It's so good to be here with
you. It's been a long time. We're trying to think when the
last time I was here and it's got to have been over 20 years
ago. I think it was when I brought Brother Cody Groover down here
to preach and we slept back here and But anyways, like I told
Tommy and Johnny, neither one of them had a gray hair in their
head. I don't think Ed did either. And I didn't either. And I didn't use these, see,
these little glasses. But it's been a long time, and
we're happy to be here with you. Most of you know my dad and my
mom and ask about them, and I appreciate that. And they have such a love
for this congregation, such fond memories of all of you all, and
they send their greetings. They are very old now. Mom will
be 93 next month. Dad will be 91. And they're in
nearly every service. Dad is very feeble now, very
feeble. But they're old, so it's time,
isn't it? It's time. But they send their
greetings. And I'm just happy to be here
on behalf of Mindy, my wife. We're very happy to be here,
very thankful. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on the day, okay? Our Father in heaven, we thank
you so much for this blessed privilege, opportunity, another
God-given opportunity to hear the word of God. the word of
life, the gospel of our salvation. Lord, we thank you. We ask your
blessings, we ask your presence, your Holy Spirit, Lord. Send
your Holy Spirit, without whom we cannot worship, we cannot
enter into unseen things. Lord, hedge us about, prevent
the thoughts with cares of this life from entering in and distracting
us. Lord, give us attentive minds
and hearts. This is the one thing they asked
that you would set forth, set the truth before us and set forth
my son before our eyes. Cause us to look to him, believe
on him, unto life everlasting. Pray for this church. Thank you
for it. Thank you for Brother John. Bless him today as he preaches. Lord, forgive us of our sins.
In Christ's name, amen. I want you to look with me at
the Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3. Hello,
Johnny. This church, and before we look
at this, just let me say how thankful I am and happy for you
all, for the wonderful gift that he's given you now, a pastor,
a preacher. I can't say enough. John would
not want me to say some of the things I'm about to say, but
I'm gonna do it anyway. He's not here. Perhaps no one
knows him better than I do. We've been close friends for
a long time, since our 20s. We spent a lot of time together.
We've been long time brothers and friends. We grew up under
the gospel, under my pastor, my father was our pastor. And
we sat under the gospel under him for many years together and
learned from him. And he taught us who to preach,
how to preach, and something about how to lead a church. Now that doesn't come except
with experience. how blessed you are now to have
another faithful gospel preacher with experience. Brother John
is a good preacher, not only that, but he's a wise man. He's
got experience. I've been around him a lot. We've
spent a lot of time together, a lot of time together. He has
young men. We used to work out, Tommy, work
out together, lift weights. Now about the only thing we lift
together is a fly rod, fishing rod. Bragging on not how much
we bench press, but the biggest fish we catch. But we spent a
lot of time together and you have a gift now, a faithful and
wise man, a serious man. This is something you're going
to notice about Brother John. He's serious about this. Serious
about this. And because this is serious.
This is life or death. This is not We're not playing
religion here like most people are. This is life or death. And
Brother John is very serious about it, a proven man, already
proven. And he has one message, one ministry. I remember I heard him that he
said to you that he's not coming down here just to have a Sunday
servant. You remember him saying that? He said, I'm coming down
here for us to have a gospel ministry, to get the gospel out
all over. And that's what he will do, minister
the gospel to you. Pray for him, support him with
everything. Your presence, your financial
support, your prayers, above all things, support him. They are about to make a huge
sacrifice coming here. I know, we've done it. Brother
John is leaving a good job, his home, the many years, his children
and his grandchildren to come here for you. That's a sacrifice
and it requires sacrifice on your part. But it's harder even
on Vicki. The woman, she's gonna be down
here in a strange place, strange people, leave her friends, her
children. Ladies, would you like to do
that? As a grandmother, as a grandmother, would you like to leave them
all? Leave all your children, your grandchildren? That happened
to us. It happened to us twice. We left
Ashland, left our family, left our church, our brethren, went
to Rocky Mount five hours away, took our granddaughter away from
her grandparents, cousins, and moved there, and the Lord blessed
it. And I know the Lord's going to bless this sacrifice Brother
John has made. And then not long ago, the Lord
took our daughter and grandchildren Gabe and Hannah, you know, and
move them away again. But we wouldn't change a thing.
And the Lord's blessing that for the sake of the gospel. So
remember that. Don't ever lose sight of that.
Time's going to go by and you might lose sight of the sacrifice
that John and Vicki have made. Don't do it. Don't do it. They're
coming here for you. They really are. Get behind them. And I'm anxious for you. I'm anxious
for you. You've already heard some good
preaching, I know. I listened to two men more than any other.
Number one is my pastor. Number two is your pastor. I
turn to those men, always. All right, now here in the revelation,
I immediately thought of this this letter in knowing I was
coming here. And the next message, it doesn't
happen very often when I go someplace, but it did. So Brother Bill,
I hope it's of the Lord. I immediately thought I knew
what I wanted to deal with. And this one of these letters
is one, and then the next message. There's seven letters in these
letters to the churches, some of you are familiar with. Seven
letters to the churches. Number seven is perfection. All these letters were written
to the churches, individual churches, Myrna and Philadelphia and Thyatira
and Sardis and so on. But all of the letters are written
to every church. Every letter applies to every
church. Every church, this church, our local assembly, has need
of everything that the Lord said in all of these letters, okay? The church at Ephesus, some of
you may know, back in chapter two, that says they left their
first love. And that happens. Meaning they
got, when you leave one love, why do you leave it for another
love? for another love. And this happens
to all of us in some way at some time, don't we? We get sidetracked
and caught up with other things or even people when Christ is
our first love. Our Lord said, if any man love
father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, more than me,
not worthy to be my disciple. But we all are guilty at that
time. And he told them, repent, turn
from me. He told them to do the first
work. That church at Ephesus was zealous for the gospel, zealous
for the truth. They were zealous for getting
it out, telling people the gospel. We all lose that, don't we? Remember
when you first heard the gospel? You remember when you first heard
the gospel, the first gospel message when the Lord opened
your eyes and your ear? It was the best news you ever
heard in your life. But time goes by, diminishes a little bit. That's
bad. He said turn from them. Do the
first work. And then the church at Smyrna,
he commended them. They went through trials and
tribulations and were faithful, as are you, as have been you.
You have been faithful. You are faithful. You're still
here. So many faces that were here the first time I came here
30 years ago are still here. You remain faithful. You've gone
through trials and tribulations, haven't you? For the gospel's
sake, that's good. This is the church. This is a
true church like Smyrna. Then there's Pergamos, the church.
They were in the middle of false religion. He said, I know where
you sit. You sit where Satan's seat is.
And that's true, isn't it? You're down here in the Bible
belt, but there's very little Bible being preached. We're in
the midst of false religion everywhere. False religion. Our church is
on a road called Forty West, and I believe the name Forty
West, Doug, I believe the reason it's named that is because there
must be 40 churches every mile. They're everywhere, aren't they?
And the Lord commended the church there. He said, you've held fast
my name, His glory, His honor. He says, you have not denied
the faith, neither have you. And in the church at Thyatira,
they had works and they love and service and so forth. The
church at Sardis, he said this about them. He said, there's
some have a name that they're Christian, but they're not, they're
dead. They have a name, but they're
dead. And in every assembly, there's
somebody who professes the name of Christ, but doesn't know him. And I pray and my hope, and there
is in our congregation, people have been sitting there for a
good while, and I don't believe they know the Lord. So my hope
and my prayer with every message is that the Lord will reveal
himself to them and give them more than just a name, give them
a heart. In my heart. And then Philadelphia,
he commended them, they kept his word, they kept his name.
Now the last one, here's the one we're gonna dwell on, okay?
Laodicea. Look at chapter three, let's
read verses 14 through 22. Revelation 3, under the angel
of the Church of the Laodiceans, write, these things saith the
Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.
I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because
thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyeshad
that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice
and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him
and he with me. To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am
set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church." Alright,
this is the last letter to all the churches and perhaps the
most urgent. The most urgent and applicable
because we live in what Paul called the last days in perilous
times. Perilous time. Do you know that
scripture in 2 Timothy 3? The last days perilous time shall
come, men shall be. And he describes the day and
it describes our day to a T, doesn't it? If you know those
verses. And he called them perilous times, not because of wars and
terror or disasters and so forth. He doesn't mention anything like
that. But what it does mention is that the times will be rich
and affluent, so much so. that men and women will be covetous,
boasters, proud, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God. It talks about things like that.
And we are in those times. There's never been a more affluent
time in the history of the world than the United States of America
right now. And you and I are in the midst
of it. and they're perilous times, they're dangerous times for us. My pastor used to say this for
years. He said it over and over again,
that the two most dangerous things for believers, the two most dangerous
things for believers are the things of this world and the
people of this world. Because both will steal away
your heart from our Lord, like Ephesus. And if you know yourself, you
know it's true. All right? So let's look at this. This is a Bible study. Let's
look at it verse by verse. Verse 14, unto the angel. He's talking about the preacher.
He said, these things saith the amen. Christ, that's his name. That means whatever he said is
so. We must listen to him. Amen. That's the way it is. This
is the way it is. The faithful and true witness. Faithful. Our Lord is faithful. Scripture says faithful are the
wounds of a friend. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. False religion is a flatterer. False religion is a flatterer.
But the truth doesn't flatter us, does it? It wounds us, and
then it heals us down. It kills us, and it makes us
alive. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. These are the words
of the Lord. He said, as many as I love, I chasten. My dad, who loved me, used to
chasten me. He would whip me. To this day,
he says he didn't. Man, I got memories of it. But that's what fathers do, don't
they? That's what mothers do. Spare
the rod, spoil the child. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
That's what he said here in these verses. The faithful and true
witness. True. He's come from God. He's the only real witness of
the Father and the things of God. And it says here in verse
14, he's the beginning of the creation of God. I told you,
I said, Brother John has wisdom, and that comes from experience,
doesn't it? Going through trials, the trial of our faith, work
with patience, and patience, experience. You cannot have experience
without, I mean, you can't have wisdom without experience. Experience
is not just the best teacher, it's really the only teacher.
You don't learn anything unless you go through it, do you? So
our Lord has been from the beginning. He's been there from the beginning.
He's the creator. He's the author and the finisher,
the beginning. All right, read on. It says in
verse 15, I know thy works. I know thy work. And he said
this to every church. Every single church begins this
way, doesn't it, Bill? You know these verses. Every
single church, he says, I know your work. Why does he say that? because faith without works is
dead. People, you've got, and I keep
saying this because I hope you understand that the Lord's given
you a true pastor, and how you know is he preaches the whole
counsel of God, line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by
verse, all the way through the scripture, like our pastor did.
That's the way John, you've already noticed that, haven't you? Leave
no stone unturned. And he's going to preach to you
everything God says in His Word. Faith, yeah, but faith without
works is dead. It's dead. So he says, I know
thy works, I know thy works, read on, that thou art neither
cold nor hot, I would, thou wert cold or hot. Now, when I said
that I thought of this when I knew I was coming here, that didn't
mean that I thought you were lukewarm. Believe me, that's
not what I meant. But I know that we all get this
way. We all get this way, I get this
way. I had been this way, and I pray
I don't get that way again, but we all do. We all need this. Now, he said, I would that you
were cold or hot. Cold or hot is a sign of life,
and if you're cold, you feel it, don't you? The older I get,
the less I like cold weather. I can't seem to get warm. And
I like warm weather. I guess that's why people move
south when they get older. But if you're cold, if you feel
it, that means there's life there in it. And there's times we go
through spiritual cold times in it. Cold, things don't move
us. But bless God, he makes us feel
that coldness, or deadness, and we call upon him. And Judy, he
warms us again. Or hot. Like the first time he
heard the gospel, like those disciples on the road to Emmaus,
our Lord preached to them, they all said, did not our hearts
burn within us as he opened the scriptures, by the way? Now that
doesn't happen all the time, does it? You hear the gospel,
it could be the best message you could ever hear, but it doesn't
affect you, it doesn't warm your heart. Well, we all get that
way, don't we? So I would that you were cold
or hot, but he said, no, you're lukewarm. That's a dangerous
place to be. That's the most dangerous blood, lukewarm. And
I listened to a message by your pastor on the way down here.
The title of it was Lukewarm. Lukewarm means you're unmoved,
you're untouched, you're unfeeling, inactive, indifferent. It's the
most dangerous way to be. To be unmoved by the word of
life. If it continues like that, there is no life there. Cold,
it'd be hot again. Hot, you want to stay there.
But lukewarm. Brethren, I preach to some people
all the time that there's no response. And they claim to be,
and that's scary. It scares me. I'm afraid for
them. That's what Paul one time said
about the Galatians. I'm afraid for you. Oh my, what's
the answer? He's gonna tell us here in a
minute. He's gonna tell us. And you know why, here I'll tell
you why I thought of this letter coming here. Brother John and
I came from a large, thriving church. Been around a long time. But I'm telling you, in the last
years that we were there, going there to preach, I felt this
lukewarmness. Preaching to a people that had
heard it, and heard it, and heard it, and heard it, and it's like,
good sermon. What'd the Lord do to that place? Huh? And this place has been
around a long time, hasn't it? This church has had the gospel
a long time. The Lord's given you, again,
the Lord's given you a wonderful reprieve, as it were. As Ezra
said, for a little space, grace has been shown us. A revival
in the midst of the years, like Habakkuk prayed for. He's sending you the best preacher
around. Oh my. How blessed you are. How blessed you are. And I called
Brother John, asked him about that. I said, did you not feel
that? Did you not feel that lukewarmness when he said, yes, I did? Pray for the preacher. Always
pray for the preacher. Always pray for the preacher
every time before you come here. Pray for yourselves and your
children. Pray that the Lord will revive us in the midst of
the year. Give us a hearing out there in
this community. Keep this place you got in your
bulletin, that this is a lighthouse. Keep this light shining. Keep
this gospel light burning. But look what happened here in
Laodicea. The Lord, this was so obnoxious
to him, he said, I will spew thee out of my mouth. This lukewarmness
is indifferent. In verse 17, he says, because
thou sayest. You know, the old saying is talk
is cheap. Talk is cheap. If the person
is what they are, they don't need to tell everybody. But they
said, I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
Rich and increased with goods, have it all, goods. What are
goods? What things are good, really
good? What things are really good for
us? What are the good things which God gives his people? Houses,
lands, health, wealth, all of that, huh? No. Those are blessings,
yes, but they can be a curse. The Lord said, talked about the
deceitfulness of riches, that Satan has those things at his
disposal to tempt people with, to try people with. Our Lord
was rich, wasn't He? Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He
was on this earth, He was rich, wasn't He? But He didn't have
one material thing. He didn't have a place to lay
His head. He didn't have a house. He didn't have a wife. He didn't
have children. He didn't have all those things that we think are
the good things of this life. Those aren't the good things.
Those aren't the good things of God. Our Lord said that. Our Lord said, man's life's consistent
not in the things which he possesseth. The abundance of things he possesseth. The kingdom of heaven is not
in meat and drink, but in righteousness and peace and joy of the Holy
Ghost. Here's what it is to be rich toward God like our Lord
Jesus Christ, rich in faith, rich in joy, rich in peace, rich
in love, rich in mercy, rich in grace. That way you can have none of
these things and still be rich. There's a scripture in the Proverbs
that says, there is he that maketh himself rich and hath nothing.
We have a neighbor who's a multi-millionaire woman, lives alone, lives in
a 10,000 square foot house alone. And my wife said, she's so poor,
all she has is money. And it's so. And she's come to
hear the gospel and rejected it. And she's gonna die with all
those things and the scripture says that they'll rise up in
a judgment against her. Rich. Scripture talks about the
unsearchable riches of Christ. What you're hearing right now,
that book you have in your lap is gold. It's better than fine
gold. I'm here to tell you from the
word of God, the unsearchable riches of God are Jesus Christ
and the gospel of Christ. The good thing. Mary, our Lord
said, Mary had chosen the good parts. What's that? She's sitting
at Christ's feet here in him. And he said that will not be
taken from her. All of these things, all of these
riches, everything we have will be taken from us. Our health,
our wealth, our families, our homes will be taken from us. And what will be left with is
six feet of dirt, a hole in the ground. Every one of us. Job
said we brought nothing into this world and it's certain we
can't take it with us, right? But this is the one thing you
can't lose. Christ. Life that's in Christ. And he that hath the Son hath
life. Say about a man who's sitting
on his porch and he has all this wealth ahead of him. Well, the
Lord talked about a man, you know, take thine ease. You have
much good laid up for you, thy fool, he said. But we talk about
a fellow sitting on his porch, you know, he's waited all these
days for this retirement, rocking chair, you know, he's sitting
on his porch and he has no debts, he has no worries. The Lord takes
him. Then what? He's not living a good life.
That's not the good life. People, what we're doing right
now is the good life. Do you feel this way in your
heart and soul that it doesn't get any better than this? Do
you now? I see you nodding your head.
I believe you do. You're still here, aren't you?
You're still here, aren't you? All the preacher does is preach
the same person over and over again. Same thing over and over
again. You're still here. You must like it. That's good. He said here of this church,
of these people, you have need of nothing. Oh, it'd be awful
to lose our need of this gospel, wouldn't it? You know, this is
the one thing they need. It really is. This is the one
thing they need. Our Lord said, having food and
rain, but be content. But we have this need. We have a constant need. You
know, if you're hungry, if you have life, you're always hungry
and thirsty, aren't you? You always. Judy fed us so well
last night. I was so hungry. And I ate everything
she put in front of me, except that coconut cream pie. I don't like that. But anyway,
everything she put in front of me. I was hungry. I was thirsty. Why? I'm alive. I need it. I can't go without it. Do you
need this gospel? Do you need this? I believe you
do. You're here. You're still here. What a blessed
thing. David was a rich man. David was
wealthy. He was king of Israel. But he
said, Johnny, he said, I'm poor and needy. And you know what
he said that thrilled his heart? He said, yet the Lord thinketh
on me. This is the thing that made him
rich in happiness and joy. He said, I'm poor and needy.
I'm a poor excuse for a believer. I'm very needy. I still have
need of everything given to me. I'm still a beggar as it were.
He said, but the Lord thinks on me. That's the only ones he
does think on, the poor and needy. Blessed are the poor. Theirs
is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the hungry and thirsty.
Poor indeed. He said of these people, you
don't know, you've lost sight of the fact that you're wretched,
miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Wretched. Oh my. You know every
one of us are still capable of the worst evil. Wretched. Every one of us is
still capable. We got an old man in us that's
capable of doing a horrible thing. This gospel is our safety. You
know that? The word of God is our safety.
This is the hedge that he hedges us about with. This is the word
of God that counsels us, keep us from falling into pits and
snares and traps and opens our eyes to the wiles of the devil. You know that? This word of God.
We're miserable. Yes, we are. They're miserable
excuses for disciples. You know that? Miserable excuses
for disciples. After all these years, Bill,
we ought to have more faith, shouldn't we? Like the disciples
in the end, after three and a half years with the Lord, he turned
to them and said, why is it you have so little faith? And that's
mean! I'm a miserable excuse for a
preacher, for a disciple of the Lord, for a church member? I've
got a long way to go. Verse 17, he said, you're poor. We still can't provide anything
for ourselves. Nothing. It's all given to us.
The Lord has to give it all to us. It's all by grace. It's still
by grace. You know, it was by grace when
the Lord saved you. You know what? It's still by
grace. Everything we have, we've received from above. No flesh
can glory. Read on, it says you're blind
and naked, blind. There's so much that blinds us
still, isn't it? So much blinds us. The things
we see around us, things we hear, Satan. blinds us, the events and the
things all around. David said this in Psalm 73.
I love Psalm 73, don't you? David said, I was in this at
the prosperity of the wicked, Psalm 73. I was in this. He said,
I looked around and they don't have trouble like I did. And
they're this, they're fat and they're sassy and they're this
and they're that. David? Yeah, and David, then
he went into the sanctuary, went into the tabernacle. Maybe Nathan
was preaching, a faithful gospel preacher like John, started preaching
the truth. And David said, Lord, open my
eyes. I was such a fool. How could
I envy them? How could I envy an old cow being
fattened up for the slaughter? He said, I was envious, but now
I know. I've had my eyes open again. And he said, here's my consolation.
Here's my joy. I am ever with thee. That's what
he said there in Psalm 73. And I'm ever with the Lord. Who
and what else do I need? Blind, naked. You know, the word
righteousness is in the scriptures. Hadn't been that long. I'm doing good, doing well. Righteousness
is in the scriptures over 500 times. Righteousness, over 500
times. And I venture to say, Billy,
you will not hear it mentioned in today's preaching or today's
churches one time. Think about it. If they do, you
know what they're talking about, don't you? Man's righteousness. All right, you here have heard
for years and will continue to hear a man stand up and tell
you the blessed gospel truth of how Christ our righteousness,
that His righteousness was imputed to our camp, that His righteousness
covers our naked soul. Do you ever get tired of hearing
that? We've heard it a lot. But brethren,
like the prodigal son, you know, he was in rags, wasn't he? He
was naked. He had exposed himself to everybody
for what he really was. And he came home and the father
said, the first thing the father said was, bring the best robe. Don't offer it to him, put it
on him. And buddy, that old naked prodigal
is the best thing, oh, that felt so good to him. He was cold,
now he's warm. He was naked, now he's covered.
It was the best news he could ever hear. Oh, I love this robe.
Don't you know, he said, I love this robe. Don't you want your
old rags back, prodigal? Oh, that stink. Filthy rags, don't give me that. And that Brother John Davis,
anybody know John Davis from our church? Yeah, sure you did.
I'll never forget the first day, first time that the Lord opened
his eyes and ears, he heard a message on a passive righteousness, like
that prodigal son, passive righteousness. And we're just sitting there
doing nothing. And the Lord comes with this
gospel and puts that robe on us. Buddy, it just thrilled his
soul, thrilled his heart. And it still thrills us. It wouldn't take that much for
us to get naked again, people. You know that? Like the children
of Israel, you remember? Moses wasn't gone 40 days and
they was dancing around the pole naked. Simon Peter, he said,
I won't do this, I won't do that. Okay. I'm gonna let you alone
for about 30 minutes. And you're gonna revert right
back to the old man you used to be. You're gonna expose yourself. Boy, we need this righteousness.
We need this covenant. Thank you. Read on. I counsel
thee, verse 18, buy of me gold tried in the fire. This is wise
counsel. This is from the wonderful counselor.
Buy gold, try it in the fire. What's gold? You got it, you're
listening to it. You got it in your lap there.
David said, I esteem thy word better than gold. Fine gold. Enriching gold. Hard, enduring. A miracle. It's not man-made. Gold's not man-made. It's made
of God. The truth. Buy the truth and
sell it not. Sell everything and buy it. Buy
the gold. Here's the wonderful thing. The
Lord said, come and buy it without price. It's free. You got to sell everything
to have it and get this free. Explain that. No, don't have
to. Buy the gold. Try it in the fire. You know
what? The truth, a true believer is going to be tried in the fire.
Every believer. Peter wrote, he said, this wonderful
gospel truth that you believe that you're going to be, if need
be, you're through heaviness, through manifold temptation.
Fiery trials. David said this in the psalm,
he said, it's good for me that I've been afflicted that I might
learn thy statutes. We don't learn the truth except
through trials and troubles and afflictions. It's not gold to
us until we're naked, until we're poor. that thou mayest be rich,
rich towards God, and white raiment, that's that righteousness we're
talking about, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your
nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve
that thou mayest see. That's what we're doing right
now. That's what we're doing right now. This is the eyesalve
of God. This is the balm of Gilead. This is what the Lord uses to
anoint our eyes. We come in here, we've been blinded
by the world, we've been blinded by this, blinded by that. We
come in here and the Lord opens our eyes again to see the one
thing. Like that man that was blind,
the Lord says he spit. He spit what came from his mouth,
opened that man's eyes. And the same with us. I say it. You need it? I do. I say it that
you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chase it. Be zealous, therefore. Oh, to
be zealous for the truth, for the gospel, to hear it every
time as if it were the first time. And repent, turn. Oh, behold,
I stand at the door and knock. Any man hear my voice and open
the door, I'll come in to him and will sup with him and he
with me. Now that is, you know, you've been taught well here.
Religion has abused this verse more than anything else, almost. But what they say, Jesus standing
at your side, everybody's heart's door, knocking on the door wanting
to let you, that is not what he's saying here is. Who's he
talking to? Bill, the church. And what's
he talking about? Salvation? If you open your heart,
you'll come in and save you. That's not what he said, Tommy.
He said, I'll sup with you. I'll sup with you. It's talking
about fellowship. It's talking about communion
around the gospel. And he's at the door of the church.
Alright? He's there. He's never, he's
always where two or three are gathered. Alright? And the gospel
come, and your preacher's preaching this gospel. If any man, come
in Lord. Please, come in and sup with
me. I need to, I need to commune
with thee. He said, I will. I'll sup with
you and you with me. We'll feast together on the gospel,
on truth. To him that overcometh, verse
21 and two, will I grant to sit with me in my throne. What's
that? Well, John wrote of it. This is that which overcometh
even your faith. And faith's not of yourselves,
is it? It's a gift of God. It's a gift of God. It's a miracle
of God. You don't have anything to do
with your faith. He gave it to you. And he that believeth on
the Son hath life, is passed from death to life, shall not
come into condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
of them that are in Christ who walk at the Spirit. So he says, he that overcometh
will sit with me where I am right now. And scripture says we are,
we're seated with him right now in the heavenly. Now verse 22,
he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to
the church. I need to hear this as much now as the first time
I heard it, do you? I need, Lord, give us ears to
hear. May the Lord bless his word,
his glory, and for our good. Amen.