Good evening, everyone. It's
good to see you again. It was so good to be in rescue
with many of you and our family has had a wonderful time coming
down this way and it's our real privilege. We, I said this last
time and I'll say it again, we love you all so much. We love
you, the two of you so much and love this congregation and it's
just A real privilege. I can't help. I'm very grateful
for the message that the Lord laid on my heart to bring. I
did not know that he had called our brother D home when he laid
this on my heart, but I was thinking about him entering into the great
congregation and being with Christ and being with his people. foretaste of that and the closest
thing we have to our great desire, that's being with each other.
And it's just such a privilege. It's such a rare opportunity
to be with brethren this far apart. So I'm thankful for it. Very, very thankful. Turn with
me, if you would, to Matthew 28. Matthew 28. The message tonight is specifically
for believers. I want to speak to believers. I pray that's what we are. And
if we have never been believers before, I pray that's what the
Lord will make us to be. Believers, I just want to speak
to the Lord's sheep for a minute. Believers who have been made
to know what we are, or a believer who has been made to know what
he or she is. And that is a sinner, a true
sinner. You know, it's amazing how many
people do not know that. It's amazing. How many people
do not know that? But for a believer who has been
made to know that he or she is an absolute sinner in the flesh,
a complete and total sinner in the flesh, and the only hope
of forgiveness that he or she has is that God the Father chose
to save him or her. And God, the son died to redeem
him or her. And God, the spirit has called
him or her. Do we have any other hope than
that? That the father chose us and the son died for us. And
the spirit has quickened us and called us to himself, called
us back to God for a believer who knows that that is his or
her only hope before God. A soul who knows that this whole
thing is God's will and God's work and God's way. And that's
what a believer believes. A believer believes every word
that has proceeded out of the mouth of God. And a believer
knows and believes the fact that every word declares that this
was all his will, his work, his way, his everything, my nothing
and his everything. For a believer who truly believes
God Almighty, the sovereign God Almighty, there is no greater
comfort. than hearing and trusting these words of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the heart and knowing by faith that he is saying this
to me. He's saying this to me. If you
look at the end of verse 20, he said, the very last half of
the verse there in verse 20, he said, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world. Amen. I pray that the Lord will speak
that to our hearts. I am with you always. I am with you always, no matter
where you go. Brother Maurice Montgomery used
to tell the story of whenever he was going into the service,
he was getting on a bus and he was headed out, you know, I guess,
basic training or wherever he was going. And his dad said,
son, you always remember God goes everywhere. No matter where
you go, no matter where you are. He said, I'm with you always.
I am with you always." What comfort that brings to a child of God.
What peace that brings to a child of God. God's people know, and this is
the reason why it brings so much peace to them. God's people know
that in their flesh, according to their own desire, now we just
said this was all about His will, His work, His way, His desire. God's people know that according
to their own desire and their own will, this is what they said
to Him. This is what we all by nature
said to Him. I reject you. Isn't that what
we said? And only a believer will understand
this. You tell this to somebody in the world and they say, what
do you mean? I didn't say that to him. All of us by nature say, I am
not with you. That's what the flesh says to
God almighty. I want to be far away from you. I despise you. What does Isaiah
53 say? He was despised and rejected
by who? Us. We've naturally said to him,
I am at enmity with you. I'm an enemy of you. I hide my face from you. I choose darkness over you. I choose damnation over you. I choose torment and absolute
destruction over you. Isn't that right? Every single
one of God's children, including God's children in the flesh,
in the wickedness of our simple flesh, all of us have cried,
leave me alone. But God. who is rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in
that sin, he cried, I'm not going to do it. Leave me alone. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I am
not going to leave you alone. It is not your will be done. Leave me alone. It's not your
will be done. It's my will be done. And this
is my will. I will receive you to myself. I will be near to you. I want
you to be far from me. No, I will be near to you. I will love you and be your friend. I'm an enemy of you. No, you're not. He said, Abraham's my friend. I call you friends. I don't call
you servants. He said, I call you friends. I will shine the glorious countenance
of my face on you. I'll bring the light of truth
to you. I choose darkness. Light has come to you. I will save you from all of your
damnation and destruction. I will deliver you from all your
torment and wrath to come. To every single one of God's
people, this is what he cries to them. I am with you always,
even until the end of the world. I just can't imagine a more comforting
thought than that. I am with you always. I want
him to be with me. That's what I want. That is a
child of God's greatest desire to be with Christ after he conquers
us. And we hear him say, I am with
you always. Our greatest desire is to be
with him after he conquers us and quickens us. That's our greatest
desire. When the father. draws a center
to Christ, he draws that center. No, no man or woman can come
to the Lord Jesus Christ, except the father draw that center to
Christ. And when the father draws that center to Christ, he causes
the center to fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the draw. That's how the draw is made.
He causes his people to fall in love with a person. They fall
in love with the person when salvation comes, when that quickening
moment comes, God's people fall in love with a person. Do you
remember what it feels like to fall in love? Do you know, or
do you remember the experience of falling in love? Hannah and
I'm not going to speak for Hannah, but I'll speak for myself. I'm
more in love with her now than I ever have been. We've been
together 20 years. Honestly, it, love grows, but
I'm talking about the, I'm talking about that initial feeling of
falling in love. You know what I'm talking about? You can't get anything done because
you can't stop thinking about the person. You know what I'm
talking about? Like it's just total, total, all consuming. Love, you're just thinking about
this person because you know how you feel about the person,
but you don't know if the person feels that way about you yet. And it's just sickening. Your stomach hurts, your heart
hurts, you can't eat. What's wrong with you? Lovesick. Then you find out the person
does feel the same way about me as I feel about the person. And everything gets kicked up
a notch. And then you're tired all the time because you can't
go home. You stay up too late. We all
did, didn't we? When we were dating, we stayed
up too late. And it's because you can't stop
kissing. You just can't go home. You need one more kiss. You understand
what I'm talking about? Love. Love, all consuming love. That's the draw of the heavenly
bride to her heavenly husband. It's not just some something
that makes sense. Okay, let's do this because it
makes sense. That's not how it works. Let's
do this because I can't do anything else. Where are you going to
live? I don't care. What if it's a cardboard box? I don't care. What if there turns out to not
be any golden streets and pearly gates and all that stuff? I don't
care. I don't care. It's about him. It's all about him. The heavenly bride says to Christ,
the husband, you have ravished my heart. And he says to her, all that
I am and have, I give to you. Is that not what he has said?
All that I am and have, there's no prenup. I've made you to be a joint heir
with my father. Everything he's placing in my
hands, he's placing it in your hands. Everything I am, everything
I have, I give it to you. I will love you forever. We husbands say that and hope
we mean it. I hope I mean it. He means it. He cannot lie. I love you forever. I will never leave you. I will
never forsake you. I am with you always, even until
the end of the world. Now, if we are sinners saved
by the free grace of God. With no hope in ourselves. And all hope in the blood of
the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Then I want to
read a few verses of scripture and I want us to take some comfort
in seeing and knowing that he is with us always. He's with us always. He always
has been, he always will be. He is right now. He is right
now, even unto the end of this world. Turn with me first to
Psalm 23. Psalm 23 verse one, it says,
the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. That's so comforting, isn't it? Many years ago, Hannah and I
were down in Mexico, and I might have told you, I say the same
thing over and over again. If I told you this, just bear
with me. But we were down in Mexico, and we were with Cody
Groover staying in their house, and his Spanish Bible was on
the coffee table, and I just wanted to see if I could recognize
Spanish. So I thought, what scripture do I know And I went and found
Psalm 23, and in Spanish, verse one said, Jehovah es mi pastor. And it just hit me, the Lord
is my pastor. The Lord is my pastor. I can't
wait till we all get to glory and we listen to the pastor.
But verse one says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters, the green pastures and still waters of his word. His
word is so comforting. It is so settling. It is so filling. Verse three says, he restoreth
my soul in him, in himself. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness,
his righteousness. And he does that, it says, for
his namesake. Now, David said in verse four,
yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thou art with me. He said, even though death is
all around me, and even though I'm going to have to walk through
that dark valley myself, I will fear no evil for thou art with
me. You're with me. He said, that's
my comfort in it. You're with me. I know you will
be with me for true believers on Christ. Those who have truly
been caused to cast their all on Christ. As we watch, we just
found out today of a dear brother who has seen the Lord. And experienced leaving this
earth and leaving this valley of death, this place is death.
This is a body of death. He's not carrying this around
anymore. But as we watch our brethren go through this and
and when that very moment comes for us. We can take comfort in
knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ will be with us. He'll be with
us in that moment. We won't be alone. We passed
through spiritual death with him on the cross of Calvary.
He will pass through physical death with us when it's our time. In Isaiah 43 verse two, our Lord
said, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. I'll be with
you. That just brings so much comfort
to know that he's going to be with us in that moment. I don't
want to go through that alone. And we won't, none of us will.
As long as he's there, there will be nothing to fear. There's
going to be no sting. That's what Paul said in first
Corinthians. There's going to be no sting,
no pain, no sorrow. O death, where is thy sting,
O grave? I was afraid of this. That's
what we're going to say. I was afraid of this. It's only going to be joy and
peace and comfort knowing he's with me. He's with me. He's with us in death. Turn over
to Psalm 139. Psalm 139, verse 13. It says, for thou hast possessed
my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise
thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works
and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid
from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance
yet being unperfect. And in thy book, all by members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there
was none of them. Now look at verse 17. He said,
how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is
the sum of them. If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I'm still with
thee. A few years ago, we were on vacation
at the beach. And I was sitting in a chair
under an umbrella, and I started thinking about this verse of
scripture. And I looked down, and I didn't get a handful, but
I just picked up a little sand, and I put about this much sand
in my hand. And there was a broken shell
right there with a point on it. And I thought, I'm gonna count
how many grains of sand are in my, in my palm right here. And so I started dividing one
grain at a time and I learned that one grain can be about three
or four grains stuck together. And so I was counting and counting
and counting and I kept counting and counting and the pile wasn't
going down and counting and counting. And when I got to a thousand
and the pile was still there, I thought, well, I'm not doing
that anymore. But here's the point, I looked down at all that
sand I was sitting in, and I looked as far as I could see that way,
and as far as I could see that way, and I thought about all
the beaches around all the continents of this earth, and then it hit
me, the sand doesn't stop at the waterline, it keeps going. You know, our God doesn't lie.
If he said this, he means it. David said in verse 17, how precious
are thy thoughts unto me? Does it not amaze you to think
that he has, we have thoughts on him. We're having them right
now, but he has thoughts on us. How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. He has been thinking about his
people individually from eternity past, from no beginning. And he said in verse 18, if I
should count them, they are more in number than the sand. He is with us in this life, the
life that we're living here on this earth. We know he's going
to be with us in death. He's with us right now, thinking
on us, dwelling on us. And David said every morning
when we wake up, I'm still with you. He's still with us. We're
still with him. We wake up to him. We wake up
to his goodness. We wake up to his mercy every
morning. When we wake up, we're still
with him. Look at lamentations three with me. Lamentations three, verse 21,
it says. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in
Him. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him, To the soul that seeketh him, it is good that
a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. Our Lord is with us, not only
in death, but also in this life that we're living here on this
earth. He is with us. He's with us. Now turn with me
to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41, I think this is just
one of the sweetest portions of scripture that we could possibly
read. Isaiah 41 verse 10, he said,
fear thou not for I am with thee. This is our Lord speaking. Be
not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing. And they that strive with thee
shall perish. Thou shalt seek them and shalt
not find them, even them that contended with thee. They that
war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord thy God, will
hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not. I will help thee. Fear not thou worm, Jacob, and
you men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." Our Lord is with
us in all of our afflictions. We will have to endure afflictions
and trials. We have to. We just have to. But he said, while you do, I
will sit right beside you and I will hold your hand saying
unto you, fear not. This is of me. Whatever it is
you're going through, it is of him. It is of him. And he said, that's what I'll
say to the soul of my loved one. I will sit right there and I
will hold my loved one's hand and I will say, fear not. This
is of me. This is for your good. This is
for the furtherance of my gospel. This is for the calling out of
my sheep. Everything that happens is for that reason. I love how
Paul told the Philippians that, you know, they were all just
beside themselves that Paul was in prison. And he said, this
is all happened for the furtherance of the gospel. And it did, he
wrote a couple of letters while he was in there. And we have
them. But our Lord says, I will help
you through this and I'll make you glad in this. You will be
happy in the end. Fear not. In every affliction,
every trial we go through, he's with us. He's with us even in
moments when we don't know he's with us and don't believe he's
with us. He's with us. Even when we think he's far away
because we can't see his face, we can't feel his presence. Do
you ever have moments like that where you, now I just don't feel
his presence. He's still with you. He's the
one who puts you in that place saying, I don't feel his presence.
Where are you? He does that. At all times, all
moments, he's with us. He said, I'm with you always. And if we want to know that honestly,
if we want to know that he's with us, if we want to hear his
voice, we can find it anytime we want to right here in this
word. He is with us in this word. Anytime we need to hear him.
To every center in need of our savior. He says, because you're
mine, I'm with you. I'm with you. I'll be a very
present help for you. Look with me at Luke 23. Luke 23, verse 33. And when they were come to the
place, which is called Calvary, there, they crucified him and
the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left,
then said, Jesus, father, forgive them for they know not what they
do. And they parted his raiment and
cast lots. And the people stood beholding,
and the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved
others, let him save himself, if he be Christ the chosen of
God. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou
be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew, This is the king of the Jews. And one of the malefactors
which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, Does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done
nothing amiss, without any cause of his own, only because of his
love and his grace and his heart of mercy that he had for us,
he made himself to be with us on the cross of Calvary. He united
himself with us in the feeling of all of our infirmities, all
of our griefs, all of our sorrows, all of our sin before God. He
was with us in the bearing of our judgment, just like Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. Don't you love that story? Nebuchadnezzar
said, I thought we threw three men in there. Didn't we throw
three? Yes, King, we threw three. He
said, I see four. And one of them looks just like
the son of God. How do you know what he looks
like? He hadn't even been born yet. If you see him, you'll know. Our Lord was with his people.
Our Lord is with his people. He was with them in the fiery
furnace of God's judgment. On the cross of Calvary. And just like Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, they came through all that. They didn't have any
hurt. They didn't have any burn marks,
they didn't even have the smell of smoke on them. That's how
God's people came through the judgment of God with Christ on
the cross. He burned in the furnace for
his people, with his people, as his people. Revelation 1,
John said, I saw him. This is what he looked like.
And his feet looked like they burned in a furnace. And they
did. They did. God's people are with
Christ, and he was with his people in death, in life, in affliction,
in trial, in judgment. In all of those things, therefore.
This thief on the cross said right here in Luke 24, look at
verse 42, he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, verily
I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. He said, because I was with you
and all those things, you're going to be with me. You will
be with me in eternity, in paradise. He said in John 17, father, I
was with them. And because of that, my desire
is that they might be with me. I want them to be with me where
I am. I honestly cannot think of any
greater comfort for a child of God than to know that right there.
Our Lord is with us always, even unto the end of the world. And
when the end of this world comes, it's only the beginning of our
eternity with him. He's going to be with us till
the end of this world. And then when that happens, that'll
be the beginning of our being with him in eternity. You say,
that sounds like the same thing. It is. It is. He is with us. We are with him. And I pray the Lord will make
that to be a comfort to our hearts. Paul said, oh, that we might
win Christ and be found in him. That's all I want. I just want
to be with him. I want to be in him. I want to
be with him. May the Lord speak that peace
to our hearts. Amen. Thank you, brother.