Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
3. I've been asked to serve as your
interim pastor, and I pray that He'll enable me to do so in a
way which will benefit you and be honoring to His name. Assuming
the duty of this office, I want to talk to you this morning about
four things which all men and women think they know, but only
a handful really understand. I want to say a few things about
the days ahead for this assembly. I'm talking about days of light. Days of regeneration. Days of
service. Days of commitment. Days of walking
with Him. The days that lie ahead. And then the church itself as
an assembly, and the primary duty or ministry of the church,
and the faith of those who themselves are living stones who make up
this church. He didn't say, it is built. He
said, we are built. Isn't that what he said back
there in Ephesians 2 toward the end of the chapter? We are built
upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. And all this building fitly framed
together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. Let's read
together the first six verses of Ephesians chapter 3. For this cause." What cause? What cause? For this cause. That is the building of God's
church, the calling out of His elect. For this cause, I call
the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. What's he talking
about there? He wrote this from prison. But
he didn't say, I'm a prisoner of Rome. He said, I'm a prisoner
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in other places he talks
about him being made a prisoner of Jesus Christ as an open door
that he preached to the jailers, he preached to the people in
charge of the prison, and even unto the magistrates that put
him in there. God opened that door. He didn't
see that as a curse. He saw that as a blessing. He
saw that as a part of this ministry. I'm a prisoner, he said, of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He ruins things. He ruins property. It's not me. And if He's made
me a prisoner, I'm His prisoner. If He's made me a free man, I'm
His free man. If He's made me a servant, I'm
His servant. Oh, that we could get a handle on that. I tell
you, our lives would change, wouldn't they? I'm a prisoner
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God, which is given me to you, how that by
revelation he made known unto me the mystery, which I wrote
afore in few words, whereby when you read you might understand
my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages,
that is times past, was not made known unto the sons of men as
it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit. that the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ
by the gospel. Now in the light of these verses,
let's talk a little bit about these days ahead. You and I are
living in the last day. I hear a lot of talk by preachers
on the radio and TV about the last days, and they look ahead
and say, we're coming up on the last days now. You keep your
eyes open, you're going to see some things, and now you know
you're going to be... It's been the last days since Christ appeared
on this earth. John tells us as clearly as any
apostle, as any preacher in the Bible, John says, little children,
it is the last time. So I don't have to speculate
about whether or not I'm living at the end of time. I'm living
in the last days. John said, little children, it's
the last time. It's the last time. And as we've
been told that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many
Antichrists. And there shall be even more.
We're living in the last days and it's been the last days since
Christ appeared in Bethlehem's manger and then died on that
cross. Paul tells us in Hebrews 9.26,
but now once, now listen, in the end of the world, not in
the middle of it, in the end of the world, hath Christ appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. We're living in the
last days. And the last days are often referred
to by preachers of days gone by as the gospel age. I like to call it the gospel
age. We had a young visitor at the Bible conference down there,
and he overheard me telling somebody about the last days and the gospel
age, and he said, whoa, wait a minute. He said, what are you
talking about gospel age? And I said, well, Paul said there's
never been an age when the truth of God was made known unto men
as it is now. Now hath Christ appeared. You
know that scripture I quoted to you over there in 2 Timothy
1.9? Read verse 10. Now it's manifested
by the appearing of our Savior. All this grace, all this eternal
grace and this eternal covenant, our eternal surety, this is all
manifested in our Savior. He abolished death and brought
life and immortality to life through the gospel. He is the
gospel. And we're living in the gospel
age. Now, let me say this. Somebody
goes home and says, well, he's saying there's no gospel in the
Old Testament. I'm not saying that. That's not
what I'm saying at all. The gospel is as old as God.
You know in Revelation chapter 14 verse 6 it's called the everlasting
gospel. This gospel was manifested clear
back in eternity before ever this world was made. Is Christ
not called in Revelation I think chapter 5 or chapter 6 He's called
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. This gospel is
as old as God. And if I were pressed to give
a definition of the gospel, what do you call the gospel preacher?
You say these men don't preach the gospel. What are you talking
about? Christ is the gospel. I don't care how many points
you got. I don't care how much facts you got. I don't care how
much doctrine you've learned, if it's not included in Christ,
it's not the gospel. Christ Himself is the gospel. There's no hope apart from Him.
There's no salvation apart from Him. None other name given among
men whereby we must be saved except Christ the Lord. That's
it. Paul said, God forbid that I
should preach anything or know anything except Christ and Him
crucified. There's nothing else worth knowing. And he said this, he said, It is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished
death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. Whereunto,
he said, I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher
of the Gentiles. In this age of light, and that's
what it is, it's the gospel age, we have more light, than any
writer. You go back and read these old
writers and you say, oh, they were so learned. Maybe they were,
but I'm telling you this, you live in an age where there's
more light than any other age that's ever been. Those old men
had to learn, they had to learn German just to read the books
that other believers had written. They had to learn Latin. They
had to learn Hebrew. They had to learn all of these
languages just so you read these men you say, boy they were intellectual.
They had to be. But not today. Today you just
hit a button. There it is. There it is. You
want to hear a sermon? Click. There it is. You want
to know something about a doctor? Click. Here it is. I've got a
thing on, when my computer shuts down, I'm dead in the water.
My whole library is on that computer. And it's been put on there in
such a way that you can search it. So if I'm talking about faith,
I don't have to read every book that was ever written on faith.
I just hit faith. And it calls to me the portions
of those men's writings that discuss this fact. And I can
go in there and I've never been in an age like this. Never been
in an age like this. Most folks know that Jesus was
born. He's celebrated as the Christ
and that time itself is hinged on His appearance. But they have
no clue as to who He is. Who is this man? Why did He come? What was His purpose in coming
into this world? Why was He born in a cow stable
in Bethlehem? Because that's where the prophet
said He was going to be born. And God told them. Why did He do this? Where is
He now? What happened to Him? He rose
from the dead. Where did He go? He ascended.
He's at the right hand of the Father. What's He doing up there? Making
intercession for the saints, ordering all things, arranging
all things that His elect be called. There was a day when you and
I lived our lives in ignorance and darkness and unbelief. That's
like it's described in Ephesians 2 verses 2 and 3. He said, you
walked. You, happy, quick, and who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein you walked according
to the course of this world. You walked just like every other
blind man out here walked. Dead in trespasses and sins.
You walked according to the course of this world. Not only that.
But you that were in religion, you walked according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in the
children of disobedience. He manipulated you, and you didn't
know it, and you were used of him, and rejoiced in his doctrines,
and followed his teachings, and some of you even held offices
in churches. How is that described? To those
who are dead and trespassing, walking according to the prince
of the power of the air. And word by nature, are you listening? Word by nature that children
of wrath even as others. Just as fallen as that old dead
bone in an old native over in deepest darkest Africa. Dancing
around a totem pole. You down here in the church dancing
around your totem pole. They're over there in the jungle.
But you're both worshiping idols. Joe likes That saying Brother
Mahan has and Brother Don uses all the time about playing in
the sandbox. That's what they do. They dance
around in their sandbox. Moses comes down off the mountain
and hears all Israel. They saw the power of God, the
grace of God. They saw the waters parted. They
themselves walked across that sea on dry land, watched God
fold that water on top of Egypt and destroy it. Preserved them
in that wilderness. Moses went up to receive God's
law and he come back down. They talked Aaron into making
a golden calf and they were dancing naked around a fire. That's what
folks do when God leaves them alone. That's what they do. They find a God that appeals
to them. They find a church that appeals
to them. A religion that appeals to them. And if they get settled
in that thing, that's where they're going to stay the rest of their
life. and be satisfied with it, and teach it to their children
and their children's children, unless God intervenes. Unless
He intervenes. We didn't know anything about
God's redemptive purpose, or I didn't, or the means ordained
to save His elect, or the very age in which we lived. I didn't
know I was a Gentile. I was 30 years old before I realized
I was a Gentile. You know what that is? A heathen.
A heathen. I found that in the Scriptures.
I was a heathen. I didn't know God. I had no connection. Paul reminds them here in Ephesians
1. He gets down here and he said
that in time past you were without Christ being aliens. You didn't
have any promises. What promises have you got? Those
promises were given to Israel. Those promises were given through
Abraham. Those promises were given through
Moses. What right have you got to those
promises? I'll tell you, you learn something when you read
the Bible, and when God opens your heart to understand it,
you learn you were anything. That's exactly what you were.
We didn't know anything about worshiping God or praying to
God. We thought going to God in prayer
was a shopping list. My friend, we're living in the
day of great light, great and clear revelation. No other age
since the beginning of time has had the Gospel preached unto
them like it's been preached unto us. And this faith which the prophets
spoke, Peter said, they inquired diligently, diligently searching
water, what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in
them did signify when it testified beforehand to the suffering of
Christ, now listen, and the glory that should follow. We're living in the days of the
glory which shall follow. Are we not? unto whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them who have preached the
gospel unto you by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." Oh, what
a privilege we have. What a privilege we have. My
friends, your calling is not just to escape hell or an open
door into heaven should you die. We're called to be heirs of God. Think about it. Heirs of God. How did we get to be heirs? He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will. Why did God choose you? Why did God choose me? Of all
the people in this world, why would God choose me? This ignorant
heathen who's lived his whole life in rebellion, why would
God choose me? Because it's according to the
good pleasure of His will. And it's according to the purpose
of His grace. And that's just the kind of people
He chooses. Paul said, you see your calling,
brethren, not many wise men, Not many mighty, not many noble
are called. An old queen in England said
she thanked God for an elm. He said that could have been
not any noble. But it don't say that. It says
not many noble. But God has chosen the weak things
of the world. He's chosen ignorant men like
myself, unlearned men, Somebody come to visit our church and
went home and told her husband, said, well, he hasn't been to
seminary. Who does he think he is? They shouldn't call them seminaries.
They ought to call them cemeteries. We're called
to be heirs. Heirs of God. Sons by adoption. Fellow heirs with God and Christ. And there's no other reason for
us to be in this world right now. If you're here this morning
and you're a believer, you've embraced Christ with all your
heart. You rest in Him. You've entered into that rest.
You understand. You see that all-sufficient grace
in Him. Why are you still here? You going
to get holier? That's not been my experience. You look at Paul's testimony
of himself as he aged, It just keeps getting worse and worse
and worse. Finally, at the end, he calls
himself the chief of sinners. Oh, he said, wretched man that
I am. Huh? That sound like somebody's
growing more and more holy? No. No. You're as fit By the
work of Christ, by virtue of His righteousness and His shed
blood, you're as fit for glory right now as you're ever going
to be. So why don't God just take us
into glory? Why are we still hanging out
in this world? Why are we still here? Because God purposed to
use His people as fellow laborers to call in His elect out of this
world. I can't find another reason in
the Scriptures for us being here. You look if you will. I can't
find anything. This is why we're here. So what do we do? We do
everything in the world except that. Huh? I was so pleased last night as
I was talking to Joe and he couldn't sit down anymore. He was so excited
he got up and he said, you know, I get it. I finally, I get it. I get it. And that's the way
it is. When you fully understand. This
is the only reason for me being here. And if this be the reason
why I'm here, why don't I put my hand to the task? My soul,
what a privilege! God allows us to be a part of
the calling out of His elect. Can you imagine? One of my sisters
told me, she said, so you're happy down there, huh? I said,
yeah. They all treat me like I'm mentally
incompetent and always pat me on the head in pity. They said,
so you're happy down there. I said, yeah, I am. And, okay,
well, anything going on? I said, not a lot, not a lot. You had, you baptized many? I said, no, I haven't baptized
anybody in a while. One fellow and his daughter. Okay, you know, and that's the
way they That's the way they see us. I don't see it that way. This is the highest privilege
God could lay on a person. Called him as a fellow heir and
gave him the highest privilege in the world. That he be a part
of that labor of the calling in of his elect. All my soul. Once you get that in your heart,
I'll tell you, just to give another believer a drink of water in
his name. Just to speak a word of comfort.
In season. Just to be able to pray for them
and see their faces and understand what God's doing. That's everything.
I can't imagine a higher privilege than that. Took this old sinner,
this old rebel sinner, and appointed him to the highest position in
the church, in our day, as a preacher. You think I don't feel unworthy
of that? All my soul. But what a privilege. What a
privilege. And if I could exhort you with
anything, I would exhort you with that, for the love of Christ.
Think about what a privilege, if God raises up a church here,
that He's given to you. No higher privilege anywhere.
No higher privilege. And then the second thing I want
to talk to you about this morning is the church. We know that the church in its
fullness is made up of every chosen man and woman from Adam
to the last saint called into his kingdom. I've got no problem
with that. Every believing saint is a member of that church and
a recipient of all the blessings of the Father given to him through
his son. But on this earth, His church
is known or manifested in local assemblies. You read the book
of Revelations, and the very first thing He tells you, He
said, I'm speaking to the seven churches which are in Asia. He didn't say, I'm speaking to
my church and just let it go where it went. He said, I'm speaking
to seven churches. Now, if He speaks to those seven
churches, He's speaking to the whole church. But that's not
how He identifies them. He identifies them as these seven
churches. How many churches does He have
today in the world? I have no idea. But I do know
this. When He speaks, He'll speak through
those churches. Everything He's got to say to
men, He's going to say through those churches and men sent out
by those churches. That's how He speaks. It's just
so. Listen to this. Paul addressed
his officials to the church of God, which is at Corinth. You talking about a troubled
church? A church full of problems? But I tell you this, it was his
church. It was his church. And even that man that they found
sleeping with his stepmother. Oh, what a shame on that little
church. Even that man, by the grace of
God, was restored back into fellowship at that church before things
were done. His church. This is the church
of God, which is at Corinth. He calls them, he writes this
book of Galatians, to the churches in Galatia. There were several.
To the church of the Thessalonians. And then speaking of Priscilla
and Aquila, These two friends that Paul had, and fellow laborers
and helpers with him, gave him a place to stay, gave him some
food to eat, welcomed him into their home. Speaking of Priscilla and Aquila,
he sends his greetings to the church that was in their house
in that summer. And though these churches are
sometimes small in number, they are to be considered exactly
as His church in its fullness. All one in Christ, all one in
doctrine, all one in the unity of the Spirit. Look with me across
the page here at Ephesians chapter 4. He said in verse 1, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation We're with your called. He's not talking about preachers
here. He's talking about you, and you, and you. Believers in
Christ. And that word vocation actually
means calling. I can't really tell you why he
uses the word vocation there, but he said, I beseech you that
you walk worthy of the calling wherewith you're called. That
is, to the purpose and end of your calling with all lowliness
and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another." You
know what that means? Putting up with. The people I pastor put up with
me and I put up with them. Forbearing one another in love. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The unity of the Spirit
has to do with our union with Christ and it consists of both
doctrine of Christ and the fruit of such doctrines in those which
believe. And he says there is just one
body, just one body. One Spirit, even as you are called
in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all. His churches. His churches. meaning his local
churches, and he calls them candle sticks. I'm just barely old enough to
remember what candles were used for. They only had one purpose. We didn't cook on them. Couldn't
eat them. They were used for light. Unless
you could go off back in the early 50s and mom and get out
the candle and light the candle. Or she'd take that old oil lamp
and light it up, and we'd have light in the house. He calls
his churches in Revelation chapter 1, candlesticks. Candlesticks. And I tell you, some of you that
have been around here have been looking. And you've been looking
for a while. And you hadn't found any light.
This might be the only source of light in this whole area.
Could be. Could be. The only source of
light is candlestick. You wonder what you're doing
sometimes. This little group, we come together, we meet, we
watch videos, we have a man down occasionally to preach to us.
What's the purpose? Light. That's the purpose. Light. Let me show you something along
these lines you might never have considered. 1 John 1, verse 6. He said, if we say we have fellowship
with Him, and He describes Him, in Him is light and no darkness. If we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie. God's people have light. Brother Mahan used to use this.
Some religious friend of his decided he was going to convince
Brother Mahan that they were all right. even though everything
they said was at opposite ends. He was going to convince him
that all these religions were right. And he told him, he said,
now listen to me. He said, salvation is like a
large gray elephant. And he said, and we're all blind.
And he said, one preacher has a hold of his tail, and another
preacher has a hold of that big leg, and another one has a hold
of his trunk. And they're all telling you exactly
what they feel. But they're all describing something
different and yet the same. And Brother Mahan said, well,
I've got two things wrong with that. He said, alright, go ahead. He said, number one, salvation
doesn't have anything in common with a large grail. And number
two, God's people are not blind. They have light. God has shined. He commanded His light to shine
into the heart the same as He did in creation. He did that
in the new creation, and He shined that light to give the light
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. His people have
light. They see. They see. You're not going to convince
them otherwise. They see. I can see. Now a blind man, he
might try to, think of that old blind boy to me sitting there
on a blanket. And that road through Jericho led to the sea. And then
going the other direction it led up to the mountains. And
people come by and they start talking about them snow-capped
mountains and they start talking about those clouds and the sky
and then they start describing the sea and it's aquamarine colors. Fluffy, cloud floating, all this
kind of stuff. Blind boy as nice and blind as
he can be. He didn't know what they were talking about. He could
talk about it, but he couldn't see it. God opened his eyes. Don't you know, for the first
time in that man's life, he knew exactly what those people were
talking about. That's the way it is. God opens
our eyes. He gives us light. I have not
seen nor heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God
hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. And now you see things
that these old prophets could not even see. Oh, we have light. We have light. But if we say
we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, walk in those
lies, go along with all that junk, we do not the truth. But, now watch this, if we walk
in the light, as He is the light, can you do that? Can you walk
in Christ? If you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk in Him. If we walk in the light, As He
is the light. Now listen to this. We have fellowship. What's that? That's fellers in
the same ship. We have fellowship, one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us
from all sin. Alright, here's the third thing.
That's the church. That's what it's all about. We're
one. We believe the same things. We preach the same things. We
know the same woman. The same Spirit teaches us. And
this is what I don't understand about preachers who go off and
even end preaching lies and try to say that we have fellowship.
I don't have any fellowship with them. We're not in the same ship.
We don't even worship the same God, let alone preach the same
salvation. We have fellowship one with another.
if we walk in the light as He is the light. And then here's
the third thing, the ministry of the church. You're all going
to gather here to what end? What are you going to do if the
Lord comes along in about three weeks and starts adding members
to this? Six months from now, you've got
twice as many people in here. Six months from now, a year from
now, we'd baptize four or five more, six more. All these families
come in. I had half a church full of people
walk in on me one Sunday. About a third of them stayed
over a church split. And they didn't know where to
go. But they knew one of our members, and they said, come
over here. So they said, OK. The whole church drove over an
hour from where they lived. Drove over there and heard the
gospel. About a third of them did. They stayed. They stayed. So what is the ministry of the
church? What are we going to do? What's the primary work of
the church? What's its primary function?
I hear people talking about ministries, bus ministries. I'm going to
start a bus ministry. I have a music ministry, somebody
told me. camp ministries and hospital
ministries. What is the primary ministry
of the church? It's the preaching of the gospel.
Oh, that God would send you a faithful pastor. And through your support,
enable that man to preach the gospel to as many open doors
as God will open up for him. That's the primary. If God was
to raise a church up here, that's why He'll do it. And he may save
a ton of people in this community or he may just call up a little
group and you'll support this man and he'll go out and preach
and do the work of an evangelist and he'll preach to you and feed
you and that'll be the end of it. Could be. On the other hand,
he might just save your children. He might. He saved one of mine. I've got two still walking in
darkness. But he saved one. And I'll tell you this, somebody told old John Newton,
he said, man, did you hear about old such and such down there
in the county of Bass? He said, the Lord saved him.
He said, if He saved him, I'll never despair again about the
Lord saving anybody. John Newton said, I've never
despaired about the Lord saving anybody since He saved me. And
that's the way I feel about it. If He can save me, He can save
my children. But He can save my children and He can save my
grandchildren. The promise is unto you and your sons and as
many as the Lord thy God shall call. But if He saves them, right
here is how you're going to do it. He's going to tell you the
truth and He's going to put it in your heart to believe it.
That's how you're going to do it. Nobody is going to be called
without the preaching of the Gospel, because God has from
the beginning chosen them to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief in the truth, whereunto He called you,
Paul said, by our Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I see His glory. Don't you? I
see the glory of God, Him called. I've obtained that. I have that.
I've embraced that. It's mine. I see it. And not
the devils in hell can take it away from you once you see it. And I'll give you another reason.
Because it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. That's fine. I don't know why
we want to start things that doesn't please God when He tells
you what pleases Him. Please God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. We're going to save
them this way. We're not going to save them
that way. We're going to save them through the baptismal pool. We're
going to sprinkle water on their heads and get them into the covenant.
We're going to do this. We're going to do that. I've
heard so much junk in my life it makes me nauseous to even
think about it. He said the gospel. Are you listening? Romans 1.16. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel. Everything that's in me, I'm
ready to preach the gospel to you for the gospel. Are you listening? The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes. Isn't that what that
says? That's exactly what it says. To the perishing, it's foolishness.
But unto us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And it's
the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God. And because
therein, here's what Paul said, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. You want to know what righteousness
is here? All in Him. All in Him. I know folks who sincerely desire
the salvation of their children and grandchildren, but they refuse
to put them in a place where they can hear the gospel. I don't
know what kind of reasoning they had, but if I were you, I'd give
it up. I'd give it up. And I'd get them as quick as
I could to the gospel of Jesus Christ and get them under the
sound of it. If God's going to save them, that's how He's going
to do it. Oh, but what about my grandchildren? What about
all these people back here that I'm leaving behind? God will
save them the same way He saved you through the preaching of
the gospel. Do you think there's any of God's elect that God's
going to spare here in that gospel? Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
came into this world and walked and could have went anywhere
He wanted to, but He said, I must need to go to Samaria. Why? Because one of my lips is sitting
over there, and she's going to come to the well, and I'm going
to give her the truth, and the truth is going to set her free.
Huh? Isn't that how it happens? That's exactly how it happens.
Oh, I tell you, we don't want to run off somewhere else when
God's giving us a light on how He does this thing. Here's where
it is. God made us raise up a church
here and save some people. He could. He could. Paul said, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord will be saved. I don't care who He
is, where He is, or when He lives. If he calls on the name of the
Lord, he's going to be saved. But how are you going to call
on him in whom you have not believed? And how are you going to believe
in him of whom you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
without a preacher? And how in the world is he going to preach
except God send him? Isn't that what that says? That's
what the Holy Ghost says. That's exactly what it says.
And I tell you, if that's not your hope in this place, I disband
today. And I go somewhere where it is.
But if this is your hope, I'd put my all into it. I'd put everything
I had into it. I'd give myself to it and spare
nothing. Maybe God will put His candlestick
right here. And you know in Revelation chapter
1, He calls His pastors. He calls his church his candlestick.
He calls his pastors stars. Do you ever wonder why God calls
his pastors stars? I was in the Navy and I learned
something about the ancient Navy while I was in there going through
boot camp. And do you know the whole of their dependency back
in the day was on the stars? And the funny thing about the
stars, they never moved. They stay right where God puts
them. Huh? He fixes them in that spot. And
then, He allows men the wisdom to find their direction by the
stars. Isn't that something? Stars. He said, that's my pastures.
They're stars. My churches are the candlestick.
Here's my stars. Do you know what He calls false
preachers? Shooting stars. That's what Jude,
that's how Jude described it. Wandering stars. Blaze up in
glory for a minute, fade into everlasting darkness. Like the
sea, wave come in, hit those rocks and foam after shame. That's the false prophet. But
not God's stars. God's stars stays right where
He puts them. And men look to those stars and they find riches.
find direction. And the third thing about a star
is, it has light. God-given light. And it lights
up in the darkness. And you can go out there and
it's dark, you can't even see your hand in front of you, and
you look up and there's them stars. There's them stars dicking
out. Dicking out. Alright, before I run out of
time, let me just say a word or two about the faith of those
who are living stones in this church. Men and women who are members
of his church have believed the testimony of God. Did you know
that's what the gospel is? It's the testimony of God. Paul
said, I thank God for you, brethren. Over there in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2, he said, I thank God for you, brethren, because when
my gospel came to you, it came not in He said, it wasn't just
the word of a man, but as it is in truth, the word of God.
In His stead, Paul said over in 2 Corinthians 5, he said,
we are ambassadors and we do beseech you in His stead. God
speaks through His preachers. Preaching is not promotion of
private opinion. It's not the declaration of a
private interpretation. I hear that from my relatives
all the time. That's your opinion. That's your interpretation. True
gospel preaching is the delivering of the testimony of God concerning
His Son. I've not told you anything this
morning in the Sunday school class or in the preaching of
the gospel. I've not told you a single thing that I haven't
shown you in the Scriptures. And I never will. I never will. Paul said to the church of Corinth,
he said, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand. Right
now. By which also you are saved,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed
in vain. And here's what I proved. I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins, now listen to me, according to the Scriptures. Boy, there's
a big difference. Preachers everywhere are talking
about Christ died for our sins. But the way they preach, it's
not according to the Scriptures. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. And He was buried and raised
on the third day according to the Scriptures. And when I go
in there and I see why he died, and what he accomplished in his
death, and what he accomplished in his resurrection, now I've
got something to build on. Now I've got something to rest
in. Now I've got something to understand. I've just got nothing to say
to you that's not based completely on the testimony of God, and
therefore your rejection of this gospel is calling God a liar.
John said, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of
God, which is what these men bring, is greater. For this is
the witness of God, which is testified of His Son. And he
that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. And he that believeth not God
hath made him a liar. He made him a liar. Because he
believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. Paul never
said, I know your election of God because God sent you a private
revelation. And yet thousands of people believe
that. He never said, I know your election of God because God gave
you evidence through the speaking of tongues. He never said that. But what did he say? You read
it to us a while ago. He said, knowing your election
of God because our gospel came not in word only. But it came
in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. And I
tell you this, if God ever convicts you of sin, He'll have to convict
you of righteousness. He'll have to convict you of
it because you're not going to find it in yourself. You're going
to find it in Him. He said, I know the election
of God because it came in power and in the Holy Ghost. And then
what happened? You become followers. Followers
of us and the Lord. You saw us as God's servants.
You know, Brother Mahan, when he comes up about here on May
10th, and the first time I met him and heard him preach, I thought
he was about that tall. What causes a man to see that?
What causes a man to feel that, that authority and fear of that
man? Power of God in him. You recognize him as God's servant,
you obey him, and you follow him. You follow. You follow them in the Lord. Pastors, these pastors that God
sends you on, obey them which have the rule over you, he said,
who watch for your souls. Now you can gather somewhere
and listen to tapes all day, but you have no pastor. Those
tapes are not going to watch for your souls. Pastors, watch
for your souls as they that must give an account. When? Down yonder
in the judgment? No. No, that judgment's passed
for the believer. That's not what he's talking
about. We give an account daily. Daily. For our ministry. We give
an account to Him. Every day. For our ministry. What else do I know about this
faith? I know it's men and women who are hungry to hear. They
give him an appetite. When God saves a man, He gives
him an appetite for the gospel, and you can't fill him up. Before
God sent Him a pastor, I went out to San Diego to that little
group, and I'm telling you, I was absolutely exhausted when I come
home. They wouldn't let me go back
to the motel. They just had, they wanted to
hear more and more and more and more, and we sit there all day
and preach until it's time for church that evening. I get up
and preach to them that evening. Next morning, they're ready to
go again. And by the time I come home, I was exhausted. That's
an appetite for Christ. A few years back, I had a member
who just shows up every now and then. And he came in and he heard
me preach and I touched on something. He said, you need to preach on
husbands and wives sometimes. I said, preached on that Wednesday
night and you weren't here. That's where I left it. You want to hear? Show up. Show
up. Listen, if you're going to hear
anything, here's where you're going to hear it. Show up. Those old folks over at Christy's
down there by the beach. He's down there preaching in
a boat. Well, I got some folks here sick. I got some folks here
that they need him. I'm going to take them down there.
Take them down there where he's at. That's the thing to do. You
pray in your prayer a while ago, God's promise where two or three
are met together in my name, there will I be in the midst.
Want to hear from Him? Show up. Could be He'll speak. Could be He'll speak to you.
Wouldn't that be something? Wouldn't that be something? God assured His saints in Canaan. They came up to that Jordan River's
flood stage. Over its banks. That's a big
river. He came up there and he assured
them that Canaan was his gift to them. Took them across that river on
dry ground. Here they are. They got their
swords strapped on and they're scared to death because the witnesses
had come back earlier and told them there's walled cities over
there. There's weapons of warfare over
there like you've never seen. There's armies. There's giants
over there. Here they come, swords strapped on the side. Come to
the strongest, biggest, boldest city in Canaan. God never let them lift a sword. They surrounded that city and
blew on the trumpet in the wall one day. That trumpet's the gospel. It's the gospel. And it don't take the swords.
It don't take the spears. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. We don't sit around and figure
out ways. We know the way. We know the way. But they're spiritual. These
weapons are spiritual. And they're effectual to the
tearing down of strongholds, destroying these evil imaginations
and these things. They're effectual for that. They're
sufficient for that. God often uses a few. I remember
when they were taken over Canaan, they went down there and he told
them to such and such ones that drink a certain way and such
and such ones that do this and do that. He just kept whittling
it down until there was just a handful. They were going up
against a massive army. He said, now everything is just
right. Could be things are just right
right here with a handful. Could be. Could be. It would
be God's intent to save somebody for the glory of His name. Father, bless the message this
morning. Anything that I've said here
this morning of myself, which might be a hindrance to
someone here, please take it away. Reveal to them in their hearts
in such a way as to save their souls the glory of God in Christ. I ask you for Christ's sake. Amen.