Good evening, everyone. As you
remain sitting, let's begin by singing 299, day by day. 299. Day by day and with each passing
moment, strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my
Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond
all measure, ? Gives unto each day what he deems best ? Lovingly
is part of pain and pleasure ? Mingling toil with peace and
rest ? Every day the Lord himself is near me ? With a special mercy
for each hour Oh, my cares he feigned would bear and cheer
me, he whose name is counselor and power. The protection of
his child and treasure is a charge that on himself he laid. ? As thy days thy strength shall
be in measure ? ? This the pledge to me he made ? ? Help me then
in every tribulation ? ? So to trust thy promises, O Lord ?
? That I lose not faintest consolation ? ? Shown to me within thy holy
word ? ? Help me Lord when toil and trouble meeting ? ? Here
to take as from a father's hand ? ? One by one the days and moments
fleeting ? ? Till I reach the promised land ? Thank you. I would like to read from Hebrews
10, Hebrews 10, the first 18 verses. For the law having a shadow of
good things to come, and not the very image of the things
can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered, because that the worshipers once purged
should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices
there is a remembrance, again, made of sins every year, For
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering, thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared for me. In burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I,
lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God, above When he said, sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin that wouldest
not, neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law,
then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. and every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. For after that he had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in
their minds will I write them. And there are sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Our Heavenly Merciful Father,
we thank you where once again, Lord, you have allowed these
doors to be opened and where we can assemble together as a
local assembly. Father, we thank you for week
after week for this amazing opportunity. Lord, we stand here amazed at
your grace and your mercy and your long suffering towards us.
And Father, we thank you for also having our own pastor, Brother
Eric. And Lord, will you especially remember him this evening? He
has prepared a message. And oh Lord, will you go before
him this evening, pour out your grace and mercy upon him, that
he may delight in delivering this message to us. And Lord,
give us rest for our souls, increase our faith, and that our eyes
may be once again turned to our only hope, our only expectation,
the Lord Jesus Christ, Father, continue to be with Brother Eric
and Michelle. Continue to give them all that
they need, Lord, whether it's financially and also the strength
and the health. Continue to watch over them,
protect them, and be with all of us, Lord. You know also those
special circumstances we have with those that gather with us.
We think especially of Peggy and Brother Ronnie. Lord, remember
them and comfort them only as you can comfort and be with the
caregivers. Oh, Lord, you know also others
that are with us and struggle with their health. Lord, continue
to be with us that we may come and go and worship in this assembly
here. Lord, remember us into the unknown
future. And will you continue to watch
over us and allow us to assemble here? Continue, Lord, to provide
for us. And Lord, will you call out your
sheep? You know exactly where they are,
and you have the exact preacher in the exact location all the
time. And Father, have mercy upon us and our loved ones, our
children, our neighbors, our families, our relatives. Father,
call them out of nature's darkness into your marvelous light. For
Jesus' sake alone, amen. Let's sing 106. 106, tell me
the story. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus
sang as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest,
peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus, right
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Fasting alone in the desert,
tell of the days that are past. How for our sins he was tempted,
yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor,
tell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and afflicted,
homeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they
nailed him, writhing in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where
they laid him, tell how he liveth again. Love in that story so
tender, clearer than ever I see. Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
love paid the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Thank you. Good evening. Let's go to Isaiah 66. Isaiah
chapter 66, I'm gonna look at verses three and four. Our last message here, the Lord
taught the people with some questions, asking, where is the house that
ye build unto me? And where is the place of my
rest? The Lord was saying to these
people, to the Jews, the people who call themselves by His name,
who claim to be His people, He was saying to them that Christ,
His Christ, is the builder of His house, not them. And He was
saying to them that Christ has built the house and is building
the house, not them. They're not the ones who sustain
and keep God alive. And the Father tells us the one
in whom he rests. He tells us the one in whom he
has peace with his people. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where peace and rest and fellowship with the true and
living God is found. It's in his Christ. This, all
the work of God has been done. It has been completed. Christ
has established that covenant whereby God may be gracious and
just to his people and forgive them of their sins and to reveal
himself to them in fellowship, in life, in peace and joy everlasting. He has provided full, free satisfaction
through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the natural man
is so dead in sins that he can read the scriptures, he can come
and sit under the gospel word being preached, and he can agree
with it or give assent to it, and then turn right around and
go out working for his salvation, for his righteousness, trying
to please God, thinking that he pleases God by the things
that he does, showing that he doesn't understand. He has no
knowledge and no understanding of what he has just heard. He's
like James who says, you've looked in the mirror. You looked in
the law as a man who looks in the mirror and you immediately
go away forgetting what you saw. The law shows us that we are
sinners in need of salvation and His word declares the salvation
that God has freely provided. So our text in verses 3 and 4
is a continuation of the rebuke which God gives to the natural
man regarding his spiritual house, regarding how the will of God
is accomplished in the earth. The words that the Lord uses
to describe the works, the sacrifices of man and what he does, these
are works which are an abomination. We know from the scriptures that
these things are abominable things to God and God is likening the
works that man does to what is an abomination. And that means
that God hates those things. He's not pleased with those works
of man. He's utterly disgusted by the
works of man. Isaiah, the prophet, said, all
our righteousnesses, our righteousnesses, our religious works, the things
that we think please God, all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. They're filthy rags. They're
filthy works in God's sight. And so, anyone who refuses to
come to God and worship Him in Christ is going to stand in their
own sins, because it's through the Lord Jesus Christ alone that
we have fellowship with God. And to come outside of Christ,
we'll stand in our own works and be cut off from God and be
brought into everlasting ruin. That doesn't mean that there
outwardly as sinful in appearance as they could be, they may be
very, very religious. Just as the men were who crucified
Christ, they were very religious. They had a good show. They were
as whited supplicants, whitewashed supplicants. On the outside,
they appeared to be Wonderful. They appear to be clean. They
appear to be godly men, but inside Christ said you're full of dead
men's bones. There's nothing but deadness
in man. That's how we are in the natural
man. We may be devoted to our worship,
devoted to our rituals and our sacrifices that we make to God
and think that God is pleased, but if the things that we do
come by any other means than Christ alone, and faith in Christ
alone, they are abominable works. We might as well be bowing down
to a stump and worshiping a rock out in the backyard. Paul said
it this way to the Galatians, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you, then that ye have received, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. If it's
not spoken according to this Word, it's because there's no
light in them. And the Spirit gives light and
understanding in the Word of God to understand what the Lord
is saying. Now, most of the Jews, this This
prophecy definitely has an eye toward the Jews in Christ's day
who heard him speak and rejected him. Some rejected him outright,
some rejected him partially, still adhering to the law, calling
him the Christ but adhering to the law. And so they continued
in their religious practices. They rejected him. They didn't
worship him alone, they didn't worship God alone in Christ,
and they continued their religious practices under the old covenant
works of the law until God destroyed Jerusalem, and did so by the
very thing that they feared. The Jews were recorded by John
as saying, if we let Christ, this Jesus of Nazareth alone,
this Jesus of Nazareth alone, all men will believe on him and
the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And God did that. He brought
the very thing that they feared upon them and brought them to
utter desolation. The Son of God said, behold,
your house is left unto you desolate. That house that you think is
the house of God that you're laboring to build, your house
is left unto you desolate, meaning it has not a living soul in it. And you think about that, that
means that that religion, the religion of the Jews, they're
not brethren, they have not a living soul in that religion because
they've rejected Christ, they've denied Him, they have no part
in Him. And so their house is desolate,
no living thing, no living thing. Now our text today is not only
limited to the Jews in that day who refused Christ. It doesn't
matter how religious man is. Men today are just as religious
as they ever were. They're just as religious. They
worship the God of their imagination, and they're very devoted to Him.
And it doesn't matter how sincere we are, how consistent we are,
how devoted we are, how religious we are, if we will not come to
God through Jesus Christ, whom the Father has sent for this
very purpose, to save His people from their sins, if they will
not come through Christ alone, they shall perish in their sins. They will answer for their own
sins. Now, in verse 3, here's where
we see that God compares that religious devotion of man to
abominable things. He said, He that killeth an ox
is as if he slew a man. He that sacrificeth a lamb as
if he cut off a dog's neck. All right, he's saying that to
sacrifice an ox under the Old Testament law, that was an acceptable
thing. That was a proper thing to do.
It was outlined in the law. And the Lord is saying, when
a man does that now, after that Christ has come, my beloved darling
son, if he sacrifices an ox to me, it's as if he slew a man
and sacrificed him to me. It's murder. It's the same as
murdering a man. He that sacrifices a lamb. A lamb was acceptable under the
Old Testament, under the Old Covenant. But he's saying if
he does that, it's as if he's offering a dog's blood. And the
law actually says that the price of a dog shall not come into
the temple. and won't be received of the
Lord. He that offereth an oblation, he that took that cake of flour
and poured oil on it and frankincense upon it and offered it with that
meat offering, it's as if he offered swine's blood, pig's
blood, which we know the Lord forbade the Jews to eat under
the Old Testament and the blood of any animal was refused. They were not supposed to drink
the blood or eat the blood any animal and he that burneth incense
is as if he blessed an idol." All right, and men to this day
put together balls with a special mixture that they think is what
the Old Testament mixture was and they light that and they
burn it and swing it around in their temples and their They're
cathedrals and they think that this is some godly thing. And
the Lord's saying, it's idolatry. It's idolatry. You're just worshiping
and bowing down to idols in my sight. And he says, yea, they
have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their
abominations. So God calls them an abomination. They're just bowing down to false
gods, the gods of their own imaginations, their own devices, their own
inventions. They're making these things up
and saying that this is what I'm pleased with. And this is
why the Lord says in Proverbs 15, eight, the sacrifice of the
wicked is an abomination to the Lord. And so we see it wasn't
that they were offering the wrong things, it wasn't that they were
doing something wrong according to the law under the Old Testament,
it's that Christ had come. The salvation of God had come. The one whom all these things
in the law and in the Old Testament pictured and spoke of and pointed
to, that one, the blessed one, the chosen one of God had come
and they refused him. They would not hear him. They
would not repent. They wouldn't put aside their
works and believe the Lord Jesus Christ who preached that gospel
saying, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe
the gospel. Believe the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so they were, what they were doing was as an abomination to
the Lord because they refused to believe Christ and look to
him and hear him and they were not turned from their wicked
dead works. And so when Christ came, what
the Lord is teaching us is that when Christ came, the law under
the Old Testament, that law, that covenant of works was ended. It was ended for Christ had come. and fulfilled that law which
we ourselves could not fulfill, we could not keep, we could not
do it, we couldn't cross every T and dot every I and do everything
perfectly because our hearts were not right. We were dead
in trespasses and sins, we are dead in trespasses and sins,
but Christ came and fulfilled it all so that it's ended. The
believer, the child of God, no longer lives and labors and spends
and works under that covenant of works to try and make a righteousness
for themselves, which we couldn't do, for Christ has come and He
has established it and fulfilled it by His own work, His own obedience
to the Father, and by the sacrifice of Himself, He put away the sins
of His people and obtained eternal redemption for us who believe
and trust Him. And so what the Lord did was
that heart of the religious practicing Jews was manifest. And that God
sent Him, He declared the truth to them, Christ told them plainly,
taught them daily in the streets for three, over three years,
taught them the truth, shown that light of God. Declaring
it in the land working miracles doing things that only God himself
can do and through that their heart that they hated God was
Manifest in that they took the Christ the Son of God and crucified
him put him to death It shows it testifies what man is by nature
That's our own nature if God were to pass us by if God were
to walk by us like Esau and give us no blessing that would be
us laboring content happy in our dead filthy rag righteousness
that won't stand up in the day of judgment turn over to Romans
10 Romans 10 I'm just going to read verses 2 through 4 is where
Paul is speaking of his countrymen the Jews He's saying, I would that they
would hear this. Paul went and preached to the
Jews. He went to the synagogues in
other lands and he preached this gospel. And he said, I bear them
record. I'll give you my testimony here
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They have no spiritual knowledge. I want to read to you, give you
a sense of what he means by this in Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians
1, this is the knowledge that he's talking about. In verse
17, his prayer for the children of God is that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty
power. It's not of yourselves. It is
the gift of God that faith. That's what he's talking about
there Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead
and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places They
saw Christ and they didn't understand why he came, speaking the things
he spoke, testifying of the righteousness of God." Because as far as they
were concerned, they were doing righteousness. They were following
the law. They were doing the best that
they could under the law. But to you, whose eyes are enlightened,
you see, I see that my best works are filthy rags. I can't save
myself. I'm a sinner in need of a savior
and Christ is that very salvation whom God has provided in putting
him to death by his determinate counsel. They took him and put
him to death with wicked hands according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God and God raised him from the
dead. having put away accomplish that
that ransom that redemption that that putting away that purging
of the stain of your sins you that believe on him so that you
now have light and life and liberty in Christ and that's the knowledge
you know he's my savior that he is the very salvation of God
that's the knowledge God has revealed to you and he reveals
to all his people that's the knowledge they don't have They
are zealous for God, but not according to that saving knowledge
of Christ. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. That righteousness of God is
the obedience of Christ, His faithfulness, the faith of Christ,
the faithfulness, the obedience of Christ. For Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Don't look to the law for your
righteousness. Don't practice the law for your
righteousness. Because in God's sight, he says,
you're just worshiping an idol. You're doing abominable things
in my sight by coming to me with your filthy works in your hands
and saying, look what I've done for you, Lord. Because at that
very moment, you are rejecting, denying the sufficiency of my
blessed son. You're denying him, and you're
coming You're coming and saying that your works are better. Psalm
2 verse 12 says, kiss the son, lest he be angry and ye perish
from the way. When his wrath is kindled but
a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Don't turn from Romans 10. We're
going to come back to that in a moment. But men put on a show
of religion to impress men, and they mock God in it to satisfy
their own lusts. And because Christ is truth.
and the light of Christ shines upon our darkness. That word
comes and divides asunder between the spirit and just what we are,
what our thoughts are and our intents of the heart are. The
word comes and he shines a light in dark places, which is our
own heart by nature. What we are in this flesh, it
shines a light upon us and men hate the Lord for that. because
it shows that all our works are but a sham, and that all our
works don't gain us anything but the true and living God.
Christ said unto them, the Pharisees who loved their works and their
lives more, he said, ye are they which justify yourselves before
men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed
among men is abomination in the sight of God. Men love their
catechisms, men love their synods, men love their robes, men love
their knowledge of the scriptures and their hymns and the things
that they say and do and practice, and they trust those things and
their traditions and have no knowledge of what God has accomplished
in establishing and building His house in His darling Son,
Jesus Christ. And so they look to their works
and say, this is my righteousness. This is my justification with
God, and they don't even look to Christ, and they don't see
anything wrong with it. And so men go to great lengths
to appear religious and righteous, but it's empty vain works. Now
back in Romans, let's go to Romans 9. At the end of Romans 9, verse
30 through 33, This is part of what we read
in 10, but what comes before, he said, what shall we say then?
That the Gentiles, the Gentiles who had no knowledge of anything,
which followed not after righteousness, have attained to the righteousness,
to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel,
which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained
to the law of righteousness. Wherefore, how so? Because they
sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. for they stumble at that stumbling
stone as it is written behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and rock of offense and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. I was thinking about those verses
today this morning as I was preparing this message and Christ, we're
told in the scriptures, is the chief cornerstone. He is the
most important stone in the whole building. Without Him, the building
falls and collapses. And God took that most precious,
most important stone and He made it low. He put it on the ground. as though it was a common stone,
something of not great importance, but it was the most important
stone, but because it was set there on the ground in lowliness,
in humility. Men stumbled right over him and
fell, thinking, that's nothing. That's nothing. He's not important. He has no part here in the house
of God. We're important. We've got the
law. We're the ones holding men to
the fire and making sure it's done right and properly according
to the works of the law. And they stumbled right over
the most important stone in the whole building, the Lord Jesus
Christ. because they were too proud,
too arrogant, too vain to see it. And what a frightening thing
to think that we could be so caught up in our religion and
do it so well and better than anybody else, so well that we
think this is it, we've arrived. We have come to the pinnacle
and God is pleased with us. And it's such, it's frightening
to think that men could be so caught up so blinded by their
own works and their own deadness and their own sin, but that's
exactly what the Lord shows us in the scriptures. So that we
who do have this knowledge, Paul says, don't be puffed up, because
knowledge puffeth up, but love edifies. Don't be puffed up with
what you know, because a lot of people know a lot of things,
but they don't know Christ and they don't know God and they
don't know that what they're doing abomination even in as
religious as they are and so God blessed his people fully
in the Lord Jesus Christ he's blessed you who believe on him
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus he chose us in him he predestinated us to be born again in and by
the Lord Jesus Christ that we should glory in him and rejoice
in the work that he has done to receive that joy of the forgiveness
of sins, to see the Lord in all His glory, to see what we are
in ourselves and our sin, and then to receive, by the giving
of it, to receive that forgiveness, and to know that we are forgiven
and cleansed of our sins by Christ Himself, to know Him, to be made
a partaker of His glory, of His inheritance with Him, with the
saints and light, And so the Lord has given this all freely,
and giving us his son who gave himself to put away your sins,
though we didn't deserve it, though we're empty vessels, broken
vessels, nothing special, just clay pots made of the dirt. And
so the Lord did that because he loved us. He loved us according
to, and betrothed us to Himself because He loved us and the Father
gave us to Him. Now our Lord tells us in Isaiah
66 verse 2, back there at the end of verse 2, he told us, but
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, he's lowly,
I've put him low, so that men stumbled over him, that him that
is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word, so
that he obeyed the word of God. And if that's where the father's
looking, to His Son, and that's where He is well pleased in whom? In His Son. He delights in His
Son. If that's where the Father is
looking, shouldn't we also be looking to Him? If the Father
rests in Him, shouldn't we also rest in Him? If the Father is
well pleased in Him, why aren't we? Why isn't man well pleased
with the Son? We need to be looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ because he is the very righteousness of
God. And God's telling us, the scriptures
are telling us that we could sacrifice a thousand bowls and
it wouldn't remove one single stain of our sin. It wouldn't
relieve the debt burden from us at all. There's no such thing
as purgatory and praying for people to get out of purgatory
early. That's all a lie. That's just to get your money
and to entrap you in dead religion. Once you're in hell, you're in
hell. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. The table is set. God has provided everything.
Come to the Son. Now the Lord tells us what he's
going to do to those who refuse the Son and continue in their
works and continue on thinking they're pleasing God. Look at
Isaiah 66 verse four. He says, I also will choose their
delusions and will bring their fears upon them, because when
I called, none did answer. When I spake, they did not hear,
but they did evil before mine eyes and chose that in which
I delighted not. They set aside that stumbling
stone for dead works. For dead works God sent the gospel
throughout the earth. Christ came and preached it.
His apostles went out and spread this word at great cost to their
own selves and their own things. At great cost to them and this
gospel is still being proclaimed to this day. It's still going
out, there's still preachers preaching it. It goes out, it's
written and recorded in books and in tracts, and it's online. You can get it on the internet
in places that man's not allowed to go. from the outside, and
so that word is still able to get out there on tapes, CDs,
on the internet, downloaded on phones, smartphones, and other
things, but men love darkness. They love darkness, and they
stumble over Christ, therefore they will not obey the gospel.
They won't hear it, and they'll keep going on in their works,
putting Christ aside. And the Lord says, because you
refuse to hear and seek the God of truth, God's going to make
it so that men won't hear it. He's going to seal them up in
that. He says, oh, you don't want to hear it? I'll make it
so you definitely won't hear it. In Proverbs 1 verse 25 and
26 he said, Ye have sought, but ye have set at nought all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at
your calamity, and will mock when your fear cometh. And then
again in Proverbs 1 verse 30 and 31, they would none of my
counsel, they despised all my reproof, therefore shall they
eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their
own devices. And those devices are their inventions,
their religious ideas, their religious service and the works
that they do thinking this is their righteousness. God says,
I'll seal them up so that they are content and well pleased
with their ways and what they do. And so the Lord is very merciful. The Lord is very kind. He's gracious
to his people, blessing them, giving them light and life. But
this word goes forth. It goes out freely. And we hear
of the salvation that God has freely given in his son, Jesus
Christ. And he's telling us, if you continue
in your own works, trusting your own merits, despising, doubting,
dismissing Christ, God will seal you up in your own delusion.
It says in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 11 and 12, confirming what we've
heard, that for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now, I was going to read Luke
chapter 14, but you go home and you read Luke 14, verse 13 through
27. It's the Great Supper. Maybe we'll, I'll preach a message
on that, but you read that and you see how that man is so confident. He's so cocky, thinking that
he's already there. I'll just, in the beginning,
it just says, when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed,
the lame, the blind because they cannot repay you and that's that's
who the father calls the poor the maimed the lame and the blind
we are we are so poor that if you understand if you know christ
if you have that knowledge that blessed knowledge that that paul
wrote of to know that christ is all my righteousness Bless
God. Thank Him because He's the one
who made you to see the poverty of your own righteousness, to
make you poor, to know that your works cannot save you. He maimed
you. He maimed you by your sin, making
you to see that you're a sinner. He made you lame in your abilities
so that you were halted, unable to run and work that righteousness
that so many men work and are dead in their sins, and he's
the one who made you blind so that you didn't know the way,
so that when he brought that gospel, you heard that's the
Savior, and that's the Savior I need, the only salvation. Lord,
have mercy on me, like blind Bartimaeus cried out when he
heard Christ went by. God did that for you, making
you to see you're poor, maimed, lame, and blind. And those are
the ones who were brought to that great supper, that he's
prepared for his people in that great day. So bless him. Bless
him. Don't be turned away to the law
and thinking that you're all that, because we are not all
that. Christ is all that and everything to the believer. Christ
is all. And I pray he blessed that word.
And bless your hearts and comfort you in Christ. Amen. Let's go
to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your great mercy and kindness. Lord, we confess
that we are nothing. We so often think of ourselves
as something. But Lord, we thank you for humbling
us, for bringing us low, for graciously reminding us of our
need of Christ. To see in your word, how by nature
what fools we are, and what you've delivered your people from. Lord,
put us in that number with your people who have nothing to boast
in save the Lord Jesus Christ. He's plenty, he's everything,
Lord. Help us to see that always. Give us that knowledge that you
give to your people. to see and to know that Christ
is all the righteousness that you've given to your people,
how that you provided him, how that he gave his life, not because
he was a sinner, not because he was cursed, but because he
is the very Lamb of God sent of you to take away the sin of
the world. Lord, thank you for bringing
this blessed good news out to us in the farthest parts of the
world and causing us to hear, to see our need of Christ and
blessing us in him. Lord, as my brother prayed earlier,
we ask that you would bless your people, that you would establish
this work, that you would continue to feed your sheep and provide
for us. Let us see your hand and your
work and your power in it. Lord, we thank you for All of
the churches and brethren that pray for us and labor with us
and are partakers with us in this grace and this work that
you've established here, we thank you for them. We pray that you
would bless them and give back to them more than they've given
to us. And Lord, that you would indeed continue to feed and bless
and provide for your people. Stir up our hearts, let us always
be thankful to have the gospel that we not come into a dry,
barren time of famine, but that we would always have the blessed
gospel of Christ. Lord, we thank you for him, and
we ask that you would bless your people who are sick, those who
are sick with various ailments and very, very serious ailments,
Lord, that you would be merciful to them, that you would bless
them, strengthen them, Strengthen and bless Brother Scott, Brother
Ron, Peggy, and Johnny, and my aunt, and my mother, and Lord,
all the people that are struggling with various ailments, that you
would help them. Help us to minister the gospel
to them faithfully. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 386. All for Jesus, 386. ? All for Jesus, all for Jesus
? All my being's ransom powers ? All my thoughts and words and
doings ? All my days and all my hours All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
all my days and all my hours. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
all my days and all my hours. Let my hands perform his bidding. Let my feet run in his ways. Let my eyes see Jesus only. Let my lips speak forth his praise. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. Let my lips speak forth his praise. O for Jesus, O for Jesus, let
my lips speak forth his praise. Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus,
I've lost sight of all besides. So enchained my spirit's vision,
looking at the crucified. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
looking at the crucified. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
looking at the crucified. Oh, what wonder, how amazing,
Jesus, glorious King of Kings. Deigns to call me his beloved,
lets me rest beneath his wings. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
resting now beneath his wings. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
resting now beneath His wings. Thank you.