It's good to be back here. I've
always loved the people in this church. Maurice and I go back
a long, long ways. And one of our elders in the
church, before I took pastorate, called Maurice and asked him
about me. And Maurice said, well, if you
don't want him, we'll take him. I really appreciate that. I invite
you this evening to turn with me to the book of the revelation. Have you ever noticed the title
of that? I hear so many people talk about
revelations. That's not what it says. It says
the revelation. And it's both the revelation
of Saint John, the divine, And it's also, if you look at the
first sentence of verse one, it's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. No saint has anything to say
apart from Christ. Revelation begins with Christ. Revelation ends with Christ. Christ is all. He's all. My message, and I pray God's
message for you, consists of one word, blessed. There's not a word in English
language, or any other language for that matter, that describes
the believer more accurately than this, blessed. You know, we tend to lose sight
of these things when all of the things that are going on in your
life, you have personal things going on, and in the country
we have things going on, and in the community we have things
going on, and it tends to make us look away from these things.
But I don't care what's going on. The believer, it doesn't
affect him. He's blessed. He's blessed. You know, Job's wife come out,
and there he was. He was covered with boils. He
lost everything he had. He lost his family, his children.
He lost everything. And he was sitting there in the
ashes with a piece of glass, scraping the scabs off of his
boils. And his friends were talking
down to him. And then his wife come out and said, why don't
you just curse God and die? You know what Job said? You talk
like one of the foolish ones. He said, naked came I into the
world, naked I'll be. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I'm blessed. I'm blessed. Nothing can touch the blessings
of God on the believer. We're blessed. Blessed. And we need to think about that
24-7. We need our eyes turned to this. And this is what this book of
Revelation is all about. It's telling you How blessed
you are. What separates us from the world?
What makes our hope any better than theirs? Why can I sit and
rejoice in my loved one's death and everybody else's mourning
and brokenhearted? And you might say several things.
God's eternal, free, and sovereign grace, and you'd be right about
that. or the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and certainly you'd
be right about that. The mercy of God, the spirit
of God, the gospel of God, but when this list is all boiled
down, here's what it comes to, blessed. Blessed. The Lord blessed me, that's why
I'm not like them. You've not chosen me, our Lord
said, I've chosen you. I've chosen you. You're blessed.
You're blessed. Listen to this, Ephesians 1.3.
Just hold your place there in Revelation 1. He said in Ephesians
1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath blessed us. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about believers. He's talking about his elect.
He's talking about his own, his church. He hath blessed us, now
listen, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
That was before there was a universe. That was before there was any
stars in the sky or on earth or man to walk upon it. That
was before the fall. That was before all things. God
chose a people. And Paul said, they're blessed. Who blessed them? The blessed
one. James knew that. He opened his
address to the people with that. He said, every good gift and
every perfect gift cometh down from above, comes down from the
Father of lights with him, no variableness, neither shadow
of turning. He blessed us. If you have a gift from God,
you're blessed. If you can read this book and
understand it, you're blessed. If you can rejoice when the gospel's
preached, you're blessed. Most of them sit there like this
when you're preaching. I had one of my cousins came
to me up there, and Frank Tate was about to stand up and preach
the message, and she said, I've got to leave. She said, I don't
like this part. And I was thinking to myself,
I bet you don't. I bet you don't. But one day
you'll wish you'd sit and listen. One day you will. Every blessing,
every favor, every good and perfect gift, things you see and things
you can't see, things you understand and things you can't understand.
Little things, everyday things, monumental things, things that
defy explanation. Christ being made sin. I can't
explain that. You can't explain it. Nobody
is. God's a trinity. Can you explain that? God spoke
this universe into existence out of nothing. Can you explain
that? He blesses us with things that
defy explanation, things contrary to human logic. We're blessed.
Who's blessed? All those that believe. They're
blessed, blessed. The revelation of John begins
with these words, the revelation of Jesus Christ, and truly he
is the medium, the mediator, the conduit, if you will, by
which the Father has blessed us. And were it not for him,
as it is to this unbelieving world, even those things called
blessings would be a curse. They'd be a curse. Boy, we see
somebody with money say, man, Lord blessed him. Not necessarily,
not necessarily. Like the rain, our Lord said
the rain falls on the just and the unjust. To one, it's truly
a blessing. You ever think about Judas? Lord
provided everything that man needed. When the 11 ate, he ate. When the 11 drank, he drank.
When the Lord taught, he taught everyone else. To the 11, it was a blessing. It was a blessing. So what I want us to do this
evening is to look at six passages here in the book of Revelation,
the revelation of Jesus Christ, that points out these blessings. So first of all, let's look at
the blessing of the revelation itself. Revelation 1 and verse
3. Blessed is he that readeth, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Now most
of the writers speak of the blessing received by reading and hearing
the words of the prophecy as simply that. If you read these
things, it'll be a blessing to you. The Lord will bless you
if you read these things. And I'm not opposed to that at
all. You ought to receive a blessing when you read the Word of God.
I'm not opposed to that. But the person who reads this
book or hears it read or taught, is blessed already, or he couldn't
hear it. He's blessed already, or he wouldn't
want to read it. I grew up with a Bible, but I
never opened one. Never opened one for 20 years.
It sat right there on the table. It was in my dad's hand. It was
on the kitchen. Everybody had a Bible. I went
to school, and back then, they gave you a New Testament when
you went to school. I had the Bible in my hand most
of my life, but I never opened it and never read it. I didn't
want to. I didn't want to. We're blessed in that this book
was, and think about this, this book is not just a book at large. It's not just a book of books. This book, Larry, was written
for you. You ever think about that? God
wrote this book for his children. It has no meaning to anybody
else. It has no value to anybody else. It's not a foundation to
anybody else. He wrote this book for his children. He calls it the children's bread. The children's bread was written,
Paul said, for our learning. that we through patience and
comfort of scriptures might have hope. And then Paul said all
scriptures given by inspiration of God are profitable for doctrine,
reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness that the man
of God, the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto
all good works. And the Bible is the father's
will to his children. It's the Father's will to his
heirs. Listen to this. Paul said, I
have not seen or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
mankind the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him. But God hath revealed them unto us. Why me? Thousands, hundreds of
thousands, smarter than I am, able, gifted, able to figure
things out, scientific things, invent things, smart men, intellectual
men, men of high station and high learning. Why me? Why? Because he would. Because
he would. It's in his will. In his will. Words are read and Heard by all
men, but they only bless his own. How precious are the words
of God when a person realizes that they were written to him.
Oh, my touch. You mean that scripture that
says, I go to prepare a place for you. He's talking about me. He wrote that for me. And if
I go to prepare a place for you, I'll come again. And I'll receive
you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be. You mean he's
writing after me? Oh, my soul, I tell you what,
when you realize what this book is, it's the Father's will. And it's personally written to
his children. And then think about this. Why
would you even be interested enough to read the scriptures?
Who gave you that desire? Who made you willy? Who created
the appetite? I told our folks, I said, now,
I'm not looking to preach a message and see people just fall on the
floor or run up front or broken. I'm not looking for that. Here's
what I'm looking for, the appetite that brings them back. I'm looking
for an appetite. If God doesn't work in you, he's
gonna put an appetite in you to hear his gospel, and you could
no more not hear it than you could fly. You're gonna hear
it. If there's any way possible to
hear it, I'm gonna hear it. Truly, God's children are blessed
before ever they do anything. And it's those precious blessings wherein he's prepared the means. The means. I never knew there
were means. The Lord hath devised means to
recover his baptism. Means. What means? Providence. The preaching of
the gospel. The pouring out of his spirit
into this world. All means. All means. The drawing
power, oh, they murmured. He said he come down from heaven.
We know him. We know him. We saw him working
in his father's carpentry shop. We saw him crawling around here
on all fours. We know who this is. This is
Jesus. We know his brothers. Oh, my son. And then he said, not only are
you blessed to read these things and hear these things, but to
keep these things. We didn't just read and hear,
but we retain what we hear. We hang on to it. We don't throw
it down. We don't say, well, that was
good, but I'll hear you again, like over on Mars Hill, we'll
hear you again at a convenience center. No, you hear these things. You know, the Lord just kind
of faded out of their presence, and they got back to the place
where they were all at, and they said, oh, didn't our hearts burn
within us as he opened the scriptures? Huh? Don't you say that sometimes
when you hear the gospel and go home? Oh, how precious was
that? The Lord spoke to me through
his word. How precious is that? We keep these things. So that's
the first thing I mentioned, the reading and hearing of the
word of God. And then secondly, turn with me to Revelation 14.
Revelation chapter 14 and verse 13. He said, and I heard a voice
from heaven saying unto me, write. Now this voice of heaven, this
is spiritually inspired. This is the word of God that
he's about to write. And he said, you write this,
blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. How precious was this verse to
me when I looked at that cold, dead body of my wife laying in
that coffin. How precious it was. I tell you, it ripped my heart
out. But I looked down there, and the thought on my mind was
where she was, who she was with, how happy she must be. She now
has everything that I've earned. She's blessed. Blessed. Do I miss her? You bet. You bet. But I wouldn't want to come back,
and she wouldn't want to come back. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. How precious this was to me when
I looked at the face of my father laying silent in his coffin, and my sister last Saturday lying
in hers. How precious this verse was.
Believers are blessed even in death. Paul said, for me to live
is Christ. But now what's this? To die is
gain. That's even better. That's even
better. Now I'm not just gonna hear him
or read about him, I'm gonna see him, I'm gonna be with him.
To die is gain. They're blessed even in death.
Listen to this, Psalm 116, 15. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. Hard to believe, ain't it? Think
about the Lord of Glory, my soul. Angels cover their face in his
presence. He's the Lord of Glory. He's
the creator of the universe. None higher than him. You're completing him who is
the head of all principality and power. He's king, lord of
lords, the blessed and only potentate. And he looks down on me, and
I'm precious. I can't imagine. I just can't.
I just can't. I can't get over it. I don't
want to get over it. I want to be filled with wonder.
and think about things like that. He looks on me, and even my death
is set, fixed. Even the means of my death is
fixed, and it's precious to him. It ought to be precious to me. Oh, I blessed even in death. And he's precious. We're precious
to him because he loves us. He loves us. He's precious because
it comes to us as a blessing. Precious because in it their
last enemy is destroyed. Precious because their souls
go to be with the Lord. Blessed even in death because
it's mortal. This mortal one day will put
on immortality, and this corruptible gonna put on incorruption. But
we dread it like holy. You know why? Because we don't
think about it, that's why. Oh, blessed thought to be with
the Lord, knowing that with him shortly he's gonna raise these
vile bodies But we buried six feet under, he's gonna raise
these vile bodies and unite our souls to a perfect body. And we'll be with him forever. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth. Forever. How long is that? Forever and ever. Why? because they're gonna enter into
his rest completely. They're gonna rest from their
labors. Oh my son, they're gonna rest. Rest. And then thirdly, turn with me
to Revelation 16. Believers are so blessed, so
blessed. Revelation 16 verse 15. He said, behold, I come as a
thief, unexpected, silent, suddenly appearing. I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and may see his shame. There's a twofold blessing here.
And the first has to do with watching. The second has to do
with persevering in faith. Well, what is this watching all
about? Well, in 1 Thessalonians 1, we're given all kinds of evidences
of our election of God. Paul said, I know your election
of God. How do you know that, Paul? My gospel came not in word
only. It came in power and in the Holy
Ghost and with much assurance. And you become followers, he
said, of us and the Lord. I tell you, the only way you're
ever going to follow a pastor is to understand that this is
God's man for you. He's his servant for you. He's God's minister to you. And you'll follow him. You'll
follow him. You'll bow to him. You'll submit
to him. You'll follow him. That's what Paul said. I know
your legs. Nobody else is going to do this
but God's legs. They're going to submit to it.
And you're going to become an example, a perfect example of
the grace of God. Everything that happens to you
in this life is going to example God's grace. All the way through
your whole life. He's going to put you through
trials. You know what trials are. God said this faith is my
gift to you. This is my work in you. It's
not of you. It's not of work, lest any man
should boast. This is the gift of God. We're created, he said, unto
good works. What good work? Faith. That's
a good one. Love. Nobody else can do these
things. It's God working in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. He's working in you. He's doing these things in you. It's your faith, but you couldn't
believe apart from that. Now here's what God's going to
do. He's going to prove to you that this is his gift. And he's
going to pass you through trials. But they ain't going to destroy
your faith. They ain't going to destroy your faith.
Your faith's just going to come out more pure than it was when
it went in. Only thing that trial's going to do is burn away the
draughts. That's all it's going to do. Can't touch your faith. We're not of them who draw back
under perdition. We're of them who believe to
the saving of the soul. Why? Because it's God's work.
Isn't that what he told those Philippians? Paul said, here's
my confidence in this church. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it under the day of Jesus Christ. And
he gonna prove it to everybody in the world. Gonna prove it. How's he gonna do it? He's gonna
pass through the fire. The fire's gonna reveal it. And in verse 10 of that chapter
in 1 Thessalonians 1, the last evidence of election is that
they wait for God's son from heaven. They wait. They wait. They expect it, don't
you? I expect him to come. He can come tonight. Wouldn't
that be something? Boy, finish the message up and
say, damn, the Lord comes back. Oh, my, so. And that's just how
we ought to look for him. Don used to say, on the tiptoes
of faith. Looking for it. Expecting it.
Expecting it. And I know that after 2,000 years,
mankind laughs and makes fun of believers who are waiting
for the Lord's return. Peter and them was dealing with
it 50 years after he died. Bad to deal with it. And he warns
us about it in 2 Peter Chapter 3, verse 3, telling us that in
the last days, coppers are going to come, walking after their
own lusts, driven by their own desires and passions. And here's
what they're going to say. Where is the promise of his coming? Come on now. It's been 2,000
years. If he's coming, he'd already
come. That's what they're going to say. That's how they're going
to think. All things have continued the
same since the father fell asleep. They're just like they were in
the beginning. Nothing's changed. And all those who say that are
ignorant, Peter said, of the destruction of the antediluvian
world. He said, you've forgotten that
at one time, this whole world was standing in the water and
out of the water. And God said, I'm going to ground
every living thing. I'm going to wipe it out. I'm going to wipe them out. And
yet he waited 120 years before he did it. Saved eight souls
in an ark. And just as he said he would,
he destroyed it. And just as he said he would,
he's going to destroy this world. Will he do it in another year
or so? I don't know. He might wait another 2,000,
but he's going to do it. He's going to do it. What's going on? What's going on in this country?
What's going on in the world? It's utter chaos, isn't it? You look at it, and you don't
know who to believe. You don't know what channel to
watch. You don't know who to listen to, who not to listen
to. What's going on? I'll tell you
what's going on. He's calling out his elect. Yeah,
but I'm talking about with the nation. That's what I'm talking
about. He's calling out his elect. Do you think COVID hindered him
from calling out his elect? Do you think a president or a new
president or 10 presidents from now are going to have any difference
in how he calls out his elect? There is no power but of God.
He puts them in office. He can take them out. He's on
the throne. He didn't step off the throne. He's not unaware of what's going
on. But we lose sight of what's going
on because we're looking down here and looking at this and
looking at that. We're not looking where we need to be looking.
He's calling out his elect. That's the only reason you're
here tonight as a believer still in this world. because God has
an elect people. And Peter, after he said this
to them, here's the very next thing he said, God is long-suffering
to usward, now listen to me, not willing that any should perish,
but that every one of them should be called to repentance. Every
one of them gonna repent. Every one of them gonna believe.
Every one of them gonna be with me in glory. It's sealed in my
blood. It's purposed in my purpose.
I'm the sovereign. I declare the end from the beginning.
And none can stay my hand or even ask me what I'm doing. Do I need to go crawl in the
hole? No. I need to keep right on doing
what I'm doing. Let's do what I'm doing. What is an absolute curse upon
this world is a blessing to us. I tell you, we was talking a
while ago, I was talking to Larry about Daniel and the three Hebrew children,
and here comes Nebuchadnezzar down, whom God called his servant. He come down, wiped Jerusalem
out, tore the temple down, desecrated everything, gathered up all the
precious ornaments, and took them with him back up to Babylon. And don't you imagine those men
were disturbed? But God spoke to them. And he
said, I'm not hindered. Nebuchadnezzar's my servant.
I'm doing what I want to do, what I know is right to do. And
that's what I'm doing. chill out. And they did. And the Lord in his providence
raised them up, made them the leaders in this revolt, if you
will, made them leaders. They had a great influence and
blessing upon their own people because God caused them men to
raise them up in time. And then when they were tempted,
nothing hurt them. Threw them in the fire. Looked
in there, nothing going on. Didn't burn them up, throw Daniel
to the lions. He just laid down there on one
of them, spent the night. Nothing happened. Oh, my soul. And then he tells us this. Blessed
is that man that keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked
and see his shame. What are the believer's garments?
His righteousness. His righteousness. I have absolutely
nothing to cover my shame, but His righteousness. You remember
the story about David? His wife was looking out the
window, and here comes David, and he's dancing naked. He's
dancing naked, and they're celebrating. They've got the Ark of the Covenant,
and they're bringing it back, and David is dancing naked in
front of God. in front of the young servants
and the women there. And oh, his wife just going to
dress him down. Boy, when he come, he said, I'll
be more vile than that. He said, I'm worshiping God.
And God sees me as I am, naked. He sees my shame. But what you
can't see is my righteousness. I have a covering. I have a covering. That's the garments he's talking
about. He ain't talking about something that you can work up
or something that you can weave and put on like a fig tree apron,
fig leaf apron. He's talking about the righteousness
of Christ. Covers us. All he can see is
goodness. All he can see is perfection.
He chose us in Christ that we might be holy without blame. before him being loved, and that's
exactly what we are. Don't lose that garment. Cling
to that garment. Guard that garment. His righteousness. I've got nothing to cover my
shame but his righteousness, and all my righteousnesses, mine
are filthy rags. I don't need anything else. Paul
said, as you received him, go walk in him. Same way. Same way. Built up in him. Established
in him. He just keeps telling you, in
him, in him. All right. Turn with me to Revelation
chapter 20. Here's the fourth one. Revelation
20 verse six. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. On such, the second death hath
no power. But they're gonna be priests,
priests of God and of Christ, and reign with him for a thousand
years. Now, don't get all tied up in
a thousand years. That thousand years is representative
of the gospel age, from the appearance of Christ all the way to the
end. And he rhymes. Is there a time during that time
when he don't rhyme? He rhymes. And we rhyme with
him. We rhyme with him. Jesus Christ
came into this world as a representative man and as a substitute for chosen
sinners. When God chose his people, he
chose them and his sons. He chose us and he put us into
a covenant union with his Son. The Son of God, our Savior, and
all his elect are one. They're one. Listen to this. This is his high priestly prayer,
John 17, beginning with verse 19. The Lord said, for their
sakes, I sanctify myself. That's what it says in Hebrews
chapter 10, too. Sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also may be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these apostles alone, but for them which shall
believe on me through their word. Now listen to this. that they
all may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that
thou sent me. Amen. If you have any hope, any
hope before God tonight, this is the reason for it. He put
you in Christ. And I listen to men talk today,
and they talk about getting in Christ. They talk about winning
Christ. They talk about all these things.
Here's the way Paul writes it. First Corinthians, I think it's
chapter one, verse 30. Of him, talking about God, of
God, are you in Christ Jesus? How'd you get there? God put
you there. When did he do it? Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God, the same God that put you in Him, of God is made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All in Him. All in Him. When Jesus Christ died on the
cross, He died for the sins of those given to Him by the Father. Listen to the scripture. Who
shall lay anything to the charge, now listen, of God's elect. That's what we're talking about.
It's God that justified. Justified who? His elect. It's
Christ that died. Died for who? His elect. Yea,
rather it's risen again, seated at the right hand of God, making
intercession for you. You who? His elect. Huh? Now who's going to separate you
from my love? Huh? Nothing. Nothing. He said he was delivered, Paul
said, for our offenses raised again for our justification.
We have part in the first resurrection because God chose us in Christ
and made Christ our provision. so that when God raised him from
the dead, Ephesians 2.6, he raised us up together with him, and made us sit together with
him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's what it means to be in
union with Christ, seated with him in glory. I'm still here,
I'm still walking. So was Christ, but he was always
in the Father. And the Lord said, as I'm in
you, there in us. I'm down here walking around,
going through all kinds of trouble. I have to pray for forgiveness,
make mistakes, use ungodly logic sometimes, but I'm seated in
glory. I'm seated in glory in Him. We
have part in the first resurrection What saves men from eternal hell,
which is the second death, is their union with the Savior in
his life, and in his death, and in his resurrection, and in his
rise. We have part also in the first
resurrection by faith in Christ. All those raised up together
with him shall in the ages to come, Paul said. He said there's
a great big that, T-H-A-T, right after he talks about them being
seated in glory. That, in the ages to come, in
the ages to come, he's gonna show them the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus,
for by grace are you saved through faith. Blessed. We're blessed, blessed that we
have part in the first resurrection. And then fifthly, Revelation
22 said, I'm going to try to hurry. Revelation 22 said, behold, I
come quickly. Nothing's going to hinder me.
When my work is complete, when all my lips have been called
to myself, I'm coming. Nothing's going to hinder me.
I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book. Well, what in the world
are the sayings of the prophecy of this book? The revelation
of Jesus Christ. He just keeps telling us about
him over and over and over and over. He's talking about the
salvation of chosen sinners by the person and work of God's
dear son. And to keep the sayings of this
book is to believe on him and submit to his means and to his
ambassadors and to his word and to one another. He don't just, the believer don't
just adhere to these things or acknowledge these things or even
publicly defend these things, but he keeps them. He does them
and he rejoices in them. Long before I ever rejoiced in
the gospel, I saw some things in there, and boy, I was ready
to go to war with anybody that disagreed with me. You want to
argue about sovereignty, boys, come ahead. I'm ready. Just like
a boxer, I was ready to get in the ring and slug it out. And
then I found out what these things mean and how precious they were. And I began to rejoice in them.
I didn't want to argue. I wouldn't walk across the street
to argue. They're precious to me. This
is my life. This is my hope. I don't have
anything else. This is it. Being convinced of the truth
is one thing, but it's another to cherish these things. Unto
you, therefore, which believe, he precious. He precious. We keep these things, we hide
these things in our heart. And then secretly and lastly, Revelation 22, 14. Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and
may enter in through the gates into the city. I want you to
turn with me to John chapter one. Now this is the same one
who's writing the book of Revelation. He wrote the gospel of John. John chapter one, verse 10. He, that is Christ, was in the
world. He made the world, and now he's
in it. Can you imagine? The world was made by him, but
the world didn't know him. They knew him not. He came unto
his own, those that he gave this revelation to. He gave them the
prophets. He gave them the fathers. He
gave them the patriarchs. He gave them the law. He gave
them the temple, the tabernacle. all of these things that they
might know him and love him and cherish him, he came to his owner, who'd been reading these things
and listening to these things preached for a thousand years. He came unto his owner, but his
owner saved him not. They laughed him to scorn. As many as received him, some
did. Some did. Why did they? Why did these receive
him? What's this? As many as received
him, to them gave him power to become the sons of God. That's why they received him.
Even to them that believe on his name. These who were born,
not blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of somebody else's
will, but of God. He gave them right to enter into
the city. Oh, we were strangers, Paul said,
but now you're fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God. Why? He gave you the right and
privilege to become sons of God. Come on in the city. Come through
the gate. Come through the gate. That's
your house right down there. Right down there. Come on in. Every person chosen of God, redeemed
and made righteous in Christ, and called by the Spirit, shall
be enabled by new birth to do what nobody else on this earth
can do, believe. What must we do to work the works
of God? This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him with sin. You can't do that, but He can. and you can if he enables you.
God works him, both the will and to do of his good pleasure,
and God's purpose has provided the means, God's providence arranges
the time, and God's ambassadors preach to him, and the Holy Spirit
reveals it to him. To them, he gave the
right and privilege to become the sons of God. Let me say these things and I'll
close. This is a story I made up. I titled it The Great House of
Grace. Imagine yourselves to be born in deepest, darkest Outcast from society. Ignorant. Disconnected. No schools, no
churches, no hospitals, no grocery stores. You live in a thatched
hut with a dirt floor. When it rains, it leaks. When
it blows, it whistles through the sticks. Insects come and
go as they please. Biting flies, mosquitoes, bees,
and ants. Reptiles enter in with no resistance. Humidity is the same on the inside
as it is on the outside. Only thing the hut does is give
you a little shade, but you don't need shade at night. My house offers no protection
from my enemies, no protection from the predators that roam
in the junks. And to top all this off, it's
got to be built over and over and over. Everything you eat, you have
to hunt for or track. And you got to do all this with
a sharpened stick and a piece of stone. When day's over, you have to
do it again. Nothing ever changes. I'm just left there in my ignorance
to spend my days and labor and my nights Dancing around a fire
in my religious ignorance Worshipping frogs and snakes and such thing
No way out no hope of anything any better just the same old
curse day after day generation after generation But one day
a man comes into the village and he comes up to your little
hut And he said a rich man's son
heard about your plight. And he went to build you a house. And I'd like to take you and
show it to you. And so they come out. He takes
them by the hand. They journey quite a while. And all of a sudden, they come
out into this big open And there's the most beautiful waterfall
you ever laid your eyes on. And there's a mansion, an absolute
mansion, sitting right at the foot of this waterfall, nestled
back into the rocks of that mountain, big old fir trees all around, built out of granite and white
marble. has within it anything and everything
you could possibly want. Got a pantry large enough to
make provision from now on. The water's the purest water
on earth. Within the house are servants
whose whole life's existence is for no other reason than to
minister to you. A table set daily. with the finest
food. There's a pool of pure water
to bathe in, and a bed to lie in soft as gooses
down. And this house is like a fortress. No enemy can come in this house.
He sent guards all around it. And within its walls come the
most well-trained teachers in the world. And every day, I wake up, and
there's clean white linen laying there for my dress. Anybody want to go back to the
hut? I go to prepare a place for you. I know your fight, and I made
provision for you. And I'll be back. I'll be back.
I'll be back to get you. It's not the thought of everyone
in that house how blessed they are, or myself. You remember where I was, where
he found me? Thought everybody in their house,
oh, how blessed, how blessed. Do they all not gather at the
window and look for their son's retire? They've never seen him,
the one who built his house. They've never seen him. All they've done is heard, received
the benefits. But they look out that window.
He's coming back. Do they all not eat their bread
and drink their wine in remembrance of him? Is it not their joy and
privilege to tell every passerby, hey, hey, come over here. Let
me tell you how I got in this mansion. Let me tell you how
I got here. Let me tell you why I enjoy these
privileges. Just sit down there and let me
tell you. Let me tell you. And I'll tell you something else.
People in this house don't live the way they used to. Because
by their grace, they've been taught something better. You
read the book of Hebrews, that's the thing. Something better.
Something better. What are you trying to say, Preacher?
I'm trying to say they're blessed. Blessed. Blessed. That's my message
to you now. You're blessed. You're blessed. Think on that. Think on that.