Good morning again. You bear
with me just a moment, please. Before I get into my message
in earnest, I have a song I want to read to you. I'm not, definitely
not gonna try to sing it to you. My dear brother, Joe Galusik,
sent me this this morning. It can be found in Gadsby's hymn
book, number 626, and William Gadsby himself wrote this song,
and his title is, And Ye Are Christ, taken specifically from
1 Corinthians 3, verse 23. And these are the words that
Smith wrote. Sinners who on Jesus rest must
eternally be blessed. All Jehovah's love can give,
they from Jesus shall receive. Loved of God, to Jesus given,
in the purposes of heaven. They are bought with blood divine,
and they must in glory shine. They are Jesus' flesh and bone,
nor from him shall air be torn. Can a part be sent to hell, and
the whole in Zion dwell? No, we bless the Lord on high. Not a single joint can die. Every member lives in Him. He's the life of every limb.
They are Christ, baptized divine. Here His brightest glories shine. All creation must give place. to the subjects of His grace. Matchless Jesus, may we be wholly
taken up with Thee, and in every deep distress lean upon Thy truth
and grace. One more thing before I start
in the message. I have a quote here from James Smith, According
to what I could research, he was born in 1802 and only lived
till 1862. He actually pastored at the New
Park Street Chapel in England. He was there several years before
Charles Spurgeon pastored there. He was a particular Baptist. Here's what James Smith wrote,
and this is my desire this morning as well. My object is to leave
the mind from self to Jesus, from sin to salvation, from the
troubles of life to the comforts of the gospel. My aim is to humble
the sinner and exalt the Savior, to strip the creature and to
place the crown on the head of God's free grace. I cannot ascribe
too much to Jesus or too little to man. Oh, if there were more
creatures in this world that held to that. We'd all be better
off, wouldn't we? Turn to Matthew chapter 11. Before
I begin, let me say this. I thank God for the opportunity
to be here again. You folks so graciously received
Penny and myself. It's a privilege, a joy to be
here. And Vicki, thank you for the hospitality, even asked us
to stay in her home last night, and that was a blessing. Jason,
Ray, and Peggy enjoyed the fellowship yesterday. So now, Matthew chapter
11. I want to read just the first
six verses, Matthew chapter 11. And it came to pass, when Jesus
had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples, he departed
thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John,
this is John the Baptist of course, now when John had heard in the
prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and
said unto him, art thou he that should come or do we look for
another? Jesus answered and said unto them, go and shew or that
is show John again those things which ye do here and see. The blind received their sight. The lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and
the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever
shall be offended in me." You see that? And what's that next
line? I'm paraphrasing, that was enough. And they departed, you see, and
they departed. And I just look at the backdrop
here. John the Baptist is in prison. I mean, this man is locked
up. And as I have experienced, I
have reason to believe that the prison that John the Baptist
was locked up in is not the comfy digs that many prisoners are
locked up in today. John the Baptist was locked up
because he preached the coming of the kingdom of God. So John's
in prison. He's locked up. He's soon to
lose his head, literally. Christ begins to teach and preach
in his disciples' hometown. That's what we're told here.
And when he begins to teach and preach in his disciples' hometown,
he begins to perform great miracles. Great miracles. What can you
say? Think about it. These, these were not just a
few sparse, secret, isolated works. word has now spread into
even a prison setting. John then seeks confirmation
of Jesus' messianic claim in place. Are you the Christ or
not? That's what he's asking. A lot of speculation about that,
but here's one thing I do see. Christ never rebuked him. He
just tells the two disciples that he sent to ask the question,
are you the one we're looking for? Or do we look for another?
You go tell him what you've heard and what you've seen. You see
that? You tell him what you've heard and what you've seen. John
then seeks this confirmation of Christ's messianic place.
Are you the Christ or not? John gets his answer, doesn't
he? Christ, this message, how long would it take me to read
that? What is it? Verse four and verse five and
verse six. It didn't take but moments and
they departed. I bet you people wish I preached
that short. Hmm. Now let's ponder four thoughts
this morning. Think about this. God did not
sneak his Christ in the back door. He did not sneak his Christ in
the back door. Granted, For 30 years, he dwelt
in pretty much obscurity. We see great convulsions early
in his life as a man, as a young child, up to two years old. We
see great convulsions going on on Earth. But then he asked his
father, Joseph and Mary take him and flee. and everything
just calms down for another 28 years. That's a good while. And you
know what? What was Jesus doing then? Just
being perfect. Just being perfect. Just going
about every day working in a cart in a shop. So it's so much in
obscurity that even his half brothers and sisters Didn't believe
he was any messiah. They didn't believe this holiness
he had it. Penny June, it must've been something
down inside. It's not all that obvious out
here, right? And yet our flesh tells us, well,
if you want to be holy, you gotta be holy out here. If it's just
out here, it ain't worth spit. But for 30 years, he lived in
relative obscurity. One little footnote, when he
was 12 years old, he was in the temple about his father's business,
wasn't he? But all of a sudden now, being
about 30 years old, the book of God tells us, God Almighty
says, here is my Messiah. He begins teaching and preaching
and what? Giving sight to the blind. People
that couldn't walk leaped with joy and ran. Vile, flesh-rotting
lepers, do you see it, were cleansed. People who couldn't hear, all
of a sudden they heard. The dead are raised up. No, God Almighty was not sneaking
his Christ in the back door. You remember even Paul told it
was one of, I forget if it was a grandpa or I don't, I don't,
I don't remember who it was. But he said, you know, these,
these things were not done in a corner. Here's the, here's the thing.
Men and women say, well, why is it God's still doing that?
Right. Why is he not still, don't you
think people would just believe if they seen these things? No. They didn't then, and they won't
now. They won't now. So God did not
sneak his Christ in the back door. But here's the second thing.
Christ clearly manifested his messianic authority by open acts
of miraculous works. He even came up to a man that
was possessed with hundreds of devils, so much so that when
Christ asked the devils their name, they gave him one name.
We are Legion, for we are many. You knew what he said? He said
and did with them exactly what he wanted to do with them, even
the demons of hell. Do you know what it hit? That
crazy, gattery demoniac, that one that was in that grave area. I have no doubt people were scared
to death of this man. They tried to bind him with rope
and with chains. And what'd he do? Prickle him.
And running at night, screaming and yelling and cutting himself.
All of a sudden, they see him what? Seated? clothed, and in
his right mind, at the feet of Christ. You know why? Because
Jesus of Nazareth is God's Christ. And if he's come out after you,
he will have you. If he comes after me, he will
have me, and all the legions of demons in hell cannot stop
him. Christ clearly manifested his
messianic authority by open acts of miraculous works. He was not
the con men we see today. Again, the blind see, the lame
walk, rotten fleshed lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, dead
people are raised up, but surely preacher, surely If, if, if,
if Christ was doing that, and if He did that today, wouldn't
that convince the, the most skeptic of people? No. Look what's written
by John, the Apostle John in John chapter 10. Of course, he's
recording the words, the teachings and the acts of Jesus Christ.
And just a couple of verses, John 10 verse 31. John 10 and 31, then the Jews
took up stones, and then notice that next word, again. This wasn't
the first time. This wasn't the first time. Then
the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered
them. I can just picture this in my
mind. They've got rocks in their hands. What kept them from going ahead
and doing the deed of bashing his brains out? He did. They could not touch him, lest
God Almighty and the person of the Son give them say so. Here
they are standing with these rocks in their hands, right?
Jesus answered them, many good works have I shewed you in my
Father's name. For which of these works do you
stone me? Natural men in religion? Whether
religious or irreligious, don't mind good works. They don't mind
when the blind can see, and the lame can walk, and the deaf can
hear, and the dead's even raised up. But you know what they don't
like? Those last two miracles that
Christ gave to John's disciples. That's what they don't like.
And we'll get at that moment. Look, for which of the good works
do you stone me? Many good works have I shewed
you in my Father's name. For which of these works do you
stone me? The Jews answered, saying, For
a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that
thou, being a man, make us thyself God. You see that? How right they were, and yet
how wrong they were at the same time. One, he did not have to
make himself God. He was God. God don't make himself anything.
God says, I am. If he's anything today, he's
always been that. And since he's always been that,
he shall never cease to be that. So he didn't make himself God.
He was God. But it went right over their
head like this. And he's like, we're not going to kill you for
making somebody blind, making them to see. And remember, the
blind are made to see. He didn't come up and say, now,
you can just muster up enough pupil strength, and you just
work with me in this thing that we'll get you some sight. He
just walked up to blind people. One guy, he spit on the dirt,
made spitty mud out of it, put it on his eyes, and said, now
go wash. And when he washed, guess what he could do? Hmm? He could see. Somebody says,
certainly this would convince me, no, it would just irritate
them because God has never left off these last two miracles. These last two miracles that
were given as messianic confirmation of who he was still continue
today. No, we're not seeing preachers
going around, and listen, if these men had the power, these
men today, these hucksters today, if I had the power to make blind
people see, they wouldn't be a blind person in this area of
North Carolina today. We'd leave here, go to the hospital,
and there wouldn't nobody not have sight. But I'm not God. God is God, even in the person
of his son. And he can say to this one, see,
and he can say to this one, stay in your blindness. I don't have
the right to do that. That's why I don't have the power.
I would abuse the power, but he is sovereign in his power.
No, men hate the preaching of the gospel. And they hate when
the preaching of the gospel declares that God gets all the credit.
See, look at it. Remember, the blind receive their
sight. These are miracles. Look what you've seen and heard.
There's no doubt that he did these things. The blinds receive
their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are
cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. And then
he's like out of the blue. And the poor have the gospel
preached. How does that fit with this other
thing? But notice how he's building up in this sense of crescendo. Blind, then lame, then lepers,
and deaf, and then dead or raised up. And then he says, as if to
build on top of even all that. Not down under here. This is
not the last on the list. He is building up to this crescendo.
and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And here's
the last one, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended
in me. Now, bless your heart, that's
a miracle when somebody's not offended in Christ. Oh, I realize
that the Jesus that's preached today, nobody's offended by him,
are they? I mean, everybody loves that
Jesus they're preaching out there today, that one that wants the
best for you, but just can't do it without your help. Well,
if he needs my help, he's a sorry Messiah. Because our Lord told
us that even when we've done that, which is our duty to do,
what did he say? We're to confess about ourselves.
We are, but unprofitable servants. Hmm. And my flesh says, but come
on, preacher, it can't be crescendoed with that, just that. Yeah, just
that. All of these, granted, God Almighty
has given mankind some enormous wisdom. And people who are blind
are being made to see today, but it's not by sovereign fiat,
is it? Maybe through medications, surgeries. One thing they're
not doing is they're not raising the dead, are they? Now, come
on, are they? No. Bear with me a moment. Years ago, the city of Princeton,
where I was kind of born and raised, we had two theaters.
You remember the old hometown theater, just one movie screen
and one on each side of the road. I forget what their name was.
Well, they finally went defunct when the big cinemas came along.
Well, it was a fellow that rented one of those cinemas. And for
years he preached there and he was on TV. And I am not lying to you. One
Sunday morning, he had a Sunday morning broadcast on TV, the
NBC affiliate out of Bluefield, West Virginia. And he parade
paraded this old lady up on stage and she had on a long white wig
and it was a wig, long white wig. And he said, sister, you
tell these folks out there in TV land how brother so and so
raised you from the dead. The man was a huckster. But Christ raised people from
the dead. Lazarus, come forth. But that's not the glory. The
glory is that the poor have the gospel preached unto them. How much I forget that. When I hear a gospel, I'm not
talking about me preaching. The person doing the preaching
is not the point. It's the poor have the gospel
preached unto them. How often even me who preaches
the gospel and I hear a gospel message, I don't realize I am
experiencing a miracle. One, I don't deserve to even
hear it. You see, I don't deserve to even
hear it and then not just hear it one time. But God sent it
to me, and sent it to me, and sent it to me, and sent it to
me, and finally says, be. And I could see. I couldn't walk. And what does he say? Walk. I couldn't hear it. What's he
say? Hear. I was dead. And he said, Walter, come forth. Why? Because the poor. had the gospel. And it comes to this place where
I was no longer offended in Christ. The individual I mentioned to
you earlier that sent me the song, I read you the song by
Gatsby. When I first met him, You bear
with me. I'm not trying to make fun. I'm
not trying to justify anything. When I first began to meet him,
all he could tell me is what God Almighty had done for him.
And I'd never heard anybody talk like that in my whole life. He
talked like God actually saved him instead of him helping God
save him. And I remember thinking, I don't
like him because he smoked cigarettes. That wasn't the problem. The
problem was he was telling me about a Jesus Christ that I'd
never heard of before. The problem was he was telling
me about a man who held me in his own hands. If he didn't bless
me first, I would be offended in him. Do you see the miracle
of that one? It does not say those who are not offended in
me will be blessed, does it? Now religion will say, well,
that's the same thing. No, it's not. We don't act and then God blesses
us. We can only act after God has
blessed us. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. Think about it. Here's my title. Two Transcendent Miracles. Transcendent. Transcendent. The poor have the
gospel preached to them. Let me go on. Blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me. Think about it. Gospel preaching,
turn with me, just turn before I make the statement, turn to
1 Corinthians 1. If you follow, if you wish to
follow along, just turn to 1 Corinthians 1. I want you to be there ready
to follow along if that's what you're supposed to do. 1 Corinthians 1. I'll give you the verses here
in a moment. Think about this. Gospel preaching is God's eternal pleasure. You hear what I just said? Gospel
preaching is God's eternal pleasure. Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse
17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to do what? Same thing Christ talked about,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. So that lets
me know this. I'm no, I'm certainly no English major
by any stretch of the imagination, but this lets me know this, the
preaching of the gospel has to do with the preaching of the
sufferings of the Messiah on Calvary's tree. That's the gospel. You leave that out. You got no
gospel. lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, what
is it? Foolishness. Even though Christ
called it a miracle. People just preaching. Think
about it. There are churches, put it in
quotes. No doubt hundreds if not thousands
of them that Penny and I probably passed on the way down here.
We'll pass again on the way back. They've relegated what I'm doing
here this morning, what you're sitting here listening to me
this morning, they've relegated that to the back burner at best,
right? At best. Well, you know, have
a nice little 15, 10 minute homily, and then just tell us about how
the world is and how great we are. And let's go play basketball
and football. Not realizing that to hear the
gospel preached is to hear a transcendent miracle. God could have left
us all in ignorance and laughed when he sent us to hell. Somebody
said, that ain't God. Yeah, it is God. Read Proverbs
1. God said to some folk, I called and you refused. He said, I'll
mock when your calamity comes. I'll laugh. L-A-U-G-H. Is that the way you spell that? When I began to realize who God
was, I was offended. This worm was offended. Talk about mocking a miracle
of God. But oh, thank God he blessed me in spite of myself. He gave me eyes to see what I
did not want to see. He gave me ears to hear what
I hated when I first heard it. He gave life to this dead heart
that now says, I need that God. I need that God. But look, I'm
getting on a rabbit trail, I think. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved is
what? The power of God. This, now you bear with me here,
I'm not trying to be too brash, but this is stupidity to most
of the world, to come in here every Sunday, maybe a Sunday
night, maybe a Wednesday or Thursday, and just hear a man stand up
and speak from the Bible. We need something with more power.
It is the power of God. See that? For the preaching,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Four. Now look at it here. Look
at it. Here we go. Four, after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew God, it, now look at that next
word, this is important, P-L-E-A-S-E-D, pleased. That's past tense, correct? It's pleasing, although that's
certainly true, God is still. pleased with the preaching of
the cross of Christ, but it pleased God. Now, since God is the same
yesterday and today and forever, that lets me know when nothing
and no one else existed but God, preaching the gospel was still
the miracle that he had purposed to perform on this earth, you
see. It's not it pleased Him because it doesn't please Him
anymore. It pleased Him because it always, eternally pleased
Him. And you know what? Why it's such
a glory to the heart of God the Father? Because the message of
the gospel is about His Son. It ain't about me. It ain't about
you. It's about His Son and His Son's
sufferings. And that's the dearest thing
to God's heart in all the universe. And that's why Christ put that,
the poor have the gospel preached unto them right there in the
midst, right at raising the dead. Gospel preaching is God's eternal
pleasure. Now, since it pleased God, since
it pleased God, why do men mock it so much? Because they're offended
in his son, right? This world don't mind sermonizing.
They don't want to hear somebody stand up every Sunday and preach
Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, do they? Oh, there's
thousands of sermons out there and they will tell you how to
live and how you ought to act in this situation, how you ought
not act in that situation. And I'm not saying those things
are not of value, but if you leave Christ out of it, you have
nothing. Nothing. It's just one worm. bragging
to a bunch of other worms about how great a worms we are. And yet this very Christ that
the gospel is about, when he hung on that tree, you know what
he said? I am a worm. You know what that's been? He
took my place. I'm not a worm in himself. God
the Creator manifest in human flesh. He took my wormness on
himself. And that worm, you go back into
the Old Testament, that worm wasn't a nice, fat, juicy Canadian
nightcrawler that you can put on and catch a catfish with.
No. You know what the word is in the Old Testament? One of
the words is a red wiggly maggot. I'm the maggot. What's that mean? What's a maggot
do? I know this is not pleasant, folks. What's a maggot do? It feeds off of rotting flesh. Not even good flesh. But in our
flesh, dwelleth what? No. Good thing. It's not the
maggots feeding on my flesh. I'm the maggot feeding on my
own flesh. And yet the blessed son of God
hung on that tree and said, I'll take that, I'll bear that shame.
I'll bear that judgment. Bless God, folks, that's the
gospel. And it's a miracle that every
one of us here, God let us live to hear it another day. Boy. For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Some folks
want a sign, right? Here's the sign. You're hearing
the person and work of Christ exalted. What greater miracle
do you need? Well, as long as it concerns
Jesus Christ and His glory, well, you know, I'd rather see a sign.
Or, no, that's what, one man dying for another man? The man
dying for many men and women. Think about it. God's got to
bless you first before you'll ever not be offended in that
gospel preaching. Why is it that religion always
wants to turn the truth of this book around? You know, you've
heard the proverbial putting the cart before the horse. How
good does that work? Some of you fellas, you ladies,
you all plow with the horse. Put the horse behind the plow,
see how well that works. Impossible. It's like the passage,
our Lord himself told some people, you believe not because you're
not of my sheep. And religion will write commentaries
or preach messages and then turn that right around and say the
reason you're not a sheep is because you won't believe. It's
not what he said. And here he doesn't say, you
don't be offended in the end, I'll bless you. If that's the
criteria, we'll all go to hell. Because by nature, none of us
love Christ like he really is. Oh God. Sweetly. Sovereignly force me
to rejoice in your transcendent miracles that are still taking
place today. I know if I live very much longer
at all, I will sit just where you're sitting and listen to
a man preach. And I will probably be so indifferent
to it. So indifferent to it. Oh, I didn't believe it. We're experiencing, brothers
and sisters, a miracle. I mean, that almost make you
Pentecostal if it wasn't for the fact Pentecostals don't know
the truth of God. And if you're here in your Pentecostal,
tough. Because you got to know the Christ
of God. It's not any Jesus that saves,
it's the Christ of God. That's why John the Baptist said,
are you really him or not? because there are imposters. And to rest in the imposter is
damning to the soul. Oh God, sweetly force me to rejoice
in your transcendent miracle. God sending men. It's almost like just pounding, pounding. You have
nothing standing before you here this morning. But if I'm preaching
the truth of God, and I am, then you are hearing from God himself. When I do this, I often forget
how important that is. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
2. If you're still in 1 Corinthians 1, just turn a page over possibly.
1 Corinthians 2. Remember, these two miracles
are transcendent miracles because they've been continuing for 2000
years since the events of Matthew 11. Verse 11 of 1 Corinthians
2. For what man knoweth the things
of man save the spirit of man that is in him? For instance,
give you an illustration. Do your house pets understand
you? and what you are as a human being.
No. When you tell them you need to
go get a job, your food's too expensive, you think they're
gonna say, oh, I understand your spirit. I'll go out and maybe
hunt some raccoons for somebody, make some money. They're a beast. You're a human being. They don't
relate to your spirit. For what man knoweth the things
of man, save the spirit of man that is in him? But look at where
Paul takes this. Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man, but the, capital, see it? But the spirit of God, apart
from the spirit of God first, himself, doing something for
me, I cannot comprehend the truth of God. Look at verse 12. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit, which is of God. Now
look, not then we really knew it's not what it says it that
we might know the things that are freely given us. Oh God. It takes an act of God
first that brothers and sisters is a miracle book, which things
also we speak. not in the words which man's
wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual, but the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. I heard Brother Darwin
Pruitt say this years ago, and it's just stuck with me. I hope
it stays with me till the day I enter the glory by God's grace.
He said, why did Paul here write the natural? Why didn't he say
unregenerate? Same thing. Same thing, but what
natural man? Because this is the way we're
born. See, men will preach, well, we
fell just like Adam did. No, Adam fell and we fell in
him. He was upright. He fell to nothingness. I've never been upright. I was
conceived, grew in the womb of my mother, and was born dead
in trespasses and sins. That is natural to me. You see that? It was not natural
for Adam to fall. It was against what he was. And
here's another little tidbit. I heard a preacher say this years
ago. Think about it. Here's Adam in this garden. He didn't have
no alcohol not to get drunk on. Didn't have no movie theaters
with bad movies on them not to go see. Didn't have no other
women to go around and mess with. Right? And yet he failed. And we think we're going to do
a lot better than this morass in which we live, but these hearts
in which we live. No, why? But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are,
what's that? Foolishness unto him. Neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, or
that is laid hold of, or grasped. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Another interpretation
of that is the same thing after the Greek word. But he that is
spiritual, What's he do? He looks at things and considers
them from the word of God as they are. He judges them. But
what's the other one? But he himself is what? Judged
of no. They can't figure you out. The
unregenerate person can't figure you out. You know why? Because
you used to be an unregenerate and you know exactly where they
still are. You know exactly how they feel. You know how they
think, you know, all of the excuses, all of the hate, all of the last
word, God, you've been there, but all of a sudden God almighty
has worked on you. And now something else is in
you as well. And they can't comprehend that part. I mean, I had a fellow
asked, but he said, you act like two different people. Sometimes
I said, you're getting pretty close to what the facts are.
Hmm. You see, that which is born of
the flesh is what? Flesh. It never improves and
becomes anything else. And that which is born of the
Spirit is what? Spirit. It needs not improve. What do you think about this?
You have, if you're in Christ now, if God Almighty has shown
you grace and mercy in Christ, you hear the gospel and you feed
on it. Christ is food for my soul. And you hear that miracle
and you're not offended in him. You now have within you the best
you will ever be, even in glory, save this vile body being changed
and the flesh being done away with. We have within us right
now a new man. that is created in righteousness
and true holiness. I'm not going to have holiness
one day. I'm just going to have all the
unholiness taken away. Now you think about that and
be given a new body in which to dwell. My problem is I don't always
see the difference. My flesh is so deceptive. My
flesh has such ulterior motives. He can come in here to my flesh
and smile at you all, smile at everybody else in the world,
and think if I could get you all back turned, I'd take everything
you've got. To a preacher, you ain't like
that. No, I'm worse than that. I'm worse than that. You see gospel, think about it,
it's number four. Gospel preaching is God's transcendent means of
bringing to fruition His electing love. Beloved, we're bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren. Beloved of the
Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth.
Being set apart by the Spirit must come first before you ever
believe the truth. Whereunto we what? Whereunto
we what? called you by our gospel. How do I know I'm one of the
elect? Don't worry about that. How does the gospel affect you?
What do you think about Christ? Do you want him as he is, or
would you rather him be some other way? But not only that,
God's blessing must come first. Turn to Psalm, the 65th Psalm. I'm about ready to close it down.
Psalm 65. You know, isn't it amazing, my
brothers and sisters, when God opens your eyes, spiritually
speaking, and you start to read this book, and you've read it
through maybe time after time after time, and all of a sudden,
it's like, I've never seen that before. You know you read it
before, but it never, ever mattered. You had your, if you read it,
like, well, I don't quite understand it, so you just move on, because
that's deep stuff. That's deep stuff, right? Well, look at what
the psalmist wrote. Psalm 65. This is a Psalm of
David itself. Look at what it says. Let's just
read the one verse. Verse four. Blessed is the man
whom thou choose us and calls us to approach unto thee. Now, see the order? Don't reverse
that order. Of course, you're trying to take
credit for God's work if you do, and God won't have it. He
won't have it from me, and he won't have it from you, dear
people, either. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest
to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. Now,
look at this. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." Now, here's
the point for me. Am I satisfied with that or not? Somebody says, but preacher,
it can't be that simple. No, it is that impossible apart
from a miracle of God. Heavenly Father, May Your Word
strengthen and encourage us. Lord, work in us both the will
and the due of Your good pleasure. Lord, make us rejoice in the
personal work of our Son. In Christ's name, amen.