Well, it's sure been good to
get to know some of you. I've got brothers and sisters all
over this country that I haven't met yet. I'm thankful for the
opportunity of getting to privilege it. Honestly, we say that, but
it really is a privilege to to preach the Gospel first and foremost,
but to be asked to come somewhere to preach is an honor. It really is. I want us to turn
to the Old Testament book of Jeremiah 31. This is a very popular verse
of Scripture that many are familiar with, and men and women alike
Commit this verse to memory. Quote it often. Many even preach
from it while never seeing the gospel that's in it. It's just
another verse that modern day religion uses to promote the
heresy that God loves everybody and Christ died for all. careful
consideration of this verse. It's actually just quite the
opposite of that. It declares Christ's eternal
love, like we spoke about in the first hour, for His own and
those who the Father gave Him before the foundation of the
world. And the first thing we see here is God's divine intervention. His marvelous appearing. The
verse says, hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee." The only decision that's involved
in a sinner's salvation is the decision that God made to save
certain sinners. I, for years, trusted in a decision
that I made. I was told that God had cast
a vote for me, Satan had cast a vote against me, but the deciding
vote was in my hand. Well, that couldn't be further
from the truth. There is a decision involved
in salvation, but it wasn't mine. There was an acceptance involved
in salvation, but it wasn't my acceptance of Him. It was His
acceptance of me. God's divine intervention, what
a glorious, glorious thing to consider. Men and women are born
spiritually dead. Men and women are born spiritually
condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already. We're born condemned. Men and
women are spiritually lost until God divinely intervenes and gives
them life. You know that's so, shout of
God. This intervention is entirely dependent on the choice, the
will, and the purpose of God. This divine intervention is His
prerogative. And it's His glory. Who does He have mercy on? On
whomever He wills. He's God. He has the prerogative. Who does He have compassion on?
Whoever He determines to have compassion on. Who does He harden? Those that He simply leaves to
themselves. Oh my. Had the Lord not appeared
and revealed Himself to the sinner, the sinner would never have been
saved. Never. Men use language, as I mentioned
earlier, I found God, but we don't find God. No, He found
us. Notice the language of this verse.
I think about that impotent man that lay at the Pool of Bethesda.
He laid there 30 some years, or at least was in that lame
state. And the Lord Jesus came to that
Pool of Bethesda, and the Scriptures say He saw a certain man. Don't you like that word, certain?
It's a certain man. And he laid his eyes upon him
and he said, son, take up thy bed and walk. And immediately
strength was given to his legs and he arose and walked. The Lord found Bartimaeus by
the wayside begging. Bartimaeus didn't find the Lord.
The Lord found him. The Lord found Zacchaeus up a
tree. That's a good picture of where
I was spiritually when the Lord found me. I was up the tree in
religion. tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Believe this
one day and something else the next. Never looking into the
Word of God and seeing what God said and who God claimed to be
and who He portrayed me to be. The Lord found the woman by Jacob's
will. And notice that salvation concerns
two persons when it comes right down to it. In this verse, we
see that the two persons involved are the Lord and me. The Lord
and you. Salvation is a personal thing.
In the end, it all comes down to the Lord and me. One day I'm
going to stand before God, as I said earlier, to give an account
of the things done in this body. And it's going to be a thrice
holy God and me. Now, that's a terrifying thought
without knowing that Christ, my mediator, my advocate, will
be there with me. And I'll show you that in a moment. One day we're going to stand,
every man and woman, before the righteous judge and we're going
to give an account of our sin. And I'm telling you, all that
will matter then is whether or not the Lord hath appeared unto
me." Has He appeared unto me? Has He made Himself known to
me? Has He revealed Himself to me in mercy and grace? That's the only thing that would
be of importance then, that the Lord sovereignly, with divine
purpose, appeared unto me in love, mercy, and grace. And I suppose the most urgent
question asked in all the Scriptures, the Lord Himself asked it. And
He said, what think ye of Christ? Oh my, what think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? The most important and crucial
issue that we'll face in this life is that when everything
is said and done, it's Christ and Him crucified. That's it. When we strip off everything
else away, what do I think of Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Well, Jesus Christ is God. I remember years ago, Brother
Cody Gruber told me that there was a young Mexican girl in one
of the villages there that came up to him said, Brother Cody,
I want to be baptized. And he'd been a little concerned
about her age and not wanting to rush into it. Wanting to make
sure that she understood what she was doing. He asked her,
he said, Hon, why do you want to be baptized? And her answer
was, because I've seen that Jesus is God. And what a great answer. Jesus Christ is God. And God
in the flesh was crucified to pay your sin debt. Isn't that
an amazing thought? It took the blood of God, the
shedding of God's blood to cover our sin. I can see why Paul thought
that was the most... He said, I'm determined not to
know anything else. That's all that really matters.
Do you know Christ? Do you see that He died for His
people's sin? Do you rest in the fact that
your sin has been put away by this gracious substitute sacrifice,
the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you think of Him? What
do you think of Him? That's all that's going to matter.
Oh, He's God, the Creator, the High and Holy One with whom we
have to do. I do believe that. I believe
also that I'm a good-for-nothing creature. Sin has tainted everything
that I do. My best prayer is full of sin. The thoughts that go through
my mind before I even stand to preach sometimes, I'd be ashamed
if you saw them or knew what they were. That's just what we
are by nature. Do I believe that my only hope
of salvation is whether or not that God has in sovereign mercy
and grace and power appeared unto me and revealed Himself
to me and in me? That's all that's going to matter
in the end. And what a wonderful thing that
the Lord Eternal, the Lord of old, Jeremiah referred to Him
as, has appeared unto me And I immediately think what Job
did. What is man that thou would be
mindful of him? In Job chapter 14, Job said,
Man that is born of woman is a few days, and what? Full of trouble. Oh, that pretty
well describes my life outside of Christ. Man's full of trouble
because he's full of sin. Job then makes a beautiful inquiry. He asks the Lord. I won't have
you turn there, but look at this sometime. Job 14. He asks the
Lord, he says, Does thou open thine eyes upon such a one? You've been there, haven't you? We look around. I look at you
this morning, and I see how the Lord could save Joe, he's a nice
guy, he's a sincere guy, but I don't see how he could save
me. And that's the way we all think. I think the only thing
that believers disagree on is probably who's the biggest sinner.
I would say it was me. You'd probably say it was you. And then Job said this, he said,
Does thou open thine eyes upon such a one and bringest me into
judgment? with thee." And you know, I read
that verse and I thought, you know, I've read that so many
times, and I think I've missed what that verse was saying. Job
didn't say that he was going to be brought
into judgment. All men and women are going to
be brought into judgment. But Job's question was, will
I be brought into judgment with thee? There's great beauty in
that statement. He doesn't ask if he'll be brought
into judgment. All men and women will. But he
asks if he'll be brought into judgment with the Lord. Now let
me tell you why that makes a difference. Because if I'm brought into judgment
with the Lord, then I'm going to be found innocent. Oh my,
I want to be brought into judgment with the Lord. The Lord enters
into the courtroom of divine justice. And I'm standing there,
remember? Two people involved, the Lord
and me. Well, child of God, there's a
third when it comes to your salvation. Because standing with you in
the court of divine justice, where God is too holy and by
no means can clear the guilty. God's going to punish sin. The
soul that's in it, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. It's a certainty. But when Christ
stands with me in judgment as my advocate, God looks at me
and He says, Enter in, thou good and faithful servant. Scripture
describes you, Ken, as unblameable and unreprovable. in His sight. See, that's the key right there,
those three words, in His sight. Unblameable, above blame. Unreprovable, above reproof.
And you go, me? Oh yeah, in Christ. And when
you stand before God in judgment, in Christ with you, everything's
going to be alright. Everything is going to be alright. So we see two persons, the Lord,
and then we have ourselves, and if the Lord has appeared unto
me, I can tell you that his intentions are to do me good. He would have
never appeared unto me and just left me to myself. The Lord never
appears to a sinner in Scripture to condemn them. Have you ever
noticed that? They're already condemned. His
passing by them in their condemned state is His righteous judgment
against them. But to His people, He doesn't
pass by them. And oh, the Lord hath appeared
unto me. Do you see the beauty in that
statement? The Lord's appeared unto me. It was needful for me
that He do so. Nothing but His appearing could
have scattered my darkness. The Scripture says, For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined into
our hearts, to give the light and the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You know, when God created the
heavens and the earth, He said, Let there be light. You know
what the Scripture said after that? And there was light. God's
Word is always effectual. And when He speaks light to a
darkened sinner's heart, I'm telling you, none can resist
His will. Light is given. And the sinner
is enlightened. Oh my, He's commanded the light
to shine out of darkness. He's shined it in our hearts
to give the light of what? The knowledge of Christ. That's
it. That's the one thing needful.
That's the one thing that we must have. Mary's chosen the
good part. Friends, you've chosen the good
part. You wouldn't be here this morning if you hadn't. Oh, the
Lord hath appeared unto me to bring me salvation. How do I
know that? Because of what He says to me.
Look at our text again. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Now, if the Lord loves me, with
an everlasting love, then I'm alright. I'm saved. Well, what must I do to be saved? Well, I just said, you can't
do anything to be saved. You can't do anything to survive.
To believe, don't you? You have to believe, but only
God can enable you to do that. to His elect and chosen. He took
on the form of a servant, and He humbled Himself, and He became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And the redeemed
child of God says, the Lord has appeared unto Me. We know that
He has, right? He didn't say, I think He's appeared
to me. He didn't say, I hope He's appeared.
We say, the Lord hath appeared. Why? Because we see Christ. We see that He is the only thing
that we can offer God. Men told me all my life, well,
offer God your heart. Listen, God don't want that messed
up thing. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Only God can know it. God looked
down in the days of Noah and He saw that all the world All
the world, every thought and imagination of man's heart was
only evil continually. Boy, doesn't that tell us a great
deal about ourselves. Only evil and only evil continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. That's the only difference. That's
the only difference between Noah and all the multitudes that drowned
in Noah's day is the difference that the Lord made. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? We know who it is, don't we?
It's God Almighty. Oh, the believer's redemption
is certain. That's another thing about this
gospel that we believe. It's certain. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded. I'm convinced. Who convinced you, Paul? God
did. God convinced me. Oh, I'm telling
you, I know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded, convinced, made
certain that He's able. Able to do what? Everything. Everything. Anything. Anything. Persuaded of that. Everything
that I've committed unto Him against that day. What day? That
day that I stand before God in judgment, when it's just God
and me. Oh, we've got an advocate with the Father. Oh, when it
comes to my salvation, I don't find any comfort, contentment
with anything less than certainty. I want to know. I want to know. Am I saved? Do I know the Lord?
I need full assurance of my redemption. Don't you? Oh, I want full assurance
that I'm a child of God. Christ is my solid rock. He's
my sure foundation. That's how we describe Him. He's
a solid rock. We can build our house there.
And the storms of hell and the world can come against us and
beat against that house, but it's not going to fall. Why?
Because it's built on that solid rock. Oh, it's a sure foundation. I find no sure footing on the
steps of if or peradventure. Do you? No, none at all. I find great assurance in the
Scriptures, though, where the Word of God says, Christ said,
I will and they shall. I will and they shall. And some
say the Gospel is that God made salvation possible. Much more than that. That's not my gospel. My gospel
is that Christ has made salvation certain. You can write it down. It's certain. He that hath the
Son hath life. Is that a deep, hard to understand
doctrine? He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Is there anything you don't understand
about that? If I have Jesus Christ, I have life. And if I don't have
Him, I don't. Oh my. I've got doubts when I
look to something that I do or that I must do to be saved. I'm
full of doubts there because I can't do anything to be saved.
But I don't have any doubts when I look to Christ. Do you? No, none. And I look to Him and
what He's done. Christ and Him crucified. And
I was thinking about this as I listened to a message on the
way up here. If anyone had any reason to doubt
their salvation, I believe it would have been Peter. One of
the Lord's closest friends. I so identify with Peter. He
had bragged about he'd never forsake the Lord. The Lord said,
I'm going to be turned over to the Jews. In so many words, he
told his disciples what was going to happen to him. Peter said,
no sir, that ain't going to happen. I'm not going to let it happen.
And I'm telling you that I'll die with you and for you. Well,
we know the rest of the story. Peter denied the Lord three times. He had boasted that he above
all the other disciples was willing to die with and for the Lord
Jesus. And yet he denied the Lord three
times, three different times. And the last time, vehemently
so, the Scripture says that he basically cursed. I don't know
the man. I don't know him. I don't know
him. But I'll tell you this, if you'd asked Peter one question,
if you'd asked him what his only hope of salvation was, in spite
of all his failings, His unbelief. I know that He would have told
you that His only hope of salvation was in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh my, that's all you have to know. You have to know Him. You have to know Him. I trust
in my Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Christ. He's the Son
of the living God. Lord, where else would we go?
The Lord said, are you going to leave me also? Peter said,
where else are we going to go? You have the words to eternal
life. Oh, I tell you, It's always been
about being sure of Christ and His work done for us and in us. Not about what we do, but what
He does for us. So first we see that if not for
the Lord's divine intervention into our lives, we would die
in our sin. Now secondly here, we have the
Lord's Gospel declaration to His people. Look again at verse
3. And notice how He starts this.
He says, Yes, this declaration of good news from the Lord begins
on a very positive note of certainty. Yea, yea, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. Now the question this morning
to you is, has the Lord appeared to you and has the Lord said
unto you, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love? Has
He? Well, then believe it. Believe
it. He's never lied. This isn't fiction
that we're reading about. It's the truth. It's the fact. He who is the
truth always tells the truth. Numbers 23, 19 says, God is not
a man that He should lie, neither the Son a man that He should
repent. Hath He said and shall He not
do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall
He not make it good? The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And
as I have purposed, so shall it stand." You can believe Him.
You can believe everything He says. He's worthy of us believing
Him. If the Lord has spoken to your
heart and told you that He loves you, believe Him. Believe Him. God's love for us here, as we
mentioned in our text in the first hour, is in the past tense. He says, I have loved thee. Always
loved you. Christ loved His people when?
Before the foundation of the world. We know that. Even before
God gave them to Him. And when we were rebels, He loved
us. Oh my. Even when I was a rebel,
He loved me. I didn't know it, but He did. While we were yet sinners, the
Scripture says, He died for us. He commended His love to us while
we were yet sinners. When we were dead in trespasses
and sins, He quickened us together with Christ. When did He do that?
When we were in that state. Isn't it so simple to see that
it's not dependent upon a work of righteousness that we do?
He says, I have loved thee. This is a voice of present tense.
The Lord doesn't say, I have loved you, but I don't love you
anymore. He says, I've loved you. I still love you. I'm going
to love you to the end as we saw earlier. The Lord loves His
people now. His love is always now because
His name is I Am. The ever-present God. I Am that
I Am. And His love to us is now. I've
loved Thee with an everlasting love. Everlasting love includes
right now. Oh my! Things present and things
to come, Paul said, Friends, He's God. He changes not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. And as I said earlier, if He
ever loved me, He loves me still. Why? Because He can't change.
And His love is everlasting and eternal. I've loved thee with
an everlasting love. I'm so glad everlasting is in
there. Because I would doubt His love for me every day. Because I'd be right back to
looking within and saying, I can see how you save others, but
I don't know how you can save me. But he says, I love you with
an everlasting love. It doesn't have anything to do
with when I loved you, because I loved you before you ever were.
And it doesn't have anything to do with what you do now. Oh,
God's love for His people is without beginning, without end.
It's everlasting. It's eternal. It's never-ending. Our love for Him, that's a different
story. fickle. His love for us is forever. I
put no confidence, none at all, in my love for Him. But I put
all confidence in His love for me. His love for me is eternal,
everlasting, and that means that with Him, I'll live forever.
And I'm telling you, friends, heaven is not going to be heaven
because The religion describes it as having streets of gold
and pearly gates and big mansions. Heaven's going to be heaven because
of who's there. Christ is heaven to the believer.
It's my, my. He draws us in mercy and grace. No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. He drew me away from my
will to His will. And I'm telling you, The theme
song of my life was My Way. I'm going to do it my way. I
did it my way. I can sing it with Frank and
the best of them. But God changed my way to His way. He changed
my self-righteousness to His perfect righteousness. From death
unto life, He's drawn me. From the foot of the cross to
the throne of His grace, He's drawn me. The drawing of God
is effectual. The gifts and the calling of
God are without repentance, without change. Over and over again we're
told in the scriptures this. The drawing of God is omnipotent. It's powerful. None can resist
His will. Just as no man can stay God's
hand, none can resist His sovereign hand either. Oh my, whomever
He draws, it's in love and it's effectual. However He draws the
sinner, it's in love and it's effectual. Whenever He draws,
it's in love and it's effectual. And it's with loving kindness,
oh my, that He draws us. The Holy Spirit uses two choice
words here. I love both of these words. And
the Holy Spirit puts them together for us. and they still come short
of His love for us. Loving kindness coupled together
and coupled with God. There's nothing like the drawing
of God. And it's continuous. It's everlasting. So it has to be continuous. If
He loves me eternally, then He draws me continuously. And see,
it's back on Him and not on me. I'm so prone to wonder I'm so
prone to leave the God that I love. But I can't. I can't. Why? Because in loving kindness,
He continues to draw me to Himself. The Lord told Jonah to go to
Nineveh. I believe Bob Coffey maybe preached
that to you while you were here. I thought about that as I was
listening to Bob's message. Jonah said, I'm not going to
go. Jonah bought a ticket to Tarshish. And they were out on the ship
and sea and just unfortunately, by happenstance, a storm came
up. No. No, God sent a storm, didn't
he? And so the men decided to draw
straws and whoever got the short The straw was the guilty party. It was the reason God was bringing
this upon them. Jonah was just unlucky, wasn't
he? He drawed the short straw. No, he wasn't unlucky. God was
behind it. Oh, my. Thrown into the water,
and God had prepared a great fish for him. You know, when
Jonah came up out of that well, you know what he did? He did
what God told him to do. Oh my, you can't run from God
if you're one of His. You can't do it. No man can pluck
them from my hand. And no man can jump out of His
hand either if he's one of God's elect. Oh, the continuous love,
loving kindness that the Lord shows to us. No man can come
that he might have life. You know, our condemnation has
something to do with inability and unwillingness. The Scripture
says no man can come. No man has the ability to come. Except the Father which sent
me. Do I? Draw him. In another place, our Lord said
no man will come. You will not come to me that
you might have life. We're unwilling to come. We're
unable and we're unwilling. But our salvation doesn't have
anything to do with our inability. It doesn't have anything to do
with our unwillingness. It has everything to do with
Christ's ability and Christ's willingness to save us. Look
at verse 8 here in chapter 31. The Lord says, Behold, I will
bring them from the north country and gather them from the coast
of the earth. Now that's Him drawing. Well,
what's the effect? Look at verse 9. They shall come
with weeping. Not going to resist His will.
His drawing, it says, and with supplications, favors, I will
lead them. The effect, I will cause them
to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way wherein they
shall not stumble. Verse 10, we have the drawing
and the effect. He that scattered Israel will
gather them and keep them as a shepherd doth his flock. The
drawing in verse 11, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob. and
ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
The effect, verse 12, Therefore shall they come and sing in the
height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of God.
You see, friends, what God hath begun, he which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. How do I know if I'm one of God's
elect? I've been asked that question a lot of times. Well, has He
drawn you? Do you have an interest in the
things of Christ? Are you trusting in Him and Him
alone for your salvation? Then I'd say it sounds like the
Lord's drawn you. Sounds to me like the Lord loves
you with an everlasting love. Oh, you once loved sin. Now you
abhor it. Many things you once loved, now
you hate. You now see one who is invisible. You now hear one whose voice
is inaudible. That's a good sign that you're
one of His elect. You'll never understand God's
dealings with you until He in love, mercy, and grace appears
to us. The Lord of old has appeared
unto me. Has He appeared unto you? And
He's appeared unto you, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee." Salvation's got to be revealed to us. It
has to be revealed to us. Why? Because the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. Our Lord said, No man knoweth
who the Son is. No man, no woman knoweth who
the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son,
and He to whom the Lord will reveal Him. It's all about revelation. It's all about the Lord revealing
us, giving us eyes to see. Oh, but when it pleased God who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace,
what? To reveal His Son in me. This book is the revelation of
Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. It's
a hymn book. H-I-M, not H-Y-M-N. It's a book all about hymn. God's going to divinely intervene
And I'm going to tell you something else He's going to do. I've learned this, still learning
it. But He's going to wean His people from this world. He is. He's going to wean you from this
world. You know, I was thinking about Israel. They were there
400 some years in bondage to Egypt. And I'm telling you, if
God had not moved Pharaoh to deal severely with Israel, They
never had any desire to leave Egypt. They were just as content
as they could be. Even as slaves. They were made
to make bricks without straw. Then the workload and production
of the bricks was doubled. And it was only then that the
scriptures say that they cried by reason of their taskmasters. But behind all that was God.
God hardened Pharaoh's heart. He put a burden on the people
of Israel. And I'm telling you, isn't it
amazing what a lost sinner can get used to in this world? Oh, my. Things that, and I know
I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but some of the
things that I see on commercials today on television will cause
me to blush in front of my wife who I've been married to for
34 years. We can get so used to this world and the things
of it. I'm telling you we can. It's just a fact. Amazing what
we can get used to. And it was while in this world
that many of you lived in bondage to religion. We think we have
plenty and we have nothing. Men are always trying to build
us up. You can do more and do more. Oh my, we have plenty,
yet we don't have anything. We serve this world like Israel
served Egypt. And Israel thought they lived
in plenty in the land of Goshen, but they ate the meat of Egypt's
herds and flocks. They enjoyed the seasoned garlic
and the onions out of Egypt's gardens. And they would have
never, I'm telling you, I know this because of my own nature,
they would have never desired to leave Egypt had not the Lord
intervened, divinely intervened in their lives and caused and
sent them trouble. I remember the Lord sent me trouble.
One time He sent me so much trouble that I knew there was nothing
I could do to get out of it. I knew that if God didn't divinely
intervene and have mercy and grace on me, I was doomed. Oh,
and it was my trouble. David said, it was good for me
that I've been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Oh,
do you see the trouble the Lord uses that to bring us to Himself?
And lastly, the loving kindness of God in drawing the chosen
sinner is seen no clearer than in the sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ. John Newton wrote the song Amazing
Grace. We all know that song by heart. But he wrote another song. You
may not be familiar with it. Some of you may be. The words
go like this. These words really illustrate
what I'm trying to say here. He said, I saw one hanging on
a tree in agony and blood, and he fixed his languid eyes on
me as near his cross I stood. Oh, can it be upon a tree the
Savior died for me? My soul is thrilled, my heart
is filled to think He died for me. Sure, never till my latest
breath can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with His
death, though not a word He spoke. and my conscience felt and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. And I saw my sins His blood had
spilt and helped to nail Him there." Oh, have you seen that?
Oh my! It's my sin that put Him on that
cross. Oh, can it be upon a tree the
Savior died for me? My soul was thrilled, my heart
spilled to think He died for me. A second look he gave which
said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for thy ransom
paid. I die that thou mayest live. Oh my, can it be? Can it be? Upon a tree, my savior died for
me. My soul is thrilled. My heart
is filled to think he died for me. Oh, I'm telling you, I can
stand before you this morning and I can tell you that I'm not
what I want to be and yet I'm not what I used to be. Oh, I'm
telling you. My wife could tell you some things.
But I am what I am by the grace of God. I know that. It wasn't
anything I've done. Folks tell men and women today
Straighten up and fly right. Oh, I can't do that. I can't
straighten up and I can't fly right. Christ did for me though. You see, the Lord of old hath
appeared unto me and he whispered in a still small voice these
words. He said, yea, yes. Me? Yes. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, the result of that, in loving kindness, have I drawn
thee." And I believe that's the gospel, don't you? In a verse. That's the gospel in a verse.
Oh, may God enable us to trust Him, depend upon Him for everything
that we need. Joe and I were talking before
the services. I heard Brother Mahan say years
ago that the three things that preachers need to deal with in
preaching, great advice I've never forgotten, are this. God
is holy. This is called the Holy Bible. Did you just say Holy Bible?
It's holy. His angels are holy angels. God is, above all else, holy. You and I are wretched, depraved
sinners. Sin is what we are. Now the third
thing is that how is that holy God and sinful man going to be
reconciled together? Only one way. And he said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh to the
Father, what's those last words, but by me. Oh, has the Lord appeared
unto you? Has He said unto you, I've loved
you with an everlasting love? If He has, He's drawing you in
loving kindness. He'll never let you go. It's
everlasting. It's eternal. And I'm so glad
it is. I appreciate your attention so
much. Thank you again for having me. I appreciate your hospitality. We're praying for you guys. I'm
telling you, it's so encouraging. Folks all over this country and
this world are praying for you. And we appreciate if you remember
us, too. Okay, brother.