There's indeed a blessing to
be with you tonight and I pray, have been praying that God will
be pleased to give us three very special days together. The title
of my message tonight is God's Greatest Blessing. God's Greatest
Blessing. What do you suppose that might
be? what is supposed to be the greatest curse, the greatest
judgment God might bring upon any people in this world. If
you open your Bibles to the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Romans,
I'll show you. While you're turning, I want
to make five statements, and I hope you'll hear me well. The
greatest blessing The Lord God himself can ever bestow upon
any people in this world is to send them a man to preach the
gospel of God's grace to them. I was preaching through Romans
chapter 10 at home when I got a call and found out that you'd
called for the chaplain to be your pastor. And I prepared this
message, essentially the same message, and preached it to our
folks. And I sent it to either Johnny
or Tommy, one of them, and said, I'd like for everybody here to
hear the message. And I decided, I'll make sure
you hear it. So I'm going to preach to you
what I preached to our folks at home the very week I found
out God had sent you this man to be your pastor, this faithful,
faithful man. I've known Brother John for a
long time, and I've known him to be a man of proven faithfulness
and gifted, gifted to preach the gospel of God's grace. How
blessed are those people to whom God sends a preacher who will
tell them who God is, who Christ is, and what God has done for
sinners, how God Almighty saves helpless, fallen, guilty, hell-deserving
sinners like you and me through the doing and dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the greatest blessing God
can, I use the word can deliberately, the greatest blessing God himself
can bestow upon any local church is to give them a pastor who
faithfully, boldly, consistently, I mean by consistently as often
as he preaches, as often as he preaches. I remember years ago,
a fellow who hung around for a little while, a preacher, he
said to me one time when he first met me, he said, how often do
you preach the doctrines of grace, he called them. I said, you mean,
how often do I preach total depravity, unconditional election, limited
atonement, irresistible grace, preservation of God's people?
He said, yeah. I said, every time I preach. Every time I preach,
I don't do it by accident, I do it on purpose. Blessed is that
congregation to whom God sends a man who will faithfully, consistently,
boldly proclaim the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ. Without the fear of man, the
fear of his face or of his frowns, boldly preaches the gospel. The
greatest blessing God can bestow on any town, any community in
this world, is to establish in their midst, as he has in this
place, a gospel church with a gospel preacher holding forth the word
of life. Oh, how blessed. If your neighbors,
if your neighbors, your family, your friends had any idea what
they're trampling underfoot by despising the preaching of the
gospel in this place, you'd have to tear these walls out and build
a bigger building. They have no idea what they're
doing. And the greatest judgment, the greatest curse God Almighty
can bring upon any people, any church, any town, any community,
is to silence or remove the voice of his prophet, to remove his
candlestick, this local church, to silence his witness and leave
them to themselves. When God leaves folks to themselves,
he leaves them to grope about in darkness and ignorance, in
judgment, all the while thinking they're walking in light. And
one last statement before we get to our text. Nothing on this
earth, nothing on this earth is so important, so absolutely
needful to you and your families as the preaching of the gospel.
As I prepared this message, I had a lot of things on my mind personally
with regard to myself and our congregation in Danville, and
with regard to you, your pastor, and this congregation. What a sad state the Church of
God is in in our day. It is our responsibility to preach
the gospel to immortal souls with fervency. with all the fervency
God gives us, as if the whole of their salvation depended on
us declaring the gospel to them. Because it does. It does. So we believe in sovereign
grace. If you do, you understand how
God saves sinners by the preaching of the gospel. The fact is my
race will soon be over. My work is almost done. I'm fully
aware of that. And I don't limit that. I'm trying
my best to squeeze all the work into these days I can. I'm not
looking for less to do, but more. But I recognize my days on this
earth are about done. And the future of the congregation
at Danville is of great concern, as is the future of this congregation. Let me tell you what I've learned.
I've been preaching the gospel of God's grace now for 50 years. Tell you what I've observed,
reading history and observing things in time. I can count on
these 10 fingers, just these 10, and I don't require all 10
of them, the number of congregations that I personally am aware of
that have succeeded from one generation to the next with a
faithful gospel preacher. How blessed you are. God sent
you a man to faithfully preach the gospel of his grace for over
30 years. Not many experience having that
twice. Very few, very few. How blessed
you are of God that he would preserve his witness for you,
for this community, for your families in this place. How blessed
of God you are. Now open your Bibles to the Gospel
of Romans, chapter 10. The Gospel of Romans, chapter
10. Several years ago, I read an article in a religious periodical.
I think it was Christianity Today, but I'm not sure about that.
I don't take the magazine, but I ran across it somewhere, and
a preacher, the fellow writing the article, made this statement.
Preaching is not to be the sum total of activity, nor even necessarily
the most important aspect of the assembly. And I read it again. And I wrote it down. I want to
say this to folks. I wrote it down exactly as he
wrote it. The article went on to suggest
that one of the greatest problems in our churches is that we spend
too much time preaching. What nonsense. What nonsense. Our Lord's last command is this. Go ye into all the world and
entertain folks while they go to hell. Go ye into all the world
and make folks feel good about themselves. No. Our Lord's last
command was, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. Brother Hubert
Montgomery, Brother Maurice Montgomery's dad was his pastor until the
Lord took him to glory. And when he was an old man, 80
years old, he was dating a lady. His wife had been with the Lord
for a long time, and he brought her to church, and she didn't
much like coming. And she said, I don't like to
go to church there, it's not fun. And Brother Hubert looked
at her and said, I didn't know going to church was supposed
to be fun. That's not the reason for coming here. The purpose
of the local church, this local assembly exists for one singular
purpose, and that's the preaching of the gospel. The church is
but a sounding board for the gospel of God's free grace in
this generation. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now let me make six
statements and I will give you my message in those statements
as briefly as possible. Number one, I want to emphasize
the fact that according to this book, and I'm going to show it
to you in this book, gospel preachers are vital. Gospel preachers are vital. That means, Brother Ed, you can't
get along without them. They're vital. You can't survive
without them. All who know the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ genuinely appreciate those who
preach the gospel. But very few, I fear, understand
that the preaching of the gospel is vital to their souls. Gospel
preaching is not an optional add-on that you can choose or
choose not to have, choose or choose not to adhere to in the
worship of God, but rather it is absolutely vital to your souls. The preaching of the gospel.
No, gospel preachers. That man sitting there. That
man sitting right there. These are the ascension gifts
of Christ to his church. Read the fourth chapter of Ephesians,
the 68th Psalm. These are the gifts that Christ
gave to his church as he ascended on high. I like to think, I don't
own anything. Shelby and I don't possess it.
We own two vehicles, clothes on our backs, and the ones hanging
in the closet is the furniture, that's it. We don't own anything.
But I would like to think that my grandson, my son-in-law, my
daughter, my granddaughter might cherish anything. that would
be the very last thing I gave him before I left this world.
Wouldn't you like to think that? And I believe they would. I believe
they would. How we ought to cherish the last
thing the son of God gave his church as he ascended on high.
Men, to preach to us the gospel of his free grace. This is what
I'm saying. All the works of grace in chosen
redeemed sinners are accomplished by God through the ministry of
the gospel. If God speaks to you, if God
speaks to any sinner's heart, if he teaches any man or woman
anything, If God reveals anything, excuse me, if he reveals anything
to us, he does it through the instrumentality of gospel preaching. Is gospel preaching really that
important? Is it really that important?
Listen to what the scripture tells us. Romans chapter 10,
verse 17. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. The no way to get faith, except
to have somebody to tell you what God says about faith in
Christ. Either orally or written, the word must be preached to
you. We're told that of his own will,
begat he us with the word of truth. James 1, verse 18. Peter tells us that we're born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And this is
the word. Now that's talking about from
Genesis chapter one to Revelation chapter 22. And this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. Now this is what that
means. That means that no man has preached the word in any
part of it who does not in expounding the word preach the gospel to
you. The whole message of God's book
is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. For understanding the
word of God, we must have the word preached to us. You remember
when Philip was preaching to the Ethiopian out of Isaiah 53,
he asked and said, do you understand what you're reading? And that
Ethiopian eunuch said, how can I except some man show me? There's no understanding of scripture
derived merely by carnal learning, by carnal diligent study, by
just reading the word on your own. You must have somebody taught
of God and sin of God to tell you what the book means. Otherwise,
you'll mess up every time. Every time. Folks like to have
Bible studies and Bible clubs and Bible classes so they can
get together and discuss Scripture. That sounds good, doesn't it?
Let's get together and study the Bible. That means we'll get
together and have coffee and eat popcorn and say, uh, what
do you think this means? Well, that's a good thought.
What do you think it means? I'll tell you what I think it means.
It don't matter to human beings what you think it means. There's
no better, it means what I think it means. What matters is what
it means. And the way you find out what
it means is by God giving a man a message from his word and declaring
God's message to you. Without the preaching of the
gospel, there's no edification, no strengthening, no building,
no growing of God's saints. We're told in Ephesians chapter
four. Without the preaching of the gospel, there's no possibility
of salvation, sanctification, spiritual growth, spiritual direction,
or spiritual stability. The ascension gift of Christ,
I repeat, is not something you may choose to avail yourself
of or despise without consequence. You despise the gospel preached
here, and you trample underfoot the very Son of God declared
and revealed in the gospel. There was a time God gave us
in history for 400 years. for 400 years, from the calling
of Malachi, his death, to the sending forth of John the Baptist,
Micah's 400 years. But that's not a problem. God didn't speak by any prophet.
God didn't send anybody with a word from heaven. But they
had the law. They had the whole Old Testament.
They had the whole thing. And don't imagine that the prophets
in the Old Testament didn't know what the scriptures taught. They
knew exactly what they wrote. They had the whole Old Testament.
And all they had to do was just Read the book. We believe in
the book, the blood and the blessing. We're going to be all right.
And everything will be just fine. After 400 years, the children
of Israel never abandoned the worship of God. They never did. They never did. They did something
far worse. They turned the word of God and
the ordinances of God into nothing but idolatry. That's what they
did. Because God sent them no prophet. In doing so, he sent blindness
to Israel so that when Christ, the light of the world, stood
in front of them, they couldn't see the light. That's what happens
when there's no preaching of the gospel. After 400 years,
the children of Israel took the worship of God and degenerated
it into nothing more than worshiping a stump, an idol of men's makings. Second, gospel preaching and
gospel preachers are the gift of Christ, our God to his church. So Pastor, you already told us
that. I know I did. Jeremiah chapter three, verse
15, God makes this promise. I will give you pastors according
to my heart, pastors, shepherds, who will feed you. They will
feed you with knowledge and understanding. A faithful God-given pastor is
a man who, according to God's own heart, feeds the flock of
God. He doesn't fleece the flock.
He doesn't use the flock. He doesn't abuse the flock. He
doesn't enrich himself by the flock. He feeds the Lord's sheep. His life, work, and business
is feeding the people of God. And I'm going to tell you something
about every man who's called and gifted of God to this work.
He gives himself to it ardently. He gives himself to it ardently. That means lots of things suffer
for it. You were talking to Shelby yesterday,
tough to leave the grandbabies up there in Ashland. I know that.
I know that. Our daughter, we just had one.
I don't know what I'd have done if we'd had half a dozen, but
the Lord just gave us one child. And I didn't see much going on
while she was in school. Not in elementary school, not
in junior high school, not in high school, not in college.
Rarely did anything. And she didn't get involved in
much. And you think, well, that's no way to raise a child. I wouldn't
change a thing. I wouldn't change a thing. I
had something more important to do than entertain her or be
entertained by her. I had a business to take care
of called preaching the gospel for the glory of God. And over
the years, and these days since I had some illness come up 10
years ago, eight or nine years ago, whatever it was, she can
tell you. Shelby, after Faith graduated from college, she started
traveling with me about everywhere I go. She's scared for me to
go to the bathroom by myself if I shut the door, so she goes
with me everywhere. But up until then, I spent more nights away
from her than I did with her. How come? I had something more
important to do. It's called preaching the gospel.
Men called and gifted and sent of God to preach the gospel give
their lives to this business ardently, ardently. Those men
God gives to his church as pastors feed God's church with knowledge
and understanding. God-given knowledge. You see,
a man who's gifted of God to preach the word is given knowledge
of the book. Now you can ask me questions
about different texts of scripture, and I'll say to you, I don't
know. I don't know. I don't know exactly what that
verse means. I don't know exactly why that's
there. A lot of things I just don't know. But I know what the
book teaches. I know the whole book. I know
the whole message of the book. It is Jesus Christ and him crucified. And the man called and gifted
of God understands the book. God opens the word to him so
that the scriptures, he reads them as one, as one. I know this
is what many of you experience. You see various doctors talking
in scripture and it's like a shotgun pattern. You see holes here and
here and here. That's true and that's true and
that's true and that's true. But how does it all fit together?
The man who's gifted of God preaches the word and it's like shooting
a 30-30. There it is. That's the message.
It's one thing. Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he preaches with understanding.
Understanding that God gives, giving him a message for the
hour. It's impossible for this man
here to stand here and preach to you the next time he's in
this pulpit as one sent of God, unless on that hour God sends
you. He can't do it. He can't bring
God's message except God send him with a message for that hour
to you. Oh, then pray that God will give
him the message you need every time he stands before you. They
preach the word with understanding. And these men, being the ascension
gifts of Christ, pastors and teachers, that doesn't mean there
are a lot of pastors and teachers in one local church, there are
not. There's one pastor who's the teacher. Now many of you
have been used of God in various ways here to teach. You teach
them as you have been taught by your pastor. I have never,
in the years I've been at Danville, said to somebody who preached
for me or to one of our men teaching, now this is what you must teach
and this is what you must not teach. But they know full well
that the first time they taught something contrary to what's
in the pulpit, that's the last time. That's the last time. There's
one fellow responsible for the sailing of the ship, and that's
the fellow who's at the helm. That's the pastor. It is his
responsibility to teach God's people his word with knowledge
and understanding, understanding your soul's needs. They are called
in scripture, them which have the rule over you, whose faith
you are to follow, whose instruction you are to obey, considering
the end of their faith. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. God's servants, every gospel
preacher, established by God in a place, is described in the
first three chapters of the book of Revelation as angels of God.
Angels of God. Brother John read about the ministering
spirits, angels of God, in Hebrews chapter one. Verse 14, he made
his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. What does the word angel mean?
Messenger, messenger. So that in each local church,
God sends a messenger from heaven. an angel of God to declare God's
message to that people. Isn't that wonderful? Paul wrote
to the Galatians, he said, when I came and preached the gospel
to you, you treated me as an angel of God, as Jesus Christ
himself, as God's messenger to you. All right, now let's see
if I can make good on what I've said so far. Let's start reading
Romans 10, verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire in
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear
them record. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. They're as religious as all get
out. You'll find them on the street corner passing out tracks.
They carry a Bible with them, and they say prayer everywhere
they go, and they're religious as all get out, but they don't
know God. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, not ignorant of the fact that God is righteous.
Everybody knows that. Romans chapters 1 and 2 tell
us that God stamped that on your conscience. You can't get away
from that. To your dying day, whether you
believe or believe not, you know that God's righteous, that God's
holy, God's perfect, and that's what he requires of you. but
they're ignorant that righteousness is established. Righteousness
is done. Righteousness is finished because
Jesus Christ is the Lord our righteousness. They're ignorant
of what Christ came here and accomplished, the righteousness
of God. For this, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. Tomorrow night, the Lord willing,
I'm gonna preach to you on the 10 commandments. I'm preaching
to you on the Ten Commandments. If you could advertise that,
folks would fall over in the streets. Fulton is preaching
on the Ten Commandments. I'm preaching to you tomorrow night
on the Ten Commandments. And this is what I'm going to tell
you. Christ is the E-N-D. the end, the termination, the
fulfillment, the finishing, the completion, the accomplishment
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For
Moses described it, the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down
from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring
up Christ again from the dead. Faith doesn't say what has to
be done. Faith says done. Faith doesn't say what does God
require. Faith says requirement match. That is verse eight. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth under righteousness. Now if you're
taking notes, I suggest you take a note here. Paul is not saying
that if you say, I believe in Jesus, then that makes you righteous.
That's not what he's saying. With the heart, man believes
God's word with reference to righteousness. He believes what
God has revealed concerning righteousness. Read on. He says, verse 10, with the heart,
man believeth under righteousness. With the mouth, confession is
made unto salvation. He's not saying you'll get saved
if you say, I believe in Jesus. Confession is made with reference
to what God has written in his word concerning salvation, accomplished
by Christ. For the scriptures say, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. Or whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on him? How shall they worship him? whom
they have not believed. And how shall they believe in
him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring
glad tidings of good things. But they've not all obeyed the
gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. Look at verse 15 again. How beautiful,
or how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace and bring glad tidings of good things. If ever God teaches
you the gospel of his grace and the blessedness of the gift of
one to declare the gospel to you, you will consider the feet
of the man who brings the word beautiful to you. What a strange
expression, beautiful feet. What's he talking about? Turn
back to Isaiah chapter 52, Isaiah 52. Paul is here giving an abbreviated
quote of Isaiah 52, verses 7 through 10. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation,
that sayeth in design, thy God reigneth, thy watchman shall
lift up the voice, With the voice together shall they sing, for
they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.
Break forth into joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. Now with those words, God
the Holy Ghost gives us by the prophet Isaiah the attitude that
every believing center ought to have with regard to God's
messenger to his soul. The picture is of a city, this
picture city surrounded by an alien force. holding them in
captivity. They've got them isolated so
that they can't get in, nobody can get in, nobody can get out.
They're soon gonna starve to death. They're besieged, under
control of alien forces. And suddenly, after a long time
in captivity, they hear the sound of an army coming. They hear
the sound of feet of soldiers marching toward their relief,
running toward their relief. Oh, what a beautiful sound. Somebody's
coming to deliver us. And that's the picture that Isaiah
gives us here. You see, God's people, God's
church, God's Jerusalem, God's elect, like all of the men, are
in bondage by nature. And they're held in the shackles
of ungodliness, held under the curse of God's law. consciously
aware that they're children of wrath deserving to go to hell
like everybody else until somebody comes with the word of grace
and proclaims pardon and liberty and they're set free. How beautiful
the sound of man who comes, who's able to break the shackles, who's
able to open the prison door, who's able to carry me out of
the pit of destruction. Now here's the third thing. Understand
that gospel preachers are divinely appointed watchmen. God's watchmen
upon the walls of Zion. Watchmen responsible for your
souls. Watchmen responsible to care
for your souls. Watchman responsible to warn
you of judgment, exposing you to your sin, exposing you to
your sin, and exposing your sin to you. Watchman responsible
to proclaim to you the way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ. Multiple times in scripture,
the watchman is described. Ezekiel 3, Ezekiel 33, Isaiah
52. One of the clearest pictures
of the watchman is given in the Song of Solomon. The watchman
is described in the Song of Solomon as one who comes and takes away
your veil and wounds you. The watchman found me. They wounded
me. They took away my veil from me.
The word comes, you come and sit here and listen, sit here
and listen, sit here and listen. And it goes in one ear and out
the other, and you count the pains in the window glasses and
watch. I wonder when you're gonna get
done. And then all of a sudden, you come one day, God speaks,
and God's found you with his watchman. and you're wounded
in your heart. And every excuse you had for
your ungodliness, every excuse for your sin, every excuse for
your unbelief, He takes away and exposes you to you. so that you are made to confess
your sin and call upon the name of the Lord for mercy. The watchman
is described here in Isaiah 52, seven, how beautiful upon the
mountains are then the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. Obviously,
these words do not apply to every man who is called a preacher
or who calls himself a preacher. I want to say to you again what
I've said from this pulpit many times. Any man who does not preach
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, it
doesn't matter if I'm talking about your daddy, your son, your
brother, or you. Any man who preaches something
contrary to the gospel of God's free grace is not God's servant
and is not to be treated with respect. Treated with respect
as a human being, of course, but not as God's servant. He's
not to be dealt with kindly. Yes, as a human being, as a neighbor,
of course, but not as God's servant. He's not even to be prayed for.
Read 2 John. John said, don't receive him
into your house. And when he leaves, don't bid him Godspeed.
Don't say, well, we'll be praying for you. Don't do it. Give him
some money to shut up. Help him to get out. Nothing
else. But God's servants. God's servants are something
else. God, the Holy Ghost, tells us that God's servants are men
whose feet are beautiful, for they bring good tidings. They bring good news. Everybody
else brings good advice. Gospel preachers bring good news.
Everybody else tells you what you need to do to get saved.
They tell you what you need to do for you to get God's salvation. What you must do to save yourself
or put yourself in a savable condition. God's servants come
and tell you what Christ has done to save sinners. And have
it God save sinners without their effort of any kind. by his free
grace through the blood and righteousness of his dear son. Gospel preachers
don't come and offer terms by which you can make peace with
God. They don't tell you that you need to make your peace with
God. They come and tell you peace is made. And how can a rebel
make peace with God? The one who must make peace is
the offended God. And he has reconciled the world
of his elect to himself by the sacrifice of his dear son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. They bring good tidings of good. justice satisfied, righteousness
brought here, redemption accomplished, sin forgiven, iniquity put away,
transgressions blotted out, all through the doing and dying of
the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. They come and publish
God's salvation. We don't involve ourselves deliberately
in the trickery, in the deceit, in the conniving ways of the
religious world to get folks to Make a profession of faith. I took lessons at two of the
most well-known Bible colleges in the world. Out in Springfield,
Missouri and up here at Winston-Salem. And I took classes on evangelism
and preaching. And what you gotta do is you
prepare your message and you build to a crescendo and you
strike while the iron's hot. And you get folks to make a profession
of faith. When you've got them most vulnerable,
then you get them to make a profession of faith. A lot of folks don't
realize this. Mr. Gray at his rallies and revival
meetings, as they call them, they had fairly stadiums, thousands
of people. And there'd be folks already
prepared, seated here and there, so that when they get ready to
sing Just As I Am, the folks start to get up and come forward.
And these folks that come forward put psychological pressure on
you. If they see one come, somebody else come. Now, I ain't lying
to you. I'm telling you facts. I'm just telling you facts. Well,
brother Don, that's deceitful, isn't it though? That's horrible,
isn't it though? It's horrible. It's not just
a difference in doctrine, it's manipulating the souls of men
into hell, convincing them that they're saved by God's grace.
We come and publish salvation. I'm gonna preach to you tonight,
tomorrow night, Lord willing, Sunday morning, Lord willing,
and when I get done, I'm gonna drive up to North Wilkesboro,
preach up there Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, drive home, and
I'm gonna pray God's blessings on the Word and wait. Just wait. Wait and see what God does. It's something else to watch
God work. It's something else to watch God work. You don't
know where the wind blows. You don't know where it comes
from or where it's going, but you see the wind working, God
the Spirit working. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit by the will of God through the preaching of the
gospel. We publish salvation. We declare unto Zion, thy God
readeth. We tell sinners everywhere that
Jesus Christ, our crucified Redeemer, is God who sits on his throne
and he reigns everywhere in creation, in providence, in grace. Everything
good and evil, everything prosperous and adverse, everything in the
world from heaven's throne to hell's pit, everything is absolutely
controlled by Him, for of Him, and through Him, and to Him are
all things. Well, preach the way you talk.
God rules everything. Well, I've been talking pretty
good if that's what you got out of it. God rules everything. Robert
Hawker observed, what glorious tidings of salvation must they
be when the very feet of those who bring them are accounted
by the Lord himself as beautiful. Our Lord Jesus, if I couldn't show this to you
in John chapter 13, I wouldn't think about it, let alone say
it. Our Lord Jesus, Our God, our crucified Redeemer,
counts the feet of those men He sends to proclaim His word
so beautiful that He stoops to wash them. Isn't that astounding? Isn't that astounding? The Son
of God counts their feet so beautiful. He so highly esteems those men. He's saved by His grace and sins
to proclaim His word. He counts their feet beautiful
and stoops to wash them. How beautiful those feet ought
to be in our eyes to whom the gospel is preached. Turn to 1
Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. God's servants come across the
mountains of their own sins and your sins. They come in opposition
to false brethren and false religion, and often in opposition to the
very folks to whom they preach. They come over the mountains,
proclaiming the gospel of God's peace, and their feet are beautiful
as the messengers of grace. They're to be received as such
men. Look at what God says here in
1 Thessalonians 5, verse 11. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. And we beseech
you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over
you in the Lord, and admonish you. Now mark those words. They
labor among you. They labor among you. That doesn't
mean they run around sipping tea with old ladies who can't
get out of the house. That means they labor in the word and in
doctrine. I've made it my business over
the years, I make certain, and I still do, no man to whom I
preach spends longer hours at his work than I do at mine, not
one, not one. They labor among you in the word,
in doctrine, in prayer, and they are over you, over you, not under
you, over you, over you in the Lord, and admonish you, they
teach you, they instruct you, they correct you, Esteem them,
watch this, very highly in love because they labor among you.
They're over you in the Lord, they admonish you for their work's
sake. Love them for the gospel they
preach and their devotion to God and to you in Christ the
Lord. Now what's next word? And be
at peace among yourselves. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
wonderful? Be at peace among yourselves.
I have been very much a part of this congregation since 1989,
I think was the first time I came here. And I've watched you. I knew you when it was a lot
of turmoil. And I've watched you these many,
many years, laboring together in the cause of Christ in peace. And one great reason for that
peace is the high esteem God gave you for your posture. Every time you see trouble in
a congregation, I'll guarantee you, every time, it's because
somebody lost esteem for God's messenger. Every single time. Every single time. esteem them
highly, in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among you. Those who oppose God's servants
and fight against them, oppose God, fight against him. The Lord
told servants of David, I rejected you, they rejected me, neither. They rose up against Moses, not
that they were going to buy you. Cora, Dathan, and Abiram rose
up against Moses and God killed them. Our Lord said, touch not
mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. They labor among you
as they which must give account. That's the last thing. There's
a day coming. when every watchman must give
account, not to you, that doesn't bother me, not some church council,
not some denominational religious board, but to God. They must give account to God
for your souls. I've preached to a lot of people,
some whose faces I have never seen, all over the world, and
I'll give account soon for everyone of them. Some with great joy
because they believe God. Lord, here they are, your servant
and your children, washed in the blood of your dear son, chaste
virgins to Christ. What joy, what crown of rejoicing. And some with great sorrow Here's this man, Lord. Here's
this woman. They heard and trampled underfoot
the blood of Jesus Christ. Their damnation is just. That's
the language of the book. But God's servant is a sweet
saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish
because they're men sent of God. Long time ago there was a man,
preacher, like myself, traveled a lot by air. He got on an airplane
and sat down and the fellow sitting beside him wanted to talk. Most
folks do, they want to talk a lot. He introduced himself, he said,
I'm a businessman. He said, I've been on a trip,
my father and I are in business together. And the preacher thought a little
bit and he said, well, that's true of me. He said, me too.
And the fella looked at him kind of strange. Like he said, he
said, my father and I are in the jewel business. We deal only
in the rarest of jewels. And the preacher sat there for
a little bit. He said, it's me too. And that fella looked at
him again. He said, I'm on my way home now. I'm going to meet my father.
I sure hope you'll be pleased with what I've done. Me too. Me too, me too. Our God, oh, how blessed we are
to lift our hearts to heaven and call you our God, our Father,
which art in heaven. In the name of your son, we give
you thanks for your great, great blessings upon our souls and
upon this assembly And now our God, as they begin a new era
of labor together with their pasture. Oh God, pour out your
blessings upon them and keep them. Use them for the glory
of our Savior. Make them, make me, make us faithful
to you. Faithful to your gospel. Faithful
to one another. Faithful to him who loved us
and gave himself for us. Oh God, teach us, teach me to
be devoted to Christ in the totality of my being.