Thank you, Gabe. The moment I
called on him on the phone, he had to turn me down the first
time because you guys were right in the middle of closing up some
things with the building, and he just couldn't get away. I
hadn't even met him in person yet, and I just, I fell in love
with this man. Pastor Gene says it this way.
He says, that's just the way God's love works in the brethren. It's just the way God's love
works. If you hear a thumping noise,
please pay no mind to it. My leg kind of gets going once
in a while. I thought it would be more nervous
to, I thought nothing could be more nervous than getting up
and preaching in front of Don Fortner. I was wrong. I'd like you to turn in your
Bibles, if you would, to Luke chapter 18. I've had one of the most blessed
conversations over dinner that I can recall in many, many, many
years with Brother Gabe and Brother Bruce and our dear wives the
other night. And then our brother David got
up here yesterday and brought a message. And he addressed a
group of our congregation right here that I want to address this
morning, and that's the young people. We talked about the head
knowledge that our young people have. Gabe shared with us the
head knowledge that he had as he grew up under the preaching
of the gospel. We have many obviously very good
parents here that want their children to know the grace that
they have experienced. And they require their young
children to be here in church, to hear the gospel. And it's interesting how Everyone I talk to knows this
in their heart. I don't know if my child is hearing
anything. I know they know the doctrines
of grace, but do they really know the doctrines of grace? I wonder about our young adults.
Do they truly see their need, their conviction of sin before
God? Do you see your need of a savior? We sing the song Amazing Grace
in these words that once I was blind, but now I see. I have a question for you young
folks, you young folks who are getting ready to go out into
the world and find out what reality is. We've had the blessedness of
your parents caring for you and loving for you, taking care of
you. I just love listening to our
brother Kevin Thacker tell me about his boy is about to get
smacked. He's about to get smacked with
reality of what the world is really like. Do you see your need? Do you see that once you were
blind to the truths of God's word, do you see your need of a savior? Paul was inspired by the Holy
Spirit to write these words in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. In Luke 18, our God gives us an example of
two men. Look with me if you would, verse
number 10. Luke 18, verse 10. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a Jew. Now, I want
to stop there for just a moment because see, Pharisees were the
religious of the day. They were the ones who went to
church every time the meeting was there. They were the ones
who wore the right clothes. They were the ones who put their
covers over their head. They were the ones who ate the
right food. They were the ones who never cussed a word. And the publicans, they were
the ones everybody hated because they collected the taxes. And
they always collected more than they were supposed to so they
could get rich off the people. They were sinners. They were
looked on as dogs. Let's go on. And the Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself. Did you notice what the Lord
says there? The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. God, I thank thee. See, many people can pray, huh?
They think they can talk to God just by closing their eyes, bowing
their heads, putting their hands together maybe, coming down to
the front. They think they can pray with
God. I grew up in the church myself. I know that my Dad, the man I
called dad, was a gospel preacher. I'm not sure who, what the preacher
was when I was growing up. I don't remember anything he
ever said, to be honest with you. But I grew up in churches. And as I left and went out into
the world, I left everything behind me and went out into the
world. A lot of young folks do that
very thing. And it's sad to say that some
of you will too. Some of you will go out into
the world and be swallowed up by the world. When my children were born, I
prayed, I thought. Many a times through the 40 years
that I walked this earth, I prayed, I thought. But I didn't pray with the knowledge
of grace in my heart. Pharisee stood and prayed thus
with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, even
as this sinner over here on the side. I'm glad I'm not like him
either. Thank you, Lord, for that I'm not like him. I'm much
better. I quit smoking. I quit cussing. I quit going out drinking on
Friday nights. I quit this. I quit that. Isn't
that what they say is the only proof of salvation in the churches
today is what you do? That's what this publican, or
this pharisee's doing. He's praying, thank you, that
I'm not what I used to be anymore. I'm a better person. He says, I fast twice in a week,
I give tithes of all I possess. And then we have the other side
of that where we hear the publican, and the publican standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. We see a picture of one who is
full of righteousness in himself. And then we see a picture of
one who has been shown their true standing before God, one
who sees Maybe for the first time even, that there's no righteousness
in them at all. So much so that they can't even
lift up their head. This is conviction of the heart.
Now I'm not talking about walking around bent over in constant
sadness of the flesh. It's seeing with our heart our
true condition before a thrice holy God. Conviction of sin,
conviction of what we are, conviction of what we rightly deserve. And only God can reveal. our
state before him to us. I love what Brother Bruce brought
out. He says, I'm going to tell you, in case you forgot, I'm
going to remind you what he said. Maybe not exact word, but pretty
close. I'm going to tell you something that I know you can't
do. You can't just sit here and learn
these things from reading this book. You're not going to learn
these things from listening just to your parents. I want you to
hear it from them. I want you to read the book. But just like me standing here
before you today, I can't talk to your heart. This is something
only God can do. And when He does, you know it's
Him. You know it's Him. He must reveal
our need before revealing the cure to our need. And that cure
is His Son. the Lord Jesus. Turn now, if you would, over
to Luke chapter 7. In verse 17 or 16, we begin reading,
and there came a fear on all and they glorified God saying
that a great prophet is risen up among us and that God hath
visited his people. And verse 17, and this rumor
of him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all
the region round about. Now, this is a report. Remember,
I forget which one of the brothers brought it up, but I think it
was, I think it was Angus. Isaiah 43, 53, Isaiah 53. Lord,
Lord who will believe our report. The report of what the Lord Jesus
had been doing had gone out all around the world, all around
the country of that time, the region and round about it says.
What was that report? Well, if you read, you don't
need to right now, but if you read over verses one through
10, you find out that the report was that he had gone out and
as he was going out, A centurion sent some of the Pharisees, some
of the leaders of the church, over to the Lord Jesus and said,
will you come and heal my servant? And as the Lord came to heal
that servant, you'll recall the story was, he sent another person
out and he said, no, you don't need to come to me. I know the
power that you have. I understand the power you have.
I have that kind of power over the ones that I'm a centurion
over. I understand it. And the Lord just healed that
servant from where he was. And then right after that, he
was on his way through another town, and there was a caravan
of people following a casket. A young man had died, the only
son of this widow. And the Lord had compassion and
walked over and just touched the casket, the coffer. And the young man rose from the
dead. This had gone out all around. Folks, you've been hearing this
exact story of both of these incidences right here this weekend. The great healer, the one who
heals. The question is, do you know
that you need to be healed? Do you know you need to be healed? Who have believed our report? In verse 18 of our text back
in Luke chapter seven, we read this, and the disciples of John
showed him all these things. And John calling unto him, two
of his disciples sent them to Jesus saying, art thou he that
should come or look we for another? And when the men were come unto
him, now see John was in prison. I want to stop for just a moment.
I kind of went past something there in verse 18. And the disciples
of John showed him these things. So they came to him while he
was in prison. And they told him of what was
going on with this man, healing people, raising the dead. And
John calling unto him, his two disciples, his reading I think,
he sent them to Jesus. Your pastor, he's seen Jesus. He's experienced
the grace of God in his heart. Otherwise, he couldn't get up
here and preach to you and tell you about it. But he also knows
that he can't show you Christ himself. You have to go to him
yourself. You have to have a personal relationship
with the Lord Jesus. That's why every time he gets
up here to preach a message, he invites you to go to Christ,
just as you invited those to come to the feet of Jesus. That's
where we find the relief, the healing for our despair. John was doing exactly that.
He knew who the Lord was. He saw the dove land on his shoulders. He heard the voice from God say,
this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. And he says, you go. You folks go. Go and learn of
Jesus yourself firsthand. Learn of his grace. Be touched by the grace of Christ,
who loved the people from before the world was, so much so that
he gave himself for us. Oh, what grace our Savior has
for us. Go. Go and see Jesus yourself,
saying, art thou he that should come, or look we for another?
Verse 20, and when the men were come unto him, they said, John
the Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, art thou he that
should come, or look we for another? And in that same hour, he cured
many of their infirmities. Did you notice that? Did the Lord answer them? He
could have said, I am he, couldn't he? He said, oh yeah, I'm the
one that John's talking about. That's not what he did at all. He healed people. He worked, he worked the works
of grace. He showed them, he answered them
who he was by what he did. You'll recall in the book of
John, I may have the wrong book on
that. You'll recall that the Lord had told some men, some
unbelieving Jews, they had asked him, he says, how long will you
make us to doubt? And he says, I told you, I told
you who I am. and the works that I do prove
who I am. But you believe not. Now, I wanted
to share that because you young folks, this is something you
need to take into your mind and think about. Understand this,
you're hearing the word of God, but is God speaking to your heart? Is he grabbing a hold of you
like he did me at the age of 40 when I heard the preaching
of his word? Is he saying, you're a sinner,
but I'm a savior? I'm your savior. I'm your God. That's in John chapter 10, verse
23 through 26. He told those folks, he says,
you believe not because you are not my sheep. When I first heard
that, I started asking this question, are you asking this question?
Am I one of his sheep? Lord, am I yours? Am I one of
your sheep? Our Lord says this in Luke chapter
10, verses 23 through 24. He says, blessed are the eyes
which see the things that ye see. For I tell you that many
prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye
see and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye
hear and have not heard them. Look at verse 22 of our text.
Luke 7 verse 22, then Jesus answering, after he had done the works that
he had done, after he cured many infirmities and plagues and evil
spirits and unto many that were blind, he gave sight, he says
these words, finally, Then Jesus answering said unto them, go
your way. He still didn't give them a plain
answer other than what he'd worked. Now he's instructing them. Go
your way, tell John what things ye have seen and heard. Now I'm
gonna focus on what things you have seen mostly here. There's
some more and we'll brush on the other points if I have time.
And maybe if I don't, maybe it'll give an opening for your pastor
to come forth and bring these other points a little deeper.
But I want you to consider this morning what things you have
seen, because as I'm dressing these young folks of the church,
you know, Kathy and I came here just excited as all get out.
So, I mean, we've just been looking so forward to coming here and
seeing you folks again. Last year, we didn't even plan
on being here last year, and Gabe says, oh, you guys got to
come down for the conference. And I said, OK. And after being
here last year, I'd like to try to be back here every year if
I can, even if it's sitting in the pulpit or in the pews. We've
come to love you very, very much. Love just works that way. And I see the excitement of all
of you folks. Seeing the excitement in Cody's
eyes when he first laid eyes on me is just, that young man
loves me. I don't know why, but he does. And I see the excitement of you
young folks as you're meeting with each other in the aisle
and standing around talking. Everybody's got smiles on their
faces. A lot of excitement going on. What are you excited about? What
are you excited about? Will you end up in the office
tomorrow, standing around the water cooler, talking with the
employees, getting ready to go to work? What did you do this
weekend? Or will you be out in front of
the high school at senior lawn, maybe, and thinking to yourself,
you're meeting with some of the other kids that don't go to church
with you. What did you do this weekend?
Oh, we went to a conference. Really? Well, what kind of conference? Was it one of them big tent places,
you know, and you got people all over outside and bands and
stuff? Oh, no, no, no, no. No, I didn't
go there. We didn't do anything like that.
Well, what did you do? Did you have dancing? Did you
have a game outside? Was there some kind of entertainment?
Oh, no, no, that's not what we did at all. Well, what'd you
do? What was so exciting about it?
Five guys got up and talked. They read some stuff from the
Bible. What are you excited about being
here today? Is it because you're with some
folks you haven't seen in a long time? Or is it like what your
pastor said at the beginning of this service? We're here to
worship. I'm excited to worship. Mama
and I flew all the way across the country just to worship with
you and Jeff and your wife Joyce, even though we didn't know you
before, just to worship with you, worship our savior. As sinners
saved by grace, we look to the grace of our Lord in giving himself
for us and shedding his own blood in our stead And when you're
a sinner saved by grace, that excites you. That gets you excited. It's not, I'm thankful to meet
all you folks, but I'm more thankful that we're here worshiping our
savior. Worshiping the one who laid down his life for us. Worshiping
the one who will never let us go. How could he let us go? He gave himself for us. He shed
his own blood that we would live. It just irritates me to all end
to have somebody come up and say, oh, Jesus loves you, if
you'll just let him be your Lord. God's people come to know real
quick that he's Lord of everything, no matter what. Do you know? Do you know? Is he Lord over you? What have you seen and heard
this weekend? Have you seen the king that Brother
Angus spoke of Friday night? Oh, the majestic king who rules
everything. You know, I find it quite funny
how free willers, they'll say, oh yeah, he rules the molecules,
the dust that goes there. Oh, but he doesn't rule my heart.
No, he's given that for me to rule. He rules everything else, but
not that, no. The God of Scripture rules everything,
just like Brother Angus said, everything. Have you seen the
king? Have you seen the feet that Brother
Bruce talked about Friday night, the cost that that king gave
so that we could look upon him? Better yet, so that he could
look upon us. Have you seen the kindness of
that king? Oh, I'm sorry, I mixed up Brother
Angus with John Chapman Friday night. Brother Angus was Saturday
morning. Have you seen the king that was
kind to his people and loving to his people as we heard Brother
Angus yesterday morning? What a king. What a king that
would put his majesty aside for just a moment just a moment so
that he could save and serve his people, so that he would
have this people with him throughout eternity. Some of us are getting
pretty close to that doormark death, aren't we? To our young folks, that door
may be closer to you than you think. Our Lord has a day marked for
each and every one of us. My brother's son left this world
when he was 18 years old, of no fault of his own. Have you seen the kindness of
that king? Have you seen what it is that
hinders you from coming to him? If God hasn't spoken to your
heart, you'll never see what hinders you, as our brother Dave
pointed out. You'll go through that doormark
death thinking you're doing something good, you're some kind of a goody.
I'm not that bad. I only lied once. I only had one bad thought about
a person, one thought about a person of jealousy or anger. I've never lied. Have you seen what hinders you?
What hinders you from coming to that king is the sin within
us and the blindness of a dark, dark heart that we're born into
this world with. I want you to see what happens
when you see the glory of God. Turn over to Luke chapter two.
When God reveals himself through the preaching of his word, what things have you seen is
my title. What things have you seen? Here
in Luke chapter two, we see a man who is not ashamed, who is bold,
who'd been waiting. Verse 25, and behold, there was
a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the
same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of
Israel. Now, I want to stop there for just a moment. He was just
and devout. What made him just and devout?
The same thing that made Lot just. the savior, the healer. He was just and devout, waiting
for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him
and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came
by the Spirit in the temple. And when the parents brought
in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law,
then took he him, Simeon took the Lord Jesus up in his arms
and he blessed God and said, Lord, now let us thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes, what
have you seen? What have you seen at this meeting
of God's people this weekend? I've seen my Lord every time
I get together with his people and studying his word. Simeon
is doing the same thing we do every Sunday or Wednesday, whenever
we gather in the name of the Lord and praise his name, he's
lifting him up. Just like Moses did with the
serpent in the wilderness, he's lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's saying, mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast
prepared before the face of all people. What a gracious God his people
see. Five things come to mind, and
I'll make them real quick. Five things that we could not
see at one time. Before the Lord called, before
the Lord calls any of his people, before he gives us sight to see,
before he gives us life in this heart, back when that old heart
was ruling over us, the worldliness inside us, the flesh had complete
rule. The wickedness that was in us
had complete rule. What was it we couldn't see?
We couldn't see how depraved we were. We couldn't see. We thought we were pretty good
people, didn't we? How many of you young people
today are sitting here thinking, I'm not a bad person. I'm good. How many of you adults are thinking,
I'm not a bad person, I'm a good person. Look at all the good
things I do for the community around me. Look, I go to church
on Sunday. Isn't that what the Pharisee
was saying? I'll bet you that publican who
was pounding on his chest couldn't see his need of a savior either
until the Lord did a work in his heart. I know that. Couldn't see that God chose us
from before the foundation of the world. I couldn't see that. I truly thought it was my decision
to make someday and I'll make it when I'm good and ready. I couldn't see that that blood
our Lord Jesus shed on that cross was for me, for a particular people, his elect, his chosen. I couldn't see that God had been
calling me all along since the day I was born. I just didn't
hear it yet. He hadn't come and spoken to the heart. I couldn't
see that He had saved me before the world was. That I was in
Him, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, before
anything was ever created. I couldn't see that his grace
was gonna come to me and with irresistible, drawing power,
he would pull me out of that pew that I was sitting in and
say, John, you're mine. Couldn't see that the power of God would be
what it was to keep me with him forever. What will you say you have seen
this weekend when you're back out in this world? Oh, I went to church. I went
to a conference. I met with my friends at church. I had a good time. Or will you say, I saw the feet
of God through the preaching of his word? Will you say something like,
I saw my only righteousness in my Savior, the Lord Jesus? Will you say, I saw the blood
that covers my every bit of weakness I have? I saw the glorious King of Kings
on his throne sovereign in all things, and I saw his mercy and
his grace to me." Go tell. Go tell. Go tell what you have seen this
week.