God, beseech
Him to see if your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Have you? That's what we're going to have
to be made to see. God's holy and He requires absolute
satisfaction. Seek to find out. He satisfied
justice for somebody. He is holiness for somebody.
All those whose names were written in the book of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, the names of that Lamb, that
holy spotless Lamb that was slain, that satisfied justice, the names
have been there. They've been in indelible ink
from the very beginning in the very purpose of God that cannot
be changed. Have you even bothered to seek
and find out if your name's there? Just how am I going to find out? Cry after knowledge. Cry after
wisdom. Cry after God. Alright, here's
the third thing. This fear of God and this understanding
of the holy has to do with understanding judgment. Judgment is past. I thought you said, Clay, that
we're going to have to stand in judgment. We are. We are. But those who stand in Christ
by faith in Him were judged at Calvary. And their judgments
passed. Satisfaction's been made. And
they're going to stand in Him. Listen to this. The sting of
death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.
God giveth the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
purged the sin of His people. No sin. He won the victory over
death. No death. And through His Spirit,
He binds the strong man who kept us in bondage, running on that
treadmill of do and don't do, running on that treadmill of
seeking joy and comfort and peace in this world, running on that
treadmill of that never-ending labor and toil of trying to be
accepted and trying to be liked and trying to be loved and trying
to find some kind of peace of heart that never kept us in that
bondage through a fear of death and he comes and he finds that
strong man and he speaks life into us and this is what he says
to us. Look yonder, look, look, look
into heaven and just look there and with the eye of faith see
Christ Jesus the Lord seated on a glorious high throne, risen
from the dead. See the nail prints in His hands. See the nail prints in His feet.
See Him sitting there in glorified human flesh, just like you are. See Him sitting there. See God
the Father pleased with Him. See God the Father showering
Him with praise and honor because He's well pleased for His righteousness
sake, for His holiness sake, for making satisfaction, for
doing that which God gave Him to do from before the foundation
of the world for a people God gave Him from before the foundation
of the world. See Him there! See Him there! And now look and
see yourself seated right there with Him. And that same gracious
smile from God, that same well-pleasing look from God being cast upon
you because you're in it. Can you see that? How would to
God you could see that? Herein is our love made perfect.
This is how love is made perfect, grown into maturity and perfect,
that we might have boldness, not arrogancy, not pride, liberty,
right, privilege, boldness in the day of judgment. when you
die and come before God in that day. Here's our love right now.
Herein is that love made perfect. Here is that boldness that we
have looking forward to that day so that we're not fearful
of it now. We're looking forward to that day. Here it is. You
ready? As He is, can you see Him? As He is, so are we in this world. right now. Every believer, every
saint called of God into Christ Jesus, given faith to see that
glorious sight of that glorious high throne, just what you see
Him, every way you see Him right now is exactly how you are right
now. He shall not fail. Every sinner
that He came to save shall be saved. The purpose of God will
not be frustrated. It cannot be frustrated. The
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be counted a failure.
The fear of God, the understanding of God, the understanding of
the Holy is going to begin by finding out sin is what I am. And it's going to begin when
you find out, but Christ is my righteousness. And it brings you to rejoice.
that my judgment has been accomplished in my substitute. Now, in the last few minutes
we have, I want to get right down to particulars with you.
Right down here to just minute details now. All right? Listen
to me. Listen to me now. This is just
as important. You ready? Start today. Applying your heart to wisdom. Today. Remember now thy creator
in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not or the
years draw nigh when thou shouldst say I have no pleasure in them.
You think about it, most everything that you have joy right now by
nature, everything brings you joy. As your flesh fails, so
that joy will fail. And if all you have is the joy
of your flesh, your natural eyesight, when it's darkened, your arms
and your hands and your feet, when they begin to tremor, when,
John, you can't ride a kneeboard anymore. When David, you can't
kick a soccer ball anymore. When AJ, you can't even go and
see a movie or hear what's being said in the movie anymore. When
all that's gone, when your back's bent, and you're bent over and
you're so weak that the high places scare you and you can't
hear and your teeth are going, you can't even enjoy that precious
food that you love so much. Those delicacies that you love
to feast on. Nothing that ever brought you
joy, it's all gone now. Now where's your joy? It's gone.
Oh, preacher, I got a long time to think about that. What if
the silver cord be loose or the golden ball be broken? I had
a friend in high school, you know, one lick I'm fixin' to
scare you, Christine. One lick and football, it paralyzed
him. Then all those faculties are
gone, and all that joy's gone with it. Now where's your joy? I heard an old man say this to
me one time when I was younger, and I thought, I'll do that. When I have a convenient season,
I'll do that. When I get a little older, I'll do that. Majority
of the time, Those that don't seek the Lord when they're younger
don't do it in their latter years, the majority of the time. Today, now, is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.
Remember now, thy Creator. Start today. Here's the second
thing. What tools do I need? What resources
do I need to start seeking Him today? What am I going to need? Get alone with you and a Bible. maybe a concordance so you can
look up some scripture, look up some thoughts you have and
find where they are in the Bible and read about them. But sit
down with you in the Bible and start reading that Bible and
ask God to give you an understanding of what you're reading. I'm here
today sent to you just like Philip was sent to the Ethiopian eunuch
out on the road. And he said, do you understand
what you're reading? Oh, to find somebody that answer
like that eunuch did. How can I except some man teach
me? I'm here right now teaching you
like Philip is sent to teach you. Now take these words you've
heard. Take this precious treasure you've
heard and by God's grace, him blessing this word, go home and
find a place with you and that Bible and God. And I ask God
to show it. I find myself thinking of this
all the time when I'm preparing for a year. I get to reading
all these commentaries. You know this, Nathan. You get
to looking at all these other resources and all this other
stuff. And it comes to me and I realize, what am I doing? This
is the word of my God and I've got access to it. What am I looking
at all these other sources for? Why am I not just saying, Lord,
what do you mean in this verse right here? What do you mean
right here? Teach, show me, show me the glory
in this verse in the face of Christ. And in my case, I'm saying
show it to me and show me how to give it to the people because
it's just what they need for this hour. But you, This is the
glorious good news of this gospel. Those that come to God through
faith in Christ have access. They have access. And you listen
carefully to me now to this too. Don't be ashamed. This is the
third thing. Do it today. Don't stop doing
it. Start today. Get alone and start
applying your heart to find out who God is. And here's the third
thing. Don't be ashamed. of asking honest
questions. There's some people that ask
questions, and just in the spirit that they ask them, I would just,
ooh, I'd love for them to quit asking questions. But anybody
that asks questions honestly, that are seeking the Lord, with
a broken and a contrite spirit, you realize asking God to teach
us means that we're coming to Him without the answer. That's
the purpose of it. Asking Him is coming without
the answer. Needing to be filled means we're
coming empty. A broken and a contrite heart
that comes needy. God won't despise that. And I
guarantee you none of these brethren will despise that. And your pastor
will delight in nothing more than to get a call from David
Santa Maria saying, Can me and you go hang out today at the
ballpark or whatever? I got some questions I want to
ask you about the scriptures. Man, I'm going to tell you something. My door would open immediately
and we would do that. That's what I want. That's what
I want. I'll tell you some of the most
precious time in my life. My pastor lived just right across
a big field from me. And when this gospel became,
I began to find myself actually desiring to know what these scriptures
mean, what to know about God. I remember loving to call him
up and him saying, come on. And I'd go over there and we'd
sit out, he had a big garden. And we would just sit out there
by that garden, and the world passing us by on the highway,
and me and him just out back there by that garden where it's
quiet, and he would sit there, and I would say, what is this? Just an honest question. I didn't
know the answer. And he would just open up the
scriptures and say, and just start reading the scriptures
to me. And he'd ask me, now see who it is doing it? He'd always
begin with God. He'd always begin by pointing
me to Christ immediately. He'd always begin with words
like grace and mercy. He'd always begin where God begins,
with God. And then he would start showing
me what God has done, what God is doing. He would talk about
the works of God, and he would show me those things. But I've
cherished those times. Some of the other times I've
cherished was a friend of mine, when I lived in Franklin, Tennessee,
got up to where he's about 13 or 14 or 15, and he got kind
of cocky, and nobody else wanted to be around him. And he was
kind of tough to be around, I'll be honest with you. He was a
nuisance. But he began to call me. and say, you want to go fishing
tonight? And we'd go down to this lake
down from my house and we'd go down there in the middle of the
night and go fishing. Throw out a line and just sit there and
fish. But he wasn't coming to me wanting
to fish. He had some questions and he'd start asking me. You
know when the scripture talks about God chose a people before
the foundation of the world? Why did he do that? That is a
good question. Good question. Honest question.
And those are cherished times to me. When I was being taught
and when the Lord used me to teach others, don't ever be ashamed
to ask an honest question about this gospel. I don't ever want
to come across to you as knowing so much and being so lifted up
in knowledge and being so able to dissect this and that, that
to where it just intimidates you to where you say, I don't
want to even ask him a question. I don't know everything, and
there'll be a lot of times that you might ask me or any of these
brethren, and we just have to tell you, we don't know. I don't know. I'm still learning
that myself. But here's the fourth thing.
And if you find yourself believing Him, If you find yourself truly
beholding what you are and beholding that the righteousness God demands
is Christ Jesus, the Lord our righteousness, and that you behold
your judgment is passed in Him and that you're complete in Him.
If you find yourself believing, confess Him. Confess Him. Call me up. Say, I'd like to
be baptized. Somebody asked me the other day,
well, how long does it take for you to examine somebody and all
this for them to be baptized and to know if they really are
a believer and discern all this? I'll tell you this, it takes
me exactly as long as it did Philip on that road with that
eunuch. What hinders me to be baptized?
Do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ? I do. Let's get in the
water. I don't know your heart, and
I can't discern it. You might answer all the questions,
jump through all the hoops, and walk away proud as you can be.
And as Brother Scott read back in the middle, you may be very
near the kingdom of God, but missed it. But without doubtful
disputation, if you say, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll
receive you right then. my thing. And if you're his,
you'll continue. And if you're not, it don't matter
if if I gave you enough questions to you pastor enough to get a
PhD, it won't do any good, you'll leave, go somewhere else or find
a place where the pamper your ears to your ear. But when you find that, and that
that this understanding is calm. All that burden, all that trial,
all that heavy heavy, heavy sorrow that's just with you always.
No matter what you're doing, it just is that you have it.
You have that knowing thing that knows that something is still
missing. This is how the songwriter put
it. My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not
in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross. And I bear it no
more. Praise the Lord. Praise. The Lord. It is well with my
soul. And if that be your story. We
can gather around that Memorial Day. And we can rejoice. And say. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord
as well with his soul. Amen.