I am so thankful that you folks
are here tonight. I've been praying a lot about
this conference, praying the Lord would bless us with numbers. Some of his people might be able
to come here, and folks have come here for answered prayers all over the
world. We have guests from Australia, Kingsport, Tennessee, Florida, San Diego, and Kevin
brought the whole church with him up here. Well, maybe not
the whole church, but enough to fill up a few pews. Yuba City,
Marysville, all around, just good to see you folks, and I'm
so thankful for you. Thank you for coming. Thank you,
Lord, for giving you folks a desire just as he does all of his people,
the desire to hear his truths, his gospel. And that's what we've
come here for tonight. Just a couple of quick announcements
for you. Those of you who receive CDs
already will automatically get copies of the messages this weekend
sent to you in your regular mailings. Those of you who would like a
CD still, and I know that probably some of you are saying, what
is that? To us old folks, that's compact
disc. If you still got one of those
players, and you want one, we'll be happy to make up some copies
for you. But you need to see Kathy, and she'll take care of
that and mail that another day. We won't try to burn them at
the same time. So if you want copies, we will
have those for you. Other than that, everything tonight
will be posted on Sermon Audio. We are live right now with Zoom. There are folks online who are
joining us who couldn't be with us tonight. Some from around
the country even. Some folks who've been going
through some illnesses and dealing with some of the illnesses that
they have and just couldn't be here. So if you'd like, after
the services are over, we'll leave the screen in the foyer
up for a few moments and you can see some folks maybe you
know on there if you'd like. It's live Zoom. I like Zoom because
it's a fellowship instead of just watching it on video. Sermon audio, Zoom, CDs. Got it. Alrighty. Would you turn in your hymn books,
please, to 588. I'd like to open with this song. This is what the Lord has brought
us to do. Turn to hymn books 588. Oh, that's right. You're right
about that. I apologize. Okay, we're going to sing this Acapulco. And I forgot, thank you for reminding
me. The reason we're not playing
music, we've got the music, we can play it. But I want you to
sing with the words. I want the words to flow from
your heart as it does mine. We have come into His house and
gathered in His name to worship Him. We have come into His house
and gathered in His name to worship Him. We have come into His house
and gathered in His name to worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. Let's forget about ourselves
and magnify His name and worship Him. Let's forget about ourselves
and magnify His name and worship Him. Let's forget about ourselves
magnify his name, and worship Christ the Lord. Worship him. Now if you would please stand
for scripture reading and for opening prayer. I've asked our
brother and my pastor friend Rick Warren from Yuba City or
Yuba-Sutter Grace Church to come and read scriptures and lead
us in prayer. We're going to be reading from Luke chapter
24. Luke chapter 24. I'll begin with
verse 13 and we're going to read through verse 35. This chapter
is telling the account of Christ's resurrection and what happened
thereafter. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem
about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened, and it came to pass that While
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. But their eyes were holden that
they should not know him. And he said to them, What manner
of communications are these that you have one to another as you
walk and are sad? And one of them, whose name was
Cleopas, answering, said to him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? and hast not known the things
which are come to pass there in these days? And he said to
them, What things? And they said to him, Concerning
Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty in deed and
word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and
our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified
him. But we trusted that it had been
he which should have redeemed Israel. Beside all this, today
is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain
women also of our company made us astonished, which were early
at the sepulcher. And when they found not his body,
they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels,
which said that he was alive. and certain of them, which were
with us, went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the woman
had said, but him they saw not. Then he said to them, O fools,
and slow of heart, to believe all the prophets have spoken,
ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
his glory, and beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village
whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone
further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for
it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went
in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat
at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and break, and
gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and
they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. And they
said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while
he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the
scriptures And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem,
and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were
with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared
to Simon. And they told what things were
done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of
bread. Father, we ask you that you would
bless us in this meeting, at this time, with these people
from your word concerning your Son and our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Help us to understand the significance
of what we just read, the eternal will of God having been accomplished
by our Savior, and now He rose from the dead in testimony of
all that was done What a Savior, what salvation, what grace and
what a sovereign will that you would save such as we are. We
pray Lord that you would be with the preacher tonight, our brother
Kevin, you would be with the people here, you would be with
each one of us. We cannot make these things happen
You must speak to us from your word. We know faith comes to
us that way. Be pleased, O Lord, according
to your goodness, and to your mercy in Christ our Savior, to
bless us from your word, and save us, Lord, and keep us, and
bring us to yourself. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Thank you, Brother Ray. Go ahead
and be seated, please. Turn in your
handbooks, if you would, to page 277. Has the Lord put a burning in your
heart tonight? Oh, I pray that He has. I pray
that He has. 277, the Church's one foundation. The Church is one foundation
in Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven He came and sought
her to be His Holy Bride. With His own blood He bought
her, and for her life He died. He left from every nation, kept
one or all the earth, One Lord, one faith, one birth. From heaven He came, He passes,
partakes one holy booth. And to one hope He presses, with
every grace endued. In toil and tribulation, and
tumult of her war, she waits a consummation of peace forevermore. With the vision glorious, her
holy eyes are blest, and the great church victorious shall
be the church at rest. Yes, she honored Hallelujah with
God the free and one, And this is sweet communion with those
whose rest is won. O happy, wealthy, and holy, Lord,
give us grace and peace. Guide them, the weak and lowly. May God aid the weary. We've had a slight change in
schedule. Our brother David Edmondson from Madisonville, Kentucky,
a church where our brother Dean and his wife Judy attend and
worship, was unable to leave Nashville on a flight. He was
one of those who were caught up in the big airplane fiasco
that happened, cancellations and everything. Everybody else
made it but him. And he tried all day, so we've
got one speaker for you this evening. But before our brother
Kevin comes, I'd like to bring a couple of words myself if you
don't mind. Give you your money's worth. Give you your travel's
worth for coming this far. Would you turn to the book of
John chapter 17? Just set your Bibles down in
your lap there just for a moment. John chapter 17 if you would. And then I want to bring your
attention to the scripture reading on the front of tonight's bulletin. In Psalms 135, verses 1 through
5, we read these words. Praise ye the Lord. Those of you who have had the
grace of God shine in your heart, the face of Jesus Christ enlightened
in your heart, God Almighty in the flesh enlightened in your
mind, that's what you're here for tonight. I've had people
say, we're not coming here this day to join in with you and your
big party ideas. You know, Levi threw a big old
meal after the Lord called him, called him out of darkness, brought
him into the light of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Levi threw
a party. He invited a whole bunch of people.
That's what we've done here at Rescue. We've just invited a
whole bunch of people and you all showed up. How awesome. Why? Praise ye our Lord, right? Praise ye our Lord. Praise ye
the name of the Lord. Praise Him, O ye servants of
the Lord. Are you a servant? I am, and
I'm not ashamed of it. I'm a servant of the Most High.
There was a day when I was a servant of John Reeves. Do you remember
the day when you were a servant of someone else? Oh, to be a servant of the Almighty. To love Him because He first
loved us. Oh ye servants of the Lord, ye
that stand in the house of the Lord. Now some of you folks may
think that this is talking about a nice pretty building. Our Lord dwells in a temple that
is made without hands. You know what the church is?
It's not this building. It's not this building. It's you.
It's us. It's those who God has elected
to love from before a star ever twinkled in the sky. God chose
to love a people, to be gracious to a people. Everything created
was so that those people, them, us, the house would come to him and
worship and praise his name. Everything. Everything. He's sovereign over all. Everything
that happens is purposed by the sovereign God of all things. Ye that stand in the house of
the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise the
Lord. That's what these men on the
road to Emmaus were doing afterwards. You know, Kevin and I were talking
about that a little bit earlier. These guys didn't go on to Emmaus,
did they? No, they turned around and they
ran back to Jerusalem where the other ones, where the rest of
the disciples were. They were going to go back and
praise. Hey, guess what? We saw Him. He's risen from the
dead. Oh, praise the Lord, for the
Lord is good. And we've been brought to know
the depth of our sin. I wonder sometimes, I wonder
how these kids think about that when they hear that. I know some
of you are parents, whose parents are preachers, involved in the
church. I wonder. I think about how I
was when I was their age. What do you mean, showing how
deep I am? I'm not such a bad person. I'm
okay. I've got a lot of friends. We don't do anything wrong. We
go to the right places. I tell you, when the Lord shows you what
you truly are before Him, He will enlighten your soul to the
glory of His Son, our Savior. And you too will say, you too
will say, the Lord is good. Sing praises unto his name, for
it is pleasant. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob
unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. For I
know, do you? For I know that the Lord is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods. What a wondrous thing. Our Lord didn't have to show
us any of that. He could have let us keep right
on going on that path to destruction every one of His children are
on when we come into this world. Yet God is gracious to a people.
A people He's loved. Isn't that wonderful? Here in
John chapter 17 we read in verse 25 and 26 Oh righteous Father, now this
is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. He's speaking to God the Father,
who hears every word. Every word, because every word
the Lord Jesus speaks is a word from God the Father himself.
They're one. They're three separate people,
three separate deities, three separate, no I'm not saying that
right, three Yeah, they're three separate, but they're one God.
They're all on the same page. O righteous God, the world hath
not known thee, but I have known thee, and these. Notice that? These. There you
go. That's the people we were just
talking about just a moment ago. These. These have known that
thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name,
and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them." God loves this people. There
is no doubt about it. And if God loves them, He's not
going to lose any of them. There's people who go around
saying that God loves the whole world. They don't know the true
and living God. Scripture says He loves a certain
people, and they will love Him. And I'm thankful because I was
not looking for my God when He was looking for me. Turn in your
handbooks for one more hymn before I ask our brother Kevin to come
up if you would. Turn to 524. It took a miracle. It took a
miracle. 524. My father is a nephew And that you can't deny A God
of might and miracles is written in the sky It took a miracle
to put the stars in place It took a miracle to hang the world
in space But when He saved my soul, faith could make me whole. It took the miracle of love and
grace. Though here in glory I've been
shown, we still can't fully see. The wonders of His might is from
His King's eternity. It took a miracle to put the
star in place. It took a miracle to hang the
world in space. But when He saved my soul, cleansed
and made me whole, He took the spiritual of love and grace. The Bible tells us of His power
and wisdom always Every little word and vow are
testimonies too. It took a miracle to put the
start in place. It took a miracle to hang the
world in space. But when He saved my soul, I
just love introducing this young man. Pastor Kevin Thacker. of San Diego Grace Fellowship. San Diego Grace Fellowship. I
said it right that time. See? I can remember things in
my old age. Come on up here brother. I like
what Danville says. Come on up here brother and brag
on Christ. Well, hello again. Some of you
are hello the first time. My family and I are thankful
to be here. It's always a privilege and a
pleasure for us to come up and rescue. And it's a joy every
time we get to and to be with you. And I too pray the Lord
is with us. I hope I have a message. We'll
see. I pray so, but it's kind of leaked
out for days. I've been working on this for
a while. If you will, turn back to Luke chapter 24. Ask Brother
Rick to read it. In my first paragraph of my notes,
it says, why are we here? Is this just something we do? A habit? It's what we do every
year. Or have we come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship? I pray so. Heart worship Him,
the person. For the thoughts of Christ, His
words, His works, His performing in and for us, to burn in us. We hear those things and are
reminded of those things, Lord, because as a preacher it's His
remembrances. So remember what He said? Remember?
for that to burn in us and to worship you. And it's not a feeling. Though, believers, when the Lord
works in it, you're going to feel it. And it's not an experience. Though, you will go through some
things. Salvation's not those things,
and worship's not those things. It's a person. It's a person. We have all the feelings and
the experience and the knowledge and the memorized text and the
routine and the... This is what we do all the time
here. But for that to travel 18 inches down to the heart is
His work. I've had to burn in us for Him. That's why I came. Why you? Why are we here? I want to at
least be the spark that lights a fire this week. And I pray
the Lord will turn it into a blazing wildfire. For everyone from California,
that's an eye-breaker. You guys that ain't from California,
I have everyone from California's attention right now. Mine too. It says in Luke 24
verse 30, And it came to pass, Luke 24 verse 30, And it came to pass, As he sat at
meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and break, and
gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and
they knew him. And he vanished out of their
sight. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within
us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened
to us the scriptures? These two men on the road to
Emmaus, many know this story. Who were these men that were
made to burn within? Who was that? Their eyes were
open, they knew Him, their hearts burned. What's that mean? That
means that their eyes were dimmed. that they had unbelieving thoughts
going through them, and that they were cold. They were cold-hearted. But God came to them, and He
opened their eyes, and He made Himself known, and He warmed
that heart, and He made it burn. Look up in verse 13. It says,
And behold, look 24, 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus. which was from Jerusalem
about three score furloughs, about seven miles away. And they
talked together of all these things which had happened. These
things, what things? Christ had been crucified three
days earlier. His body was laid down. Here
come Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They had a hundred
pounds of aloe and myrrh walking through town. And I always thought,
you can't fit that in your watch pocket. They probably had a wheelbarrow,
right? That's a lot. They come through
and they anointed our Lord's body. And then that stone was
rolled over the tomb. And then guards were placed there
the next day. And time passed. A day passed. And then another day passed.
And now it's the third day. They were talking about these
things and all the things that led up to that. And he lied on the
ground three days, and early that morning, on the third day,
doubt set in. Unbelief set in. Unbelief's catching. Did you know that? It's like
a cold. It's like laziness. It's like
a bitter spirit. It's contagious. It is. And even after hearing the reports
of those ladies at the tomb, I said, it's empty. We were there
and an angel come to us and they said, why are you looking for
the living among the dead? That means your Lord reigneth.
He liveth. Told them plainly, right? Why
are you here looking for somebody that's dead? He's alive. And
even after Peter, he run up there. And he saw the linen clothing
laying there. And he was confused. And he wondered. And he had a
defeated attitude and started sitting there. These disciples and these apostles,
they had physically seen the Savior. their whole spiritual
lives from the moment he came to them and said, follow me.
He was there with them. The exact opposite of us. Physically,
with our eyes, we haven't seen him. Physically, with our ears,
we haven't heard him. With our noses, we haven't smelled
him. Someday. Someday it will be.
We can't get into that now. But these two, one was Cleopas,
and the other one's unnamed. Some say it was John, some say,
well, it says Simon at the end, maybe it was Peter. But I love
what our Lord says, and I love what He doesn't say. Everything
He says is right, and everything He doesn't say is right. It's
true. Many think it's John, but you
know what? That can surely represent any of the Lord's people. That's
me. That could be applied to me.
That could be applied to you. These two walked along, it says
in verse 14, and they talked together of all these things
which had happened. And it came to pass, verse 15, that while
they communed and they reasoned. We don't have any word to go
on, so we're going to figure this out ourselves. There's a
way that seems right under man. And we try to sort out the Lord's
word and understand that through providence. Instead of just bowing
to Providence according to what he said, saying he's right and
every man's a liar. Well, as you say, I don't understand,
but we're going to do the best we can, eh? It's a sad state. Well, who came to who? They were
defeated. They said, we're going back to
the mass. We're going home. Maybe I can get my old job back. What
are we going to do Monday? Something's got to happen. These
kids got to eat. Who came to who? Look at verse 15. And it
came to pass that while they communed together, they reasoned,
Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. He came to them. He comes to us. He comes to His
people. Where we are, how we are, aren't
you glad? Aren't you thankful? We don't
have to be someplace or do something or be something for Him to come
to us. They were sad, they were troubled,
they were downhearted, they were in unbelief, and they were trying
to sort this out on their own. And they were not heading to
the last place they saw Him. They were going each their own
way, he says in John 16. That means everybody is going
to their own house. Y'all are going to leave me. He said, but
the Father is going to be with you. They were not seeking God.
They were trying to figure out what to do now because His earthly
kingdom hadn't been established. That's what they thought was
going to happen. Paul wrote in Romans 5, but God commended His
love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died. Verse 16, but their eyes
were holding that they should not know Him. These men had followed
Him. They believed the Lord. He called
them and used them. But right now they couldn't see
Him. He closed their eyes. They didn't know that was Him.
They knew what He looked like. They knew the Lord, but they
couldn't see Him at this moment. He closed their eyes for a season.
They were in Mark 8 and the Lord healed a blind man. And he touched
his eyes and said, what did you see? And he said, I see men as
trees walking around. And he did it again. It's the
only time he does it. We don't see everything clearly
from the get-go. The Lord doesn't save somebody
and I know everything there ever is, ever was, and ever has. Not
yet, no. We see a little at a time. We
learn a little at a time. It takes a lifetime. We grow
a little bit at a time, right? If you had a child and you brought
it home and the next day that arm looked like my arm, you'd
say, take that thing to a doctor, something's wrong with it, right?
We have to grow a little bit at a time and see a little bit
at a time. Then verse 17, he said to them, what manner of
communication are these that you have one another as you are? What are y'all talking about?
And why are you sad? Why are you sad? What's gotten
into you? I wrote down, what won't a believer
do? I don't want to walk through
this world as a sad person. I have no reason to be. God gave
me His good news. His people are happy people,
aren't they? We have every reason to be happy and not sad. We may
not understand everything. We may not have a good handle
on everything. We have every reason to be happy. It says in
verse 18, And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering unto
him said, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? Are you from out
of town? Are you from another continent?
Has not known the things which are come to pass there in these
days? Don't you know what's going on?
This is the only thing worth talking about." They were the
Lord's people. He's the only thing worth talking
about, worth learning about, worth knowing about. And He said
unto them, what things? He knew. When the Lord asks questions,
teach us something. Not for His information. What
things? They're going to tell the Lord these things. Everything
they've been talking about, everything that happened, everything they
heard Him say. He must have meant this. He said we're going to
understand down the road. We can't handle it all right
now. Even if they don't have a thorough understanding, they
can't thoroughly enter into everything the Lord had told them and everything
that happened, that's what they were going to tell. And let me
tell you something. Nothing's changed. Just because we can't
enter into something, but He says it, that's what we tell.
I'll give you an example. There's going to come a day for
the Lord's people who are in Christ, and we're going to go
to glory, and you're going to be without sin. That ain't Webster's Dictionary.
There's going to come a day you're going to worship. Your heart's
going to burn to Him, face to face, in perfection and holiness. Some other word, it ain't going
to be. You're going to see Him. You're going to hear His voice.
He's going to preach to us and serve us, and we're going to
smell Him. Like myrrh and aloes would. There's going to be cleanliness
and holiness. He smells like substitution.
That has a smell. John 15, He says, When the Comforter
come, I will send Him to the Father, He's going to testify
of me, and He also will bear witness. He told these folks
here what things. He knew what was in them. He
put it in them. We're going to tell Him that, and we're going
to inquire of Him. Verse 19, And He said unto them,
What things? And they said unto Him, Concerning
Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty indeed,
and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests
And our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and
have crucified Him. These men with wicked hands,
they slow Him. But we trust it. Because that's as far as they
had made it. Right? We trusted that it had been He
which should have redeemed Israel. And besides all this, today is
the third day. That's what He had said, we remember,
since these things were done. You may have heard the expression,
sometimes we can't see the forest for all the trees. We thought he was going to redeem
Israel. You're plumb redeemed. Well, he's going to come back
the third day. It ain't midnight yet. Hold on. Calm down. Wait. Wait on the Lord. Sometimes
we can't see these things. Paul told us to finish the course,
didn't he? He said, run the race. Finish
the course. Persevere to the end. Wait. Wait. It's hard to
wait on the Lord. It's hard for me to wait at a
red light. Our pastor said that years ago, and it sucks. We're
impatient, ain't we? Waiting for Him. We quit too
early. We're prone to wander. We're prone to leave the God
we love. But praise God, He's able and He's faithful. They
had a good report. They had a good report given
to them. Look here at verse 22. Yea, and certain women also of
our country made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher.
And when they had found not His body, they came to say that they
had also seen visions of angels, which said He was alive. And
certain of them, speaking to Peter, which were with us, went
to the sepulcher and found it even so as the women had said.
But he saw them not. To him, but him they saw not.
That's what the ladies come, marry them, because the angels
spoke to us. And Peter said, I ran up there and looked, and
it's empty. There's neatly folded linen laying there. That's a
good report. From those we love, we have a
good report. But I can't make you receive that. I can tell
you about it. I can't make you believe it.
Remember that woman at the well? She went and told everybody.
She said, let me tell you about a man that told me everything
about Mary. And they came and they listened. And God spoke
to them. And they said, they told that woman at the well,
they said, we came because of you. That's why we showed up. Maybe
some of you came here today because of friends here. That's why you
came. But if he speaks to this and
now we are him, Now we've heard the Lord. He must speak. He's going to do it through the
preaching of the gospel, not the preaching of a lie. You ain't going to
eat good meals out of a bad dumpster. That ain't going to happen. But
when He speaks to the heart. And you know what? It's foolish
not to bow to what the Lord said and to fully trust Him all the
time. That's foolish. That's foolish.
When I have unbelief, I'm being a fool. And when I do not trust
the Lord, even on the things He hasn't revealed yet, that's
foolish. It's cold-hearted, and it's foolish. Look here in verse 25. Luke 24,
25. And He said unto them, O fools,
and slow of heart. You know how slow of heart He
is? It's cold. It's sluggish. It's like my lashes. O fools,
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into
His glory? What's he saying? He's glorified. That's why he prays it in John
17. Father, I'm going to glorify you, glorify me. It's time, the
hour's come. He said, Ought not Christ to
have suffered these things? That's the hour He came for.
And go to glory. Have you ever been sad and troubled
and afraid and unbelieving and cold hearted? You know what the
solution to that is? The preaching of the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then seeing Him making you
have eyes to see that as glorious. To see Him as glorious. Look
at verse 27. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures concerning
himself. Who better to preach Christ than
Christ? And when I hear him speak in
glory, I'll never want to do this again. Now, he did talk. Some of my older brothers are
here. And here in the next couple weeks,
somebody's got to preach. And I said, well, you do it,
not me. Well, for him, for him to speak.
It says in the beginning of Moses and all the prophets he expounded
unto them and all the scriptures concerning himself. Oh, that's
something. There in that temple when he
stood up, he read Isaiah and it says he sat down. That means
he started preaching. And everybody was astonished
at those gracious things that poured out of His lips. Could
you imagine? It just said it in all the scriptures.
In Moses, that's the first five books of the Bible. And the prophets,
right? Concerning Himself. You know, for over two years,
since April of 2021, the brethren and I from San Diego, we've been
going through Genesis. We started in April of 2021.
And you know, as I go through that, the more amazed I am at
every verse. It's amazing. And I was thinking,
if the Lord started in Moses, where would He have started?
Commentators say, well, Genesis 3.15, right? What if it's Genesis
1.1? In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth. That Christ who ought to be glorified,
that you're so sad out here because it didn't work out the way you
thought, He's on His throne. That's the same one that created
the heaven and the earth. John was taught that, wasn't
he? That's the first thing John wrote down in John 1.1. In the
beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was was
God. Same in the beginning, with God.
And all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made. Christ is the Creator. That's the first thing I read
in Scripture, is it you? He's the light of the world. It says
in Genesis 1-3, God said, let there be light, and there was
light. And God saw the light, and that was good. He says it's
good, it's good. No man's good but God. That's
Him. What did our Lord say in John
8? He said, I'm the light of the world and he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. What about Genesis 3.15? That
woman's seed. That serpent, you're going to
bruise his heel. He's going to bruise your head.
That's what just happened. 2.75 days earlier. He's on the road to Emmaus. He
said, that Christ that you thought was going to be in this tomb
or heaven or earthly kingdom, that's what he did. It's finished. Remember when he said it's finished?
It was done. Plum finished, right? He got to Genesis 6 maybe. The
Ark. The Ark. Everything outside of
that Ark, death. Looking at the ark, knowing how
big the ark is, being able to tell you what kind of pinch it's
made out of and all the technical details. Don't mean you're in
that ark. To be in the ark's life, outside's death. I preached
on the ark six times to those four people down in San Diego.
And I said, I think we've got one more message off the ark, OK? Just one more. And the camera said, they're
going to run you out of town. You need to wait until next time. Maybe you can do it again. Would
we ever be lukewarm, would we ever be cold hearted if Christ
opened the scriptures and said, would you turn to Genesis 6?
I want to tell you about who God is. Oh, what's that? He said, I'll fire at you. I
want to see him. Go through Exodus, the Passover
land. He said, the blood shall be for
you a token. That's just a symbol. That's
just a picture. It's all in. It's going to be
for you a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. And a plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you, and I will smite the land of Egypt." He
said, that token, that was a picture of the cross that was on that
cross. The cross that was in that tomb that ain't in that
tomb now. He's glorified. Went through numbers. The brazen
serpent, right? And it says, when Moses made
a serpent of brass, and he put it upon a pole and it came to
pass, if a serpent had bitten any man, and he beheld, I underlined
that a couple times. He adored. He burned. When he beheld that serpent of
brass, he lived. What did he tell Nicodemus? He says, Moses,
lift up that serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, and whosoever believeth, whoever burns in their hearts
for Him, should not perish, but have eternal life. Deuteronomy,
the city of refuge. Savior from the manslaver. You
go into the city, you're protected. And that one avenging, they're
protected too. What's that mean? The law's honored.
It's just. It's right. It's upheld. He said
in John 6, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. They're
going to come to me. They're going to be in me. And
him that cometh to me, I will know I was cast out. You come
to that city of refuge, you ain't got leave. They ain't going to
take a head count and have one too many and boot you. You're
all right. Be safe. On and on and on and on. I had
it wrote down somewhere. I'm skipping a rock over very
deep waters. I'm not even touching the surface.
And that's our little feeble minds we see through a glass
dead man. Joshua. He was Rahab's scarlet line in
the window. Judges. He the angel of the Lord.
Ruth. Someday we may call that the
book of Boaz. Christ our kinsman redeemed. Kings. He's a greater
than Solomon. Ezra, the defender of the law.
Nehemiah, the great restorer. Esther, the provider of the people. Job, he's the giver and he's
the taker. Psalms, he's my shepherd, he's
my king, he's my lord. Proverbs, Christ is our wisdom. Song of Solomon, he's my bridegroom.
Isaiah, the substitute. Jeremiah, the great physician,
the balm of Gilead. Lamentations to suffer. Ezekiel,
the glory of the Lord. Daniel, the man of favor, the
one inside the furnace with him. Hosea, the forgiver, the provider. Joel, the Holy Spirit. Amos,
the stander. Obadiah, the deliverer. Jonah,
the sovereign savior. Micah, Bethlehem's infant. That's
how it's gonna come. Nathan, the Comforter, the Backer,
my Strength, Zephaniah, Striker, Christ, the Mighty One, Haggai,
Christ, the Desire of all Nations, every Nation, Tribe, Kindred,
Tongue, Zechariah, Christ, the Foundation, the Chief Cornerstone,
Malachi, Christ, the Messenger of God. Would you like to walk
seven miles with the Lord opening the Scriptures to you? This isn't a rule book. This
isn't a guide to life. This isn't a success manual.
This is a Him book. If you see Him, now you're starting
to have some light on the scripture. And if we don't see Him, we missed
it. We missed it. Are you burning yet? That's old hat I can do. Tell
me one more time. Tell me again. There in Luke
24 verse 27. It says, In the beginning it
was Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them, and all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village
where they went, and he made as though he would have gone
further. Don't you love how the Lord deals with us? He knew he
was going to enter with them. There was no question about that.
But he worked in them, in his providence, in his power, that
way they would inquire of him. He said, I'm going to do all
this for Israel, but you want to inquire of me. He said in
Isaiah 54, for a small moment I have forsaken thee, but with
great mercies will I get thee. For a small moment. With a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
He came to redeem him. Verse 29. He acted like he was
going to go on, but they constrained him. To restrain is to keep somebody
from doing something. To constrain is to try to talk
them into it and curb them. They constrained and pleaded
with Him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening
and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with
them. Call on Him while He's near you.
Pass me not up, gentle Savior. I thought of Lydia and every
other person the Lord opens their hearts, makes them burn. for
the first time or for the thousandth time. Nothing changed. We constrained. Stay with us. We want to be with
you. It says in Acts 16, a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of
purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us,
whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things
which were spoken unto Paul. And when she was baptized in
her household, she besought us saying, If ye have judged me
to be faithful, Lord, come into my house and abide here. And
she constrained us. She said, don't go away. Don't
go away. Some of my brethren I visit with
from around the country, they come, and it's sweet, and we'll
stay up all night long talking. Don't want it to end. That day
is not yet, but boy, we look for it. Don't we constrain for
that. Lydia fell in love, in burning love with, first off,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why she constrained him.
Second, she fell in love and constrained his preachers. That's
who brought the word. Then she fell in love with his
people, the Lord's people, those that burned the same way I did.
And then she fell in love with the fervor to the gospel. What
can we do to tell somebody else? I have other brethren out there,
but they don't know this. Why would any child of God be
constrained to try to get somebody to stay with Him and get the
Lord to stay with Him? Why was that? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5,
for the love of Christ constrained us. He loved us first. That's
why. Verse 30. And it came to pass
as He sat at meat with them, He took bread and blessed it
and break and gave it to them. The message of the cross. My
body is broken for you. I blessed this whole life. He
broke it. Nobody else broke it. He laid
it down. He broke it. And he said, take it. Eat. It's
my body broken for you. Do this and remember it some
more. That's what he said. You reckon on that seven mile,
I probably brought up Melchizedek? That's a first Lord's table,
wasn't it? Genesis 14. Melchizedek, the
king of Salem, the king of peace. He come to Abram and he brought
forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the Most High God. And they set at meat. We're setting
at meat right now. That's why we're here. Verse 31, and their eyes were
opened and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight.
They knew Him before, and they knew Him again, and they knew
Him more, and they understood Him. What's going to happen next
time? I'm going to get sad, and downhearted, and cold-hearted,
and unbelieving, and looking at me, and looking at the world,
and He's going to come to me, He's going to come to you, and
say, hey, let me show you something. Look to me. Be ye saved. He vanished. But he didn't leave
them alone. First thing I thought of, hanging
there on the cross, he saw his mother and that disciple whom
he loves, John was standing there with her, and he said, they're
going to be long. I'm leaving. And he said, woman,
behold thy son. That's your son now. And he looked
to John and said, behold thy mother. And from that hour, the
disciple took her unto his own house. We're family now. I'm born into a family, but you're
my family. He burns inside of you. Verse 32. And they said one to
another, did not our heart burn within us? While He talked with
us by the way, and while He opened the Scriptures to us. Only He can open. Only He can
light that fire. Only He can teach. And only He
can shed that love abroad in His heart. And we ask Him to
do that. You know what that heartburn
is? When you hear of Christ, He's the ark. He really is. That's
Him. He's the Passover lamb. That's
it. That's worship. When that heart's setting on
fire, we're not thinking about ourselves, we forget about ourselves
and we concentrate on Him, that's what we say, and worship Him.
My heart just burns inside of me. Queen. We never. As it's while we're gathered
here, we pray. We pray that He's gathered two or three together.
He'd be in the midst of us. But while we look to Him, while
we thank Him, we're at our daily job. Paul said that in Colossians
3, he said, Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord. And if I'm at work, if I'm sweeping
floors, or I'm at worship, or I'm doing whatever, fishing or
something, well, my affection is set on Him. And I say, well,
He put that fish on me. He did. The Lord gave me this
job. He gave me that boss. Good, bad or ugly, didn't he?
I'm not working for that boss. I'm working for him. That can
give you a little spark, don't it? And just like embers and
coals and lively coals, that fires a whole lot warmer when
we're together. Not a coal set off by itself that'll go out. The Lord didn't go to that one
that left the 99 of them and said, all right, there you are.
You're mine. Pat on the head and go back home. No. Break out things
laid, put over his shoulder and take him home. Your and my, we're
gathered together. If we're following him, we're
all going to kind of fall in together. What's the result of that new
heart burning for Christ? When we hear him speak and we
see him in the scriptures, what's the desire of that burning heart? Don't get mad at me, he said.
Verse 33. And they rose up the same hour
and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven gathered
together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord's
risen indeed. And he appeared to Simon. You're
all right. We believe everything you told
us. He's risen. And they told what things were
done to them in the way. And how he was known of them
in the breaking of the bread. Oh, we got it. We didn't have
to stand. He made it. He taught us. I was
ignorant, and I was unbelieving, and I was nothing. He's everything. He's kind. He's good. He come
to me. They were going to Emmaus, weren't
they? They was heading back home. They was going seven miles away.
You know what they took when they turned around and they went
back to Jerusalem? Do you know what they left in Emmaus? Everything. Everything. Or, nothing of importance
to them. It was all done. What was in
Emmaus? Who cares? The Lord's people's
in Jerusalem. That's where I'm going. There's
a lead in there, but believe me, that's where I'm going. They counted
everything in Emmaus, lost. Nothing was about him. That's
what Paul said in Philippians 3. He said, Yea, doubtless I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things. I do count them but dumb that I may win Christ. He found him. Some will say seven miles is
a long way to go in the dark to give back to the Lord's people.
When your heart's on fire, there's no such thing. No such thing. That Ethiopian eunuch went about
2,028 miles to go from the capital of Ethiopia to Jerusalem. One
way. And at a walking pace. So what
benefit was that? Philip was sent to God to go
preach to him. His soul was saved. Was it worth that 4,000 mile
round trip? You bet it was. To that eunuch
it was. Everybody else may have been
mumbling and grumbling. He'd get over that too. If we have a burning
heart for the Lord, we'll have a burning heart for our brethren,
and to be united with them in worship, to be where they are,
to live with them. We know what John said in his later years
on. 1 John 4. He said, We love him
because he first loved us. But he goes on. And he said,
If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he's a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he
love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we
from Him, that he who loveth God loveth his brother also.
I do, I love people of the Lord. Those who have that same heart,
put in with the new creation, cut from the same cloth, they're
sinner like me. They've been saved like I have
been. They're kept by Him. They don't keep themselves. I
love people like that. To end it, I'll be quick. I was reminded of a verse from
one of my brothers back east. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 16,
he said, I beseech you brethren, you know the house of Stephanas,
that is the firstfruits of Achaia, that they have addicted themselves
to the ministry of the saints. They've addicted themselves.
We use addiction as a bad word. That's not a good thing in our
day, right? This is a good verb. We addict ourselves to the ministry
of the saints. I pray the Lord opens our ears,
if we have heard him or never heard him. He opens our ears,
he opens our eyes, he opens our hearts, and we burn for him. And we love our brethren, we
burn for them too. And we addict ourselves to the
service of the saints, for Christ's sake and for his glory. That's
my prayer for me, and that's my prayer for every person in
this room, that he would come to us and do that in us. That's
my prayer for, I wouldn't at all be able to say, would you?
I don't know. I don't know if that's a question.
Go with y'all. Yahoo! I was telling my brother earlier,
why don't you preach a message, brother, and stand in for David.
And I told him, I said, you know, I understand now why Pastor Dean
always said to me, no, John, these conferences are my time
to hear people preach. I'm telling you, nobody here
loved what I just heard more than I do. That was awesome.
Thank you very much, Brother Kevin. I want to tell you about
two folks real quick. Two folks, two different groups
of people, there were some folks over in Tahoe. You talk about
burning in the hearts of God's people. They were 80 years old,
and they would drive over as long as that road was open from
here to Tahoe. Every Sunday. Mike and Juanita,
go team. 80 years old. Snow on the ground,
as long as the road's open, my spiked tires would get me through
it. He'd come over. Before Brother Rick opened up in Marysville,
a ministry over there, folks, and one of them is here tonight,
would travel all the way from Grass Valley, two and a half
hours one way. You know people down in San Diego
who would come that far almost, don't you? God's people's hearts
will burn, because it's a new heart given to us by God Almighty.
Stand with me if you would and turn to page 189 of your