I want to thank the Lord for
this honor of filling in for Brother David. And I want you
to turn in your Bibles, if you will, to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. Brother Henry Mahan, many, many
years ago, back in the 1980s, told a story about a captain aboard a battleship
steaming out across the ocean, and he saw what he thought was
the lights of an oncoming ship. And he had his signalman signal
what he thought was a ship, that they were on a collision course,
and for that ship to change its course. When the signal came
back saying, change your course, And this kind of infuriated the
captain, and he said, I'm the captain of a battleship, and
I'm telling you to change your course. And the answer came back,
said, I'm a seaman, and this is a lighthouse, and you better
change your course. A lowly seaman. Now, I spent
some time in the Navy. A lowly seaman is pay grade E3. A captain, the next step up is
an admiral. That lowly seaman had the authority
to tell that captain he better change his course or else. God's preachers for the most
part are lowly, uneducated men. Fishermen, tax collectors, factory
workers, construction workers. And we have the honor, preaching
to those that the Lord will bring under our ministry, to tell the
congregation we're preaching to, you're on a collision course
with God's fiery wrath. You better change your course.
You better change your course or go out into eternity and spend
all eternity in torment. And here in Luke chapter 13,
starting at verse 1, we read, There were
present at that season some that told Him, that is Christ, of
the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them, suppose ye that these Galileans
were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things?
I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish. Or those 18 upon whom the tower
in Siloam fell and slew them, Think ye that they were sinners
above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay, but except ye
repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Now, I believe that those
that Pilate commanded to be killed, which is pointing to the death
of those who die under the hands of those who are in authority,
or those who died when that tower fell, which the people of the
world would call an accident, but there are no accidents with
God, that those who died, I believe, died in their sins and went to
eternal torment. And the reason I believe that,
the Lord said, except you repeat, you shall all likewise perish.
Now, God's children who have been called out of darkness into
this marvelous light, we have a blessed hope that when we go
through that doormark death, we're gonna be in the presence
of the King. So we won't die that way. Matter of fact, And
I was just telling my wife this a couple of days ago, that our
Lord tells us if we believe on Him, as He has set forth on the
pages of Holy Scripture, we'll never die. You all believe that? I believe that. God help my unbelief,
but I believe that. I don't want to say that I have
no fear of death right now standing before you. I don't think I do.
But I haven't been confronted with death face to face like
a lot of people are. So I don't know how I would react
at that last moment. But I pray that the Lord would
give me the grace to recognize that My day of departure has
been appointed by God Himself, and I will not leave this earth
and go through that doormarked death, not one second before
God has determined or one second after He has determined. But
this is what I rejoice in. I do know that when I'm delivered
from this body of death, I'm going to see Christ in all of
His glory, and I'll never, ever sin against Him ever again. What
a day to look forward to. Now the word repent means to
think differently. Our Lord, He said, except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish. Unless we have different
thoughts, unless God changes our way of thinking, Let me take
you over to Ephesians chapter 2, a very familiar passage of
scripture, but I want to point out something I think that you're
all acquainted with, but need to be reminded of. In our unregenerate
state, when we are without Christ, We cannot think differently. Let me say that again. When we're
without Christ, our thoughts are always going to be evil continually. We cannot change our thoughts. I don't care how religious we
are. I don't care how many days we spend thinking about the religious
group that we belong to, church affiliation or whatever it is,
our thoughts are still man-centered. We don't have thoughts about
God, we have thoughts about self. And that won't change unless
God himself changes us. He must do that. We must have
a new heart. God must give us a new heart
to think on the Lord Jesus. Now, I've probably mentioned
this before, but I'm going to share it with you again. Back
when the people of the Eastern countries started out West, they
were aboard wagons and big wagon trains, and they had a lot of
things that they could be afraid of. Plagues, Indians, storms. And one of the fears
that they had was a prairie fire. When it crossed the plains with
grass waist deep to Milton Howard, that grass, if it caught on fire
and the wind was blowing toward the wagon train, it could just
come up on them so fast that all would perish. So they sent
scouts out ahead of them. and watch for those kinds of
things. And if there was a fire coming,
the scout would ride back on his horse as fast as he could
and warn the people that a prairie fire was coming. So what they
would do, they would go behind the last wagon, start another
fire, and the wind was blowing away from the wagons, and they
would beat the fire down so it couldn't come back toward the
wagons, and that fire would consume all the grass, And then when
it cooled down, it didn't take long for a grass fire to cool
down, they would turn the wagons around and drive it out on that
burnt grass. And when the fire came to where
there was no more grass, it would burn itself out. So they would
be safe from that burning fire. Would you hear me, please? My
Lord Jesus hung there on that cross and he suffered the unmitigated
wrath of God's fiery hatred for sin. He suffered as my substitute. Now we're pilgrims and sojourners. This world is not our home. Abraham,
Isaac, And Jacob dwelt in tents. And like we heard in Sunday school,
they looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. This world's not my home. I'm
just passing through. I'm a sojourner on my way to
glory. And my trip in this world is
that trip which God allows me to walk on ground that has already
been burnt. I'm walking on burnt ground.
The fire of God's wrath cannot touch me. My Lord consumed it
all. And here in Ephesians chapter
2, we need to be reminded of something. Look at verse 12,
or verse 11 rather. Wherefore, remember that ye being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called a circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time ye were without Christ. We need to remember that. At that time when we were without
Christ, when we were dead in trespasses and sins, we didn't
have Christ in our heart. We were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. That word commonwealth has to
do with citizenship. We were aliens from the citizenship
of heavenly Jerusalem. We were strangers from the covenants
of promise. We didn't know anything about
God's covenant. We didn't know God was the covenant God. We
didn't know we were his covenant people. We didn't know that God
our Father promised us to Christ before the foundation of the
world. We didn't know that Jesus Christ came to this earth and
met all the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace for
his people. And we did not know that God
Himself sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying,
Abba, Father, and giving us an understanding of this very truth
that now we're citizens of heavenly Jerusalem on our way to glory. And at that time we had no hope. That's what it says in verse
12, having no hope. Let me just pause for a moment.
If we, in our natural state, when we were dead in trespasses
and sins, if we had no hope, and that's what this says, there's
no way possible that we could do anything that would merit
God's favor. If we could do something, if
baptism saves us, if belonging to a religious denomination is
our hope, If we think that God has bestowed his mercy upon us
because of our free will or our decision for Jesus, then we would
have some hope. But we had no hope. We were without
Christ and we were without God, having no hope and without God
in the world. And Christ is God. And if we're
without Christ, we're without God. We, in our unregenerate
state, are shaking our fist in God's face and saying, we will
not have Christ to reign over us. Let me tell you something.
He reigns over us anyway, whether we want to believe that or not.
And so we, in our unregenerate state, we're hopeless. But look what it says in verse
13. But now in Christ Jesus, Ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
And I say again, we're traveling through this world on burnt ground.
Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of God in
our room and in our stead. God cannot demand payment twice. at our Savior's hand and then
at ours. This is called substitution.
Our substitute took our sins upon himself. We read in the
scripture that he bore our sins in his own body on a tree and
God punished his darling son with his fiery wrath and he cannot
He cannot punish us if our faith is in the Christ of God. We've
already been punished. What a wonderful Savior. Hallelujah,
what a Savior. Now, I want you to go, if you
will, to 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2. Now, we can know some things
about God and still not know God. I know some things about,
President Washington, President Lincoln. I read about them in
the history books, but I don't know them. We don't know the
person sitting next to us. We know about them, but we can't
read their thoughts. We can be the son or the daughter
of President Biden, and still not know Him. We don't know what
He's thinking. You don't know what I'm thinking. I don't know
what you're thinking. We should be thankful for that.
We have to know God's thoughts. We have to know what He's thinking. And the only way we can change
our way of thinking is to have the Holy Spirit in our heart
to reveal the mind of God Himself. It's referred to in the scriptures
as the mind of Christ. And here in 1 Corinthians 2,
starting at verse nine, we read, as it is written, I have not
seen nor heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God
hath revealed them unto us by his spirit. Did you catch that?
God has revealed these things unto us by His Spirit, for the
Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. Then,
Paul, writing under divine inspiration, illustrates what I've just said.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of
man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. So, in our unregenerous state,
in our Conditioned when we were dead in trespasses and sins,
we need God himself, God the Holy Spirit, to enlighten our
minds to reveal the things of God. God is of one mind, who
can turn him? God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit is one glorious, majestic God. and we
need the Holy Spirit to reveal the things of God or we won't
ever change our way of thinking. It says in verse 12, now we have
received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is
of God that we might know the things that are freely given
to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual." So, God's preachers have the
honor of proclaiming the truths. We don't debate these truths.
We declare them, and that's what God does. He declares His Word,
and He declares His will, He declares His mind, and He's not
willing that any should perish, and He's referring to His elect
which He chose in Christ before the foundation of the world,
and none of them will. None of God's elect will perish,
for all were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ."
Now this gospel, which is referred to by many, including myself,
the doctrine of substitution is foolishness to the natural
man. We come into this world, and
when we're babes, when we're little babies, we're taught that
if we do good, we'll be rewarded. When our children or being potty
trained, oh, we'll do this. You just go potty on the pot.
We'll give you this. And when they get in school,
oh, if you get A's, we'll give you a dollar for each A that
you get. We taught our children that.
And as we grow older, we get into high school, we learn that
we'll be rewarded if we do well, so we push ourselves to do well.
When we get out of school or out of college and we go to work,
rewarded by promotion. So we're taught from a little
infant to an adult that doing good is rewarding. And, worldly speaking, it is. Our problem, we don't have any
good in us and we can't do good in the sight of God. There is
none that doeth good, no not one. We read that in the Holy
Word of God. We don't have any good. We can't please God with
the things that we do in our own regenerate state. Without
faith, it's absolutely impossible to please God. And God must give
us faith. Look at the 14th verse of this
second chapter of 1 Corinthians. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. And we heard already this morning
from Brother Larry Brown that This gospel is hated by the natural
man. He hates it. And he'll do anything
that he can to keep you from preaching the truth to him. He'll
clinch his fist. I've seen it. I was speaking
to a man years ago, and he had to listen to me. I was his foreman. And I was trying to express myself
to him as a sinner saved by the grace of God, and he didn't want
to hear it. And I kept talking to him, and
he went like this, don't talk to me about those things. He
did not want to hear it. And that's the way it was with
me before the Lord sent the Spirit of the Son into my heart. I didn't
want anything to do with religion, I told my wife, she went to church
before we got married, and I told her I would never stand in her
way if she wanted to go to church, if she wanted to take our children
to church. I said, but that's not for me. I want nothing to
do with that. And I was telling the truth until
God himself spoke to me, and he did this under the preaching
of his gospel. and revealed to me my need of
Christ. I saw myself as a hell-deserving,
undeserving, ill-deserving sinner who deserved nothing but God's
eternal wrath. And when the Holy Spirit revealed
that to me, that I needed Christ, He also revealed to me that Christ
is all I need. And that's what I'm sharing with
you this morning. Christ is what we need. We need Christ. We need
Him. Without Him, we are nothing and
we can do nothing. With Him, we're everything. We have everything. All the blessings
of God, everything that God has purposed for His people in glory
for all eternity is found in Christ and only in Christ. We
need Him. Go over to 1 Thessalonians 1,
if you will, please. 1 Thessalonians 1. And I'll use this for a closing
passage. Unregenerate men and women are
aliens from a commonwealth of Israel. But now we're citizens
of heavenly Jerusalem. We belong to God. We belong to
that city whose builder and maker is God, and that's the church.
And like I said earlier, this world's not my home. We're just
passing through. Now here in 1 Thessalonians 1,
In verses 4 and 5, we read where Paul, riding on a divine inspiration,
said, knowing, beloved, your election of God. Well, how did
he know that? How did Paul know that these saints, Thessalonica,
were God's elect. Well, he tells us in verse five,
for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in
power, and in a Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. The gospel
must come. We must preach the gospel. We
must tell our hearers that Jesus Christ is Jehovah God Almighty,
our creator. who condescended to come to this
earth and lay aside his glory for a little while and become
a man and walk in perfect obedience to God the Father's will, establishing
a perfect righteousness for us. And then he went to the cross.
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And by
his supreme sacrifice, he paid the sin, debt, and fool for all
of his chosen people. And then he came out of the grave,
he ascended to glory, and he sat down on his throne in glory
at the right hand of the majesty on high, representing a people
that he redeemed with his own blood. We must tell our hearers
this, this is the gospel. But the gospel must come in power
also. We can preach it, we can tell
you folks about Jesus Christ, who he is, but God must Take
the truths that we preach and make them effectual in the hearts
of those we have the honor of preaching to. Now let me illustrate
this from the scripture. You'll remember this. There were
four men who was a friend to a man who was
paralyzed. He was sick of the palsy. And
they brought him where Jesus was preaching. but they couldn't
get him into where Jesus was because the room was so crowded. People were standing by the door
in front of the windows. So they went up on the rooftop
and they tore a hole in that roof, not a little peak hole,
but a big hole, big enough to lower their friend who was paralyzed
down at the feet of Jesus Christ. Now they did a little, examining
to make sure that they got him where they wanted him. And the
Lord commended their faith. Not the faith of the man sick
of the palsy. He didn't have any, not yet.
But he commended the faith of those four men. And then he looked
at that man that was on that bed, paralyzed, and said, Son,
be of good cheer. Thy sins are forgiven thee. And
there were some scribes in that group who said, who does this
man think he is? Only God can forgive sins. Well,
he is God. He's Jehovah. Those men didn't
know it, but our Lord Jesus read their thoughts. He knew what
they were thinking. I was telling my wife just yesterday,
can you imagine a God so magnificent? He not only hears every word
that comes from every mouth of all the people on the face of
this earth, He reads all of their thoughts as well. We have six
children. Four of them, the last four were
pretty close. And I don't know how many times
I've had to tell him, now be quiet. Don't everybody speak
at once. I can't understand. You're confusing
me. But our God is so magnificent.
He knows everything. He knows the end from the beginning
because he planned the end from the beginning and everything
in between. He knows everything. He's magnificently
wonderful. And he knew those thoughts. And
he said, which is easier to say? pointing to the man sick of the
palsy. Thy sins are forgiven thee, or arise and take up your
bed and walk. And he said this. It was for
the benefit of that man sick of the palsy, those who were
true followers of Christ, and for me. I need this. He said, so that you know. that
the son of man, referring to himself, have power to forgive
sins, he turned to that man sick with a palsy and he said, arise,
take up thy bed and walk to thy house. Now here's what I want
to share with you from that. There was no response from that
impotent man when the Lord said, thy sins are forgiven thee. No
response. But when He said, arise, take
up thy bed and walk, immediately He arose. And what I'm saying
to you, the truth concerning God's forgiveness must be accompanied
by His sovereign power. We hear about God forgiving sins
for Christ's sake, and that's why He forgives sins, for Christ's
sake, not for anything we have done. But we need the power that
comes from God only to make that truth effectual in our hearts.
And God is the only one who can do that. And so these saints
at Thessalonica heard the truth when it was made known unto them
by the power of God himself. And they gathered on a regular
basis Worshiping the Lord Jesus in spirit and in truth. That's
what we're doing. If you read the book of Acts,
you'll see that God's people, his enlightened
saints, started meeting on Sunday so that they would not be identified
with those who would rather meet on Saturday, breaking away from
the Israelites who wanted to be under the law, we have them
with us today. People who think they've gained
favor with God by meeting on Saturday, and they don't even
know what the law states about meeting on Saturday. Brethren,
listen, Christ is our Sabbath. He's the one that we come together
to worship in spirit and in truth. And these saints at Thessalonica,
They had a testimony for the glory of Jesus Christ. And they
didn't have to say anything themselves. People from different churches
were talking about the faith of those people at Thessalonica. We have a pastor, Brother David
Edmondson, that brings the gospel before us. every time he stands
in this pulpit. God is broadening his horizon,
allowing him to go to other churches. They're hearing a gospel preacher
that represents God before this congregation here in Madisonville.
And the faith that God has given to the saints here is spoken
of by other churches. That's what this first chapter
is referring to about the saints of Thessalonica. And you know
what they were doing? We read in verse 10, not only
were they meeting on a regular basis, worshiping the Lord Jesus
Christ in spirit and in truth, They were waiting for His Son
from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. That's what He did. That's what
Christ did. He didn't go to the cross hoping
that He might do something that would enable His people to be
redeemed. He redeemed us. I need a Redeemer
that redeems, don't you? I need a Savior who saves. I need one who got the job done. And He did. He said, it is finished. And when He spoke those words,
all of that which is needful for those who were chosen in
Christ was accomplished by our Lord Jesus. And here we are,
meeting on a regular basis, worshiping Jesus Christ in spirit and in
truth. waiting for his son to come back
who delivered us from the wrath to come. Once again, we're walking
on burnt ground. God's fiery wrath cannot touch
one for whom Christ died. To believe that someone whom
Christ paid the redemption price in full for can be turned into
eternal torment is blasphemy. He will never, never allow one
of his chosen blood-bought children to be taken from him. To quote
Brother Henry Mahan again, we're as sure of heaven as if we're
already there. Rest in Christ. I don't know
where your heart is. I would like to believe that
everyone in this room has come to Christ by faith, but I don't
know that's true. So I'm sharing with you. Get
rid of any earthly prop. Throw that, discard those things
away from you as far as you possibly can. and hold on to Christ and
only to Christ. He's our only hope. It's Christ
in us, the hope of glory. And when this life is over, brethren,
we're going to be presented, to quote the words of Jude, faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Now, I don't
know, and Brother Don Fortner stated that the exceeding joy
is the joy that's in the heart of Christ in presenting us faultless. But it's also exceeding joy in
the heart of every enlightened child of God whose faith and
hope is in Christ when we are presented faultless, faultless. Without Christ, we're without
hope. We're without God. We're without
righteousness. We're without peace with God.
We're without spiritual joy. But with Christ, we're without
sin. We're without fault. We're without
blame. And we're going to be presented
faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And Jude said to the only wise
God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power. Right now, to God be the glory,
great things he hath done. Amen.