That hymn is better as a duet,
but all of these hymns, they're going to be sung, Moses'
song and the other heavenly songs are going to be sung by people
that no man can number. What's that going to sound like?
You can turn with me to Colossians 1, Colossians chapter 1. Brother John, I'm sure, will
agree with me. When we go somewhere else to
preach, we're kind of struggling for the text to preach from. We preach to our own people.
We know from week to week the direction we're headed. So we
generally preach a message we've preached to our people somewhere
else, don't we, John? Almost always. As soon as I started
thinking about preaching here, this passage came to mind, and
Lord, I prepared it just for you. I may preach it to our people
when I get back on Sunday, but I thought about you and Colossians
1. Last time we were here, we looked
at Ephesians 1, and they sound real similar because they are
the same message. God's word through Paul the Apostle. And he was in prison when he
wrote both of them. And they sound similar to the gospel and
to the church. If I had a text, it would be
verse 13. Look at that. Speaking of God
the Father who hath delivered us from the, I'm sorry, verse
12. We give thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet or fit
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, God who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, translated us into
the kingdom of his dear son. So the title and the text and
the subject is, Are You Fit for Heaven? Are You Fit for Heaven? God hath
made us meet, that means fit, qualified, able to be there. and all that. Are you fit for
heaven? There's not a person in here
who would think, oh, no, I'm not fit for heaven. I ain't fit
for burning, fit for nothing, we'd say. But we're going to
try to answer this, okay? And I believe you'll see here. Verse 1. an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God and Timotheus, our brother. Paul
was God's preacher and Timothy also. We believe Timothy was
first pastor at Ephesus. Paul and Timothy traveled together.
They were companions. They were brethren. They were
called to be apostles. They were called to preach the
gospel. Well, I believe I have. I believe your pastor has. Paul
and John, we could write this to the church, couldn't we? We got good names for preachers,
don't we? Paul and John. To the saints, verse two. And
saints, that's, you know, God's people are called saints more
than anything else in scripture. You know that? Christian only
called that a couple of times. Believers, many times. Brethren,
many times. But saints, over and over and
over again. That means the ones who've been
sanctified, those who the Holy Spirit has set apart, the Lord,
those whom God has made holy or devoted or consecrated to
God through the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, for their sakes, I
sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified. Christ is
our sanctification, right? You know that? Do you know that?
Surely you do. Everybody doesn't know that.
I was talking about those German Baptists like that last night.
They don't know that. They don't believe that. They
think they sanctify themselves. They think they make themselves
holy for God to accept. You know better than that, don't
you? We're accepted in the beloved. We're sanctified by the offering
of Christ once for all, aren't we? You know that. Well, you
know how blessed you are? to know that. And the faithful
brethren in Christ, those full of faith are those who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe Him. They are faithful
to God's glory. They're truly interested in God's
glory and Christ's glory. They're supporters of the gospel
and those who preach it. And I'm looking at a A church
just like Colossians, just like that. Faithful brethren in Christ,
that's everywhere in Scripture. That's salvation. Salvation is
two words, in Christ. Paul said, oh that I might be
found in Christ. And the simplest illustration
of that is Noah and his ark. Who was saved when God in his
anger destroyed the world? Who was saved? Those in the ark. Noah is a picture of Christ.
His name means rest. The ark is a picture of Christ,
right? Doesn't matter who you are, what you are, what you've
done. Doesn't matter any of that. If
you were in the ark, you were saved. Outside the ark, you perished. That's salvation. You know that,
don't you? How few people know that? The
brethren, brethren, don't you love that term, brethren? Sons
of God, God's children, brethren. There were three of us boys and
one girl in the family all had the same father. Well, scripture
says all God's people have the same father. They'd all be taught
of God. Everyone that heard and learned
of the father does what? Comes to Christ. And great is
the peace of them. All of us children, us three
boys and our sister, we had the same father. We knew the same
father. We were taught by the same father, okay? And we grew
up being alike. We bore his image. We bore my
mother's image. And we talked alike and we liked
the same thing. We ate the same food. Well, that's
the brethren in Christ. That's the brethren, the family
of God, same father, begotten of him. raised up by him, taught by him,
and we all created in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
elder brother, the first begotten of many brethren. We talk alike. Our language is the same. The
world doesn't speak like we do. We talk of mercy and grace, sovereign
grace. No, that's our language. The
people don't know, the world doesn't know this language. Read
on. It says, grace be unto you. to the church at Colossae or
Spring Lake or Rocky Mountain, grace unto you, oh grace, grace. Down in verse 6, he says, he
thanked God when they knew the grace of God in truth. See that,
the last line? They knew the grace of God in
truth. Simon Peter said, closing out his first letter, he said,
he thanked God that they, he said, this is the true grace
of God wherein you stand. The true grace of God. The world
thinks of the grace of God as an offer he extends to all human
beings hoping somebody will accept it. That is not the saving grace
of God. The grace of God is not an offer,
it's an act of God. It's an act of God. It's something
God does for us, something Christ does for us. It's everything
Christ did for his people on Calvary's tree. It's everything
the Holy Spirit does for his people and bringing the gospel
and regenerating them. It's the work of God for us,
the work of Christ for us, the work of the Holy Spirit for us
and the work of God in us. He said here, Christ in you is
the hope of God. So he says, grace be unto you,
God's grace, all grace, peace, peace. You and I know that we
don't make peace with God, do we? You know, a few people know
that. So many people, when they get on their deathbed and some
preacher goes in and jerks a decision out of them, you know, and he
goes and reports to people he made his peace with God. No,
he didn't either. There's only one way we have
peace with God, right? Every person in here would know
the answer to that. Christ made peace for us by the
blood of His cross. You know that, don't you? You
know how blessed we are? I'm going to keep saying that
because we are. Oh, don't take these things for
granted. See, every epistle, every word
speaks of these same things, the things of God and things
of Christ that he's done for us. Oh, he said, grace and peace
from God, our father. God's not the father of all mankind. He's the father of his people
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse three, we give thanks to
God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, pray and always for you.
Now he's gonna pray for them. And he says this to every church. First Thessalonians, we're bound
to thank God always for you, brethren. Second Thessalonians,
we're bound to thank God for you always, brethren. Philippians,
thank God upon every remembrance of you. When we think of the
church here at Spring Lake, we thank God for you, every one
of you. We think of people and we thank
God for you. When you think of the church
at Vermont, West Virginia, Kingsport. You can thank God for them. Thank
God. He says, we pray for you, verse
four, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, the love
you have to all the saints, and verse five, for the hope laid
up for you in heaven. Faith, hope, and love. Now about these three things,
Paul wrote. Faith, hope, and love. Faith
in God, faith in Christ. Hope, what's your hope of heaven? What's your hope of Lord? That's the question I ask people
if I want to give them a straightforward question to answer. Tell about
their, if they're saved or what. I say, what is your hope of eternal
life? What's yours? It's not a what
is it? A who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in Hebrews, he's our
hope, which hope we have within the veil, where Jesus Christ,
our forerunner, went within the veil with his own precious blood.
And now we've got hope. It's a good hope. It's a sure
hope because he's a surety. Laid up for us in heaven. Laid
up. Who laid this up? Who said, I'm
going to prepare a place for you? Huh? And I'm giving you
the answer whether or not you're fit for heaven. All right. He said, I'm going to prepare
a place for you. And God, the Father and God, the Son, God,
the Holy Spirit, do this work for us and do this work in us. So he's prepared a place and
he's preparing us to be there. And if he didn't, we wouldn't.
All right. Read on. He said, you heard of
this hope in the truth of the gospel. You heard. Faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And it's hearing the
truth, the truth. The truth of the gospel, born
again by the incorruptible word, and this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you, the true gospel. There's another
gospel being preached everywhere today. That's not the gospel.
You know what they say, God loves you, Jesus died for you, won't
you accept him? That is not the gospel. Anybody
that believes that is not saved. They don't know God, they don't
know Christ, they don't know themselves, they don't know sin,
they don't know the way to heaven, they don't know the truth. You
do, the gospel. The gospel is the truth of who
Jesus Christ is and what He did for His people. The true God,
the living God, the sovereign God, the holy God, the just God,
who by no means cleared the guilty, but this God chose a people before
the foundation of the world, gave them to Christ, the covenant
head, to come down here and save all of them. Did He? All our
hope is that he did the job. Well, he said on Calvary's tree,
it is finished. I finished the work for his people,
put away sin. That's the truth, isn't it? Anything
more or less than that is not the truth. The gospel, that's
good news, isn't it? Who's that good news for? There's
somebody doing it all for you. Who's that good news for? Help
us. Those that can't do it. He says, come unto you, verse
six, and bringeth forth fruit in all the world. Have they not
all heard? Yes, sound has gone throughout
the world, and bringeth forth fruits. What's the fruit of the
Spirit? What's the first fruit of the Spirit? Somebody tell
me. Love. Love. You see, all things
work together for good to them that love. Who? God as God. It's the first fruit of the Spirit.
He calls you not only to hear the truth, know the truth, the
true and living God, true Christ, truth about you. He calls you
not only to know the truth, but love the truth. You love that
God, right? You love that God is God, don't
you? People get angry when you talk to them about a sovereign
God who does what he will with whom he will, chooses whom he
will. They get angry with the God. I'm preaching to you and
you're smiling. Why? He's given you a love for
the truth, that you love the true and living God, don't you?
Oh, aren't you glad God is God? People pray to a God they can't
save. They believe in a God they can't
save, can't do anything unless they let him. I'm so thankful
that our God is able to save, aren't you? Or I would have no
hope. Man, would you have any hope
if it was left up to you, anything? Aren't you glad? were completely
in His hands. This is the fruit. Bring forth
fruit, love, joy. Doesn't that give you joy? Gentleness,
goodness, long-suffering, peace, faith. Read on. It says, it says,
it's come unto you and bringeth forth fruit since the day you
heard of it and knew the grace of God and truth. Do you remember
when the Lord first gave you ears to hear this gospel? You may have been in false religion,
and when you heard it, you didn't like it. I love telling this
story, tell it all the time, but my wife's grandmother was
in the first Christian Methodist church, you know. She was up
in years, and she was a proper woman and a moral woman, and
you know, she had made her way and worked hard and all that,
and she thought she was something, and everybody else did too. Well,
her son and his dad, the Lord saved him through Henry Mahan's
preaching, and he brought his mother to hear the gospel. He
wanted her to hear the truth. And she sat there, and when she
first sat there, she'd, you know, sit there and just shake her
head like this. John, you and Vicki knew her,
didn't you? She'd shake her head like that,
and she'd go home saying, he just contradicts himself. He
tells you to come to Crichton, and he says you can't. He contradicts
himself. Ain't nothing to that. And after
a little while, she kept hearing the gospel, and those arms dropped,
and that head stopped shaking, and after a while, she's doing
this. She's agreeing. Yeah, that's
me, sinner. No good. Yeah, that's the God
I need. Yeah, that's Christ. And my pastor baptized her, and
she was in her late 60s. Oh, the day you heard it, the
day you hear it, the Lord has to give you ears to hear. I was
a preacher's kid. I sat through message after message
after message after message. And I'll never forget. I don't
know the exact date, and you don't need to know when, but I was invited by a couple in
the church to go. My dad was preaching in Danville,
Kentucky, before they built that building. And they were meeting
in a schoolhouse, 78, something like 77, 78. A couple in church invited me
to go when their son was near my age. And they said, we'll
treat you to supper at the steakhouse there. It was a well-known steakhouse.
I'd eaten there before. I said, yeah, I'll go. Steak
dinner, all right. I'll go. Well, I went. And I heard from the Lord that
night. I thought I was the only person
sitting in there. And that man preaching wasn't my dad. That
wasn't his voice I was hearing. I was hearing from the Lord.
Smoked my heart. Here I am. The day you heard,
God gives you ears to hear. And he says in verse seven, you
learned of Epaphus, our dear fellow servant, who's a faithful
minister of Christ for you, like John Chapman. You hear this gospel
from him, don't you? But you need to hear from somebody
else. We say this all the time, don't
we, John? If my voice is the only voice you hear, it'll do
you no good. But it pleased God about the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And I hope
and pray, and some of you have heard through this man, and I
hope others do too. I believe he will. I believe
the Lord will give ears to hear through our fellow servant, who's
a faithful minister of Christ, through verse eight, who declared
unto us your love and the Spirit. Your pastor loves you and talks
about you and as you do him, esteem him highly. Verse nine,
for this cause, since the day we heard, we do not cease to
pray for you. And we desire that you might be filled with the
knowledge of his will. Knowledge of his will. What is
God's will? Well, this is God's revealed will in
it. This is God's revealed will here. This is what God has given. Turn with me to Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5. Now, Paul talks about the will
of God all through his epistles, Romans 12, that you might know
the good and perfect will of God. Look at Ephesians 5 with
me. Look at it. You have it? All
right, now look at verse 17. He ends saying many things by
verse 17. Wherefore, be not unwise, but
understanding what the will of the Lord is. What's that? Go back to chapter 4, the last
of the The chapter, verse 32, be kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children. Walk in love as Christ had loved
us and given himself for an offering, a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling
savor. Go on down. Verse 8, you were
sometimes darkness, now you're light in the Lord. Walk as children
of light. The fruit of the Spirit, you
see, is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, so prove what is acceptable
unto the Lord. Have no fellowship with the works
of darkness. You're not of the world. Read
on. Verse 13, Verse 14, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepeth,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
So see then ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming
the time, because the day is of evil. Wherefore be not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. You see that? The will of the Lord. Paul said
in 1 Thessalonians, your sanctification, mind, body, and soul sanctified,
set apart for His holy use. That's what it said. That's the
will of God. Now our text, look at it. So
he said, Colossians 1, you might know the will, be filled with
the knowledge of His will and all wisdom, wise to know, wise
to do, and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of
the Lord. See that? Unto all pleasing as
children of God. You know I'm not talking about
earning heaven. You don't know I'm not talking about merit.
You know I'm not talking about working a righteousness. Christ
did that. I've already established that.
We're talking about love. We're talking about reverence.
We're talking about respect for our Father. We're talking about
wanting to glorify our God, aren't we? We're talking about wanting
to help our brothers and love our brethren and do things for
them like Christ did. Want to be just like Him. Walk
with Him, walk like Him. Well, please Him. When you were
a child, if you were an obedient child, if you were a loving child,
if you loved your father and your mother, you wanted to please
them, didn't you? You wanted to please them. If
you weren't, if you didn't, you were a rebel, weren't you? Disobedient. God made His people obedient. want to please their Heavenly
Father. Don't we, John? We want to please Him. Did your
dad ever say to you when you left out and I remember who you
are, your dad's son and everything
we do either is a tribute and honors him or brings reproach
upon him. Is that important? If you love
God, you don't want to bring reproach on Him. and the brethren. So that's what this is talking
about. That you might walk worthy and
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, verse 10,
increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened, verse 11. He said, I can't do it. I can't
do it. No, you can't. Without him, you can do nothing.
But it is God that worketh in us, both the will and do of his
good faith. Didn't Paul say, I can do all
things through Christ. In myself, No good thing, I can't
do anything, but through Christ, I can do all that. Yes, I can. Verse 11, strengthened with all
might, his might, his power, according to his glorious power
and all patience. That's a good word, patience. Look over at James chapter four. But with me, James ends this
and he begins with patience. Look at this. You know, patience
is so hard to come by and we have such a hard time waiting
on the Lord and patiently enduring things and especially this generation. But in James chapter 5, look
at this. He says, verse 7, be patient,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman
waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience
for it until he received the early and latter rain. That's
speaking of Christ's harvest. He's coming, he's coming, but
he's waiting until the last one of his sheep is brought into
the fold. And then when it is, oh my, he's gonna fold this earth
up like a vesture and take his people home. In verse 8, so be
ye also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the
Lord draweth nigh. Verse 10, now take my brethren,
take my brethren, the prophets who've spoken in the name of
the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction and patience. The
trial of our faith, trials work with patience. Patience, experience,
experience, hope. God sends his people through
these trials for many reasons, for his glory, to wean us from
this world, to help other people, to make us look to Christ. These
trials we endure. And the same afflictions, Peter
wrote, the same afflictions, same troubles are accomplished
and your brethren throughout the world. All the family go
through similar affliction. Look at verse 11. Behold, we count them happy,
which endure these trials. You've heard of the patience
of Job. Don't you love the story of Job? The Lord put Job through
everything that a human being could possibly go through all
at the same time. Why? To show us that God's grace
is sufficient. He take everything away from
you. Everything away from you and do everything to you. Inflict
sickness and sorrow and God did it all to him. God did all that
to Job. And Job knew that. And that was
Job's hope and that was Job's peace and that was Job's Consolation,
and that was Job's patience, not to wait and see why. And they got in trouble when
they were trying to figure it out. But in the beginning, all
Job could say, and this is the only thing we need to say, is
the Lord did it. The Lord gave. The Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's peace, that's hope. Now you know the end of Job?
Verse 11 says, you know, the end of the patience of Job and
seeing the end of the Lord. Lord is very pitiful and of tender
mercy. Job got it all back, double. He received the Lord's hand double.
So patiently endure these things by his grace. Read on. It says
in verse 11 in our text, with joyfulness. You know, the joy
of the Lord is your strength. Yes, it is. sorrow and sadness
and mourning will bring you down. Paul and Silas were in jail,
beaten mercilessly, in pain in a dark, damp prison cell, weren't
they? They didn't deserve that from
him, but God had men do that. All right, they were in that
dark, damp cell wondering perhaps why we've been preaching the
gospel. Why are we here? And then Paul said, he came to
himself and he said, Brother Silas, God put us here. Let's just start singing. Let's
just rejoice in the Lord. There must be a reason that we
wouldn't be here. Okay, Silas, let's sing. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful. You know what happened? Chains fell off. They were wearing
chains and shackled. They were bound and they were
down and down and feeling depressed and in darkness even as others,
but the chains fell off and the door flew open and the jailer
came in with a light. Y'all here? Where still you are?
Why did the Lord do all that? The Lord started a church there
in Philippi. He had to put Paul in there and
Silas in there through all that trouble. So they start singing,
the joy of the Lord is your strength. Rejoice in everything and everything
give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. See that? Give him thanks. Now here's what it said. And
he's still praying. He's asking the Lord to do all
this for them, strengthen them, give them patience and long-suffering,
joy in the Lord. He said, give him thanks unto
the Father, which hath made us meet, or fit, or able, or qualified
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. God who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, translated us into
the kingdom of his dear Son. Are you fit for heaven? No. Are you going to go there? Fit for heaven means able to
be in glory, able to stand before God, able to stand in His presence,
in the presence of God, who's a consuming fire. Are you fit?
Are you able? Well, not in yourself, are you?
But what does it say here? It says, God hath made us fit,
made us need them. Huh? In 1 Corinthians 1.30, I
tell our people, memorize this scripture. Memorize it backward
and forward. Memorize it. Don't forget it
now. This is our hope of glory. It's all in a person. It's all
what God has done for us in a person, okay? Now here it is. Of God,
of Him are you in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom. We don't know. We just don't
know. That's what Solomon said. Lord, I'm too young. I don't
know if I'm coming or going. I don't know what to do. He said,
don't do anything. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Who's going to do it for you?
Christ has made unto us wisdom. He knew. Wisdom, righteousness. We got to have a perfect righteousness. Here we go again. Yes. Isn't
it wonderful? Righteousness. That's that robe
that Christ wrought and put on it. The first thing he said to
that prodigal son, first thing he said concerning that prodigal
son was bring the best robe and put it on him, not offer it to
him, put it on him. He's in rags. Put this robe of
righteousness on him. And that's what God did to us
in Jesus Christ. Righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We don't have any redeeming quality.
We don't. Christ does. He's altogether
loved. Have you ever seen this before?
I'm sure you have. Don Bell's first one. Where's
my pen? Well, shoot. I don't have a pen. Okay. If you put a bunch of zeroes
down on a piece of paper, you put ten zeroes down on a piece
of paper, how much does it work? How much? Zero. What's, what, a thousand zeros,
what's it worth? Zero. 10,000 times 10,000 and
thousands of zeros, what's it worth? Zero. Nothing. But if you put a one in front
of it, now what's it worth? And you and I are worthless,
and we're all gonna be singing, Tommy, in glory, worthy is the
Lamb, aren't we? And we're all going to be there
in glory, 10,000 and thousands of thousands. We're all going
to be there because of one person in Him. Now, what are they worth? God won't give them up for nothing.
He'll never perish, Christ said. Why? Christ shed his blood for
it, and not one drop of his blood is gonna be shed in vain. It's
accomplished. Wish I had my penis. He says he's
made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of life. Inheritance. How do you get an inheritance?
How do you get an heir? Is it something that you earn?
Is it something you work for? Somebody else earned it, right?
If you are an heir, you're gonna inherit what your parents earned,
right? What they did, what they worked
hard for. Whatever it is, if they leave
it to you, You get it because of them. You had nothing to do
with that. They did it all, right? And you
can only get it when they die. Well, we're joint heirs with
Christ. We inherit, God has given his
people this inheritance of heaven because of Jesus Christ. For
Christ said, he's the one that lived and earned it. He's the
one that died. And it's scripture says he ever
lives to make sure we get, what's coming to you? Inheritance with
the saints in light, the saints in light. You like light. Oh,
we read there, Paul said, well, you were children of darkness,
even as others, but now you like light. This generation is in
darkness in them. They can feel it like Egypt.
We love light, don't we? The life, the knowledge of the
glory of God, the light of His Word. You know, I told you about
those worms. Didn't I tell you about those
worms I had, all those worms I bought and made a house for
them? Worms live in the dirt. They
love dirt. They love earth. They live off
of dead things. They love that. That's what they
feed on. That's mankind. And I'd put them in that container,
and when I'd go down there and take the lid off of it, some
of them would be on top there, take the lid off of it, and the
light come in, and they'd bury in that darkness. They hated
the light. They hated it. And they'd bury down in that
darkness. Well, that's man. Here's condemnation. Light is
coming to the world. Christ and men love darkness
rather than light. Light exposes sin, doesn't it?
Exposes evil, exposes everything. But man doesn't want to expose.
He likes the darkness. He likes this earth. He likes
sin. He loves that. But God translates
some of these people in darkness, brings them out of darkness in
his marvelous light, out of death into life to where they love
light. They love Him. They love the
truth, no matter what it says about them. They love it. Like our Lord said, He that doeth
the truth cometh to the light. Those worms, the only way you
can make them love the light is to change them into a butterfly. Then what will they do? Fly to
the light. You love light? A man standing
up here Exposing you and calling you a dog, calling you a sinner,
calling you no good, calling you worthless. Do you love that? How could somebody love that?
A dog? That's what the Lord called that Syrophoenician woman. Dog,
I don't want to give children's bread to a dog. What'd she say? One word, truth. Truth, Lord. But if I'm your dog, You know,
all dogs go to heaven. You know that? They all go to
heaven. All the Lord of dogs. Oh, man,
here's what I'm trying to say. Here's what God's saying, what
I'm trying to say. That the Lord makes us fit. We don't make ourselves fit.
Let me ask you, what is it that makes someone fit for washing?
Huh? What is it that qualifies somebody
for washing? Dirt. Dirty. Do you feel dirty? Huh? Do you feel dirty? What
is it that qualifies somebody for food? Hunger. Are you hungry? Are you hungry
and thirsty? Sign of life. Hunger and thirst. What is it that qualifies somebody
for redeeming? Debt. Do you have any debts?
Do you have a sin debt? Huh? Can't pay it? You have a debt of gratitude
and thanks to God? What all has God done for you
and you cannot repay Him? Do you have a debt? That's what
makes you fit for the payment that Christ made. You know that?
What qualifies somebody for mercy? Mercy is not getting what you
deserve, isn't it? What qualifies somebody for mercy? It means
you're undeserving, don't deserve it. Everyone that says, I don't
deserve it, I'm unworthy. You know what God says? You get
it. Brother Scott Richardson, there
was a man he knew that was going before the judge. He was guilty
of a crime, a young man. And Brother Scott went to plead
with the judge for that young man, plead for mercy. And Brother
Scott asked the judge to be lenient, to have mercy upon the young
man. And the judge said, concerning the young man, he doesn't deserve
mercy. And Scott said, that's exactly
why I'm asking you to give it to him. That's the meaning of mercy. And it's sovereign mercy. It's
up to the one we've offended to give it. You know who God
will give that to? The undeserving. The unworthy. What about pardon? What about
pardon? Who's that for? Who's fit for
pardon? Only the guilty. Be guilty. Be guilty. What about saving? Anybody worth saving? This is
a faithful saying, no Christ came into the world to save sinners.
You say, but I'm the worst. Chief? That's where he came from. Paul said, I'm an example. I'm
the chief of sin. Let me tell you another story
about a Paul and Silas. Not this Paul and Silas, this
Paul. And I knew a man named Silas. His wife attended the
church there, and if he came, it might have been once or twice.
And he had no interest in the gospel that was written. And
he was dying. And I went to visit him in the
hospital, his wife named Ruth. And she asked me to go visit
Silas in the hospital, okay? And she was there, and I asked
her to leave. And it's just me and him. And I was talking to
him, and I had my Bible, and, oh, I wanted to talk to him.
And we talked a little while, and finally I asked him, Silas, I said, What do you think about
yourself? You're going to die, and you
know that. We all know that. What do you think about yourself?
What's going to happen to you?" He said, I know this. He said,
I don't know much, but I know this. He said, I'm just no good. He said, I'm just no good. I've never done anything good.
He said, I'm good for nothing. My whole life, he says, has been
worthless. Boy, now I had something to tell
him then, John. Oh, I did. I don't know what
the Lord did for him. I don't know. That's between
him and the Lord. But that's who the Lord, that's
who's fit for heaven. That's who's fit for heaven.
Because when we get there, everybody in heaven gonna be singing unto
Him that loved us. unto Him that washed us, unto
Him that chose us, unto Him that called us, unto Him that did
it all for us, unto Him, unto Him, unto Him. Everybody there
was made fit to be there because of Him. Do you know that? Your
only hope is Him, Him. Do you enjoy meeting with the
saints? Do you enjoy this? You obviously
do. It's a Saturday. What are you
doing here on Saturday? Could be fishing or hunting or
something or whatever you do on Saturday. Why are you here?
The world thinks you're crazy. Fool. For Christ's sake. You love what
you're hearing? You love the gospel? You love
God's people? You've heard these things before.
You hear them all the time. Surely you can make... Now you've
got to have it, don't you? You love the songs, you love
to sing these songs. How many times have you sung,
Come Thou Fountain? There is a fountain. How many times? Are
you tired of it? You know what God's people are going to be
doing throughout eternity? I don't mean for 40 years. I
don't mean 50. I mean the world without end. What are they going
to be doing? What we're doing right now. Well, you've got to love it now,
don't you? Because that's all we're going to be doing. Tom,
that's it. That's it. That's it. God's people say,
I can't wait. They're made fit now. They're
being made partakers now. God gives you a love for the
truth, a love for the gospel, a love for these songs of Zion,
a love for His people, and that's who you want to be with, and
that's what you want to do the rest of your life. Made fit. Now, bring them all in. It's all gonna be over one of
these days when he brings the last one into the fold and all
that Christ has done for them, the Holy Spirit through the gospel
has done for them and making them fit and now they're gonna
all enjoy heaven. And you know what heaven is?
It's not a place, it's a person. That's where Christ is. It's
a big marriage supper. of the lamb, and all the bride
is gonna behold the bridegroom. And is gonna be happy to be there
with him. With him. Is that you? If so,
I believe you're fit to die. Ready to die, Doug. Ready to die, Jude, if that's
your hope. Coming for you. Okay, may the Lord bless you. to.