Even thank you for that. God given faith is obedient. They go hand in hand. It's the
faith of Christ is Christ obedient. Better believe it, buddy. And
if he gives faith, that faith is obedient. How are we going
to know what to do? Our children made obedient. Do
they just wake up that way? No. Train up a child as it shall
go. When it's old, it won't depart
from it. You have to teach them. Teach them something, don't you?
We're going to see something first Samuel I thought was a
good motivation for me. If I could just tell you one
time, if you could just tell them kids one time, shut the
door or open the door. It just took one time. I could
have flew from New Jersey out here, preached to you one time,
until I went back. You've been fine. We need to hear that same
old, old story, don't we? Over and over. I want to give
you something tonight. Can I give you a present? Would you take
a gift? I think I've given you a gift
before. I was reminded of that gift I was given. The Lord gave
me and I gave to you, which gave you what he gave me. And this
past week's been precious with this rain and stuff. I had my
little bucket, our rain gauge broke, so I just stuck a ruler
down a little icing bucket from a deli and marked off inches,
you know. Well, I just kept going, man.
I went all the way up it. Boop, boop, boop, number them.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, a 10-inch bucket.
Kim and I laughed at it. Y'all laughed at me, didn't ya?
It ain't ever gonna get up that much at seven and a half inches.
Who's laughing now? It rained a lot. Lord brought
rain. Hopefully, I sent out a text.
I'll email it to you, that video. Me and Kim walked down by the
river the other day. The creek's normally six inches wide going
through our property, and it was a raging torrent going through
them trees. We couldn't talk. I edited off
the part she was talking. She was saying stuff, I didn't
know it. Couldn't hear nothing. If you'll stay with me, you'll
have a present. If you'll stay with me, if you'll stay with
me, you're gonna have something sweet, I promise. John chapter
12. John chapter 12. I'm excited
to tell you this. We're gonna turn some. It ain't
gonna turn nowhere near as much as what we could. I had to cut
out a lot. But we're gonna turn a little
bit tonight. It'll make us stay with us. John chapter 12, we'll look
at verse 23. The title of this message is Blessing During
a Judgment. A Blessing During a Judgment.
Here in verse 23 in John 12, it says, And Jesus answered them,
saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
Remember those Greeks said we would see Jesus. Philip and Andrew
had their chit-chat of brothers. The Lord said right here, he
says, verily, verily, you see that? Verily, verily, truly,
truly, of a truth, of a truth, I say unto you, except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his
life shall lose it. He said, you don't confess my
father, he won't confess you, isn't that what he said? Go in
the world, preach the gospel to all creatures, baptize them,
and then teach them. Teach my commandments, we said,
wasn't it? He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that
hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life.
If any man serve me, let him follow me. Where I am, there
shall also my servant be. And if any man serve me, if he
minister to me, what's that mean? Serve. Wait on. Boy, do we wait. Him will my
father honor. Dear friend of mine preached
from that verse and he had a statement that I want to keep fresh in
my heart. Sovereign grace is free. It's
free and sovereign grace. It ain't cheap. It ain't cheap,
not in its value and the cost that was paid for it, nor for
us. Lord, look at that blind man,
or that crippled man, and he said, would you be made whole?
We'll have an article from J.C. Ryle in the Bulletin this week.
You know the first thing that's gonna cost a man or a woman? Your self-righteousness. You're gonna have to come off
that high camel you've been trotting through the desert on. It's gonna
bring us down if we're gonna serve him. We're gonna follow
him. He was meek and lowly, wasn't
he? He was humble. He owned this whole world, owned
everything in it, created it all, and he didn't have a place
to lay his head. Never owned a piece of property. Told us, he said, you deny yourself,
you take up the cross daily, and follow me. That doesn't mean,
well, I'm gonna suffer for Jesus. That means deny yourself daily.
Take up the struggle of denying you daily, and follow me, because
that's what he did, didn't he? Laid down everything. The only
one that ever had the right to say something and complain never
did. That's following him, isn't it? Verse 27, now is my soul troubled. How long could we spend on that?
His soul was troubled. Troubled, we know why. We know
why it had to be. Now is my soul troubled, and
what shall I say? What shall I pray? Should I pray
this? Father, save me from this hour?
He would have. He said, I could speak to my
father right now, and there'd have been 10,000 hosts of angels
come down here. But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Am I gonna pray that? Am I gonna
say, Father, to take me from it? This is why I'm here. I came
for this hour that's coming. Couldn't be lifted up on a cross,
didn't he? He come to have his soul troubled, so mine would
never be, so yours would never be. Oh, what needless pain we bear,
don't we? His soul was troubled. He said,
what shall I say? What shall I pray for? Should I pray, Father,
save me from this hour? No. This hour came out of this
hour. So now he prays. Watch this. You want to pray? Pray like this. Look right here, verse 28. Look
at it. Father, glorify thy name. That's it. God Almighty prayed
to God Almighty. And he said, Father, glorify
thy name. Immediately. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it, always have, and will glorify
it again. What a prayer. Father, glorify
your name. And immediately that prayer was
answered. It was validated. If you want
your prayers to be fulfilled, ask the Lord to glorify his name.
Isn't that what the disciples ask him? And the apostles come
to him and said, Lord, teach us how to pray. And he said,
OK, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your holy
and your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. Do we want that? Well, if we
had a heart to. If we were given a spirit in
us that truly desired God to be glorified, Christ to be lifted
up and glorified and honored in all things, I mean honored.
You ever done it? You make a decision? What's the
most loving and what's the most honoring to the almighty God
that saved us? That's a good way to make decisions,
isn't it? It's a good way to pray too. Father, glorify your
name. I can't. I don't know how to. You do it. People, therefore, the Lord spoke
from heaven. Remember, he said, this is my
son, whom I'm well pleased. Remember, he was baptized. On
that Mount of Transfiguration, he said, this is my son, and
whom I'm well pleased. That's a general call at the
baptism, but this one was effectual. He said, hear him. Hear him. And now he opens up the heavens,
and he says, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Therefore, the people that stood
by, they heard it. And they said it thundered. Others said an angel spake to
him. And Jesus answered and said, the voice came not because of
me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me. He said this, he said, signifying
what death he should die. What's man's response to Christ's
answered prayer? That's just some thunder. That's
just some loud noise. It's annoying, disturbing, loud
noise. That's all it is to most people. the majority of people. That's
all it is. Remember the context. Remember what we looked at last
time, those Greeks coming? Everybody else in this whole
chapter? Everybody's getting ready to deny him. Say, give
us Brabus. Some people just said it hurt.
They heard thunder. What's that? Well, it's just
natural things. It's mother nature. Some three ladies, isn't it?
Misfortune, mother nature, and lady luck. That's what we rely on. We act
like we don't. It is. Everybody said, well,
that's just thunder. That's mother nature. The Lord's
people heard his voice. John heard it, didn't he? They
discerned what happened. John wrote down. He said, we
heard what he said. Might have been thunderous, but he heard
it. And Christ is glorified. That's what they heard. We who
believe. I'm talking to everybody. I'm
talking to everybody. We who believe. We know why his
soul had to be troubled. Because of us. Because of the
sin that I am. He had to go on that tree to
be forsaken of God. We know why he had to be lifted
up. We know we are drawn to him. He's drew us to him. We know
that. You're sitting here right now.
We know that. He's brought us. We know that
that prince of the world is cast out. Judgment's done. Our greatest accuser's gone.
This was effectual. This really happened. It really
did. We know that serpent's head's
crushed and it's perfect. You know the word for that? It's
finished. It's perfected. The Lord said,
perfect. The life he lived for his people, he hung on that cross
and he said, it's perfect. And he gave up the ghost. Verse
29, the people therefore that stood by and heard it and said
it thundered. Another said an angel spoke.
And Jesus answered and said, this voice came not because of
me. I didn't need to hear that. My father hears me always, I
know his will, but for your sakes. You know why it's so loud? You
know why he spoke from heaven? He said, I have glorified your
name and I'm going to glorify it again. And it ain't going
to stop being glorified. That's for your sakes. That's
for your sakes. Well, that might be for some
other people's sakes. Well, maybe I'm the other. Lord said it's
for your sakes. That's why it happened. You know,
it's good to hear thunder. It's good. We're not those that
are denied. We're not those seeking ourselves. We're here to worship
the Lord. It's a Wednesday night. Y'all worked all day and you're
tired and you're here to hear about Christ, right? So we're
through that. It's good to hear thunder. I
feel sorry for places where it don't thunder much, like here.
It don't thunder much. It's good to hear a roaring river. It's good to go out there with
them waves that's 30 foot tall a day, and you can't hear nothing.
It's just, whoo, right? It's just loud. It's good to
do that. It's good to see tornadoes and hurricanes and forest fires
and floods and tsunamis. The earth's shaking, trees getting
knocked down, and that's good. That's a good thing. It's good
to see the judgments of God and remember him. Remember the one
that does it. Not run around like heads with
their chickens cut off, like so many people do, but to remember
him, to remember him, to be steadied in him. All will bow to the Almighty. All will declare that Christ
Jesus is Lord. That will happen. Oh, how much
better it is to do it now than in judgment. How much better it is to do it
now? Turn over to Genesis chapter 9. The Lord's kind to us. So
kind, I just dwelt on that all week and cooped up in the house
because I've acclimatized and it was raining and cold. As you turn into Genesis chapter
9, why do we need to see rainbows? Why do we need tokens and pictures
and reminders? Because we forget. We forget. We get fearful. We look to this
world. We look to ourselves. And we
do not constantly walk as those who know that God's on his throne. We don't. So for our sakes, the
Lord gives us tokens. And he gives us these things
to remind us, don't we? Mankind says a rainbow's a meteorological
phenomenon that's called by reflection and refraction and dispersion
of light through water droplets that releases a spectrum of light.
Roy G. Biv, right? No? That might be how you can explain
it in words as to what happens. Look here in Genesis 9, verse
13. I do set my bow in the cloud. Whose rainbow's that? It's God's
rainbow. And it shall be for a token of a covenant between
me and the earth. And it shall come to pass when
I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in
the cloud, and I will remember my covenant, which is between
me and you, and every living creature of all flesh. And the
water shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh, and the
bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it." You see
that red first, that's the closest thing to it. that I may remember
the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature
of all flesh that is upon the earth." And God said unto Noah,
this is the token of the covenant. which I have established between
me and all flesh that is upon the earth." He gave us a rainbow. I had a dear brother this week
that listened to that message I preached on the rainbow, and
he got to see a rainbow. And he said, well, that was wonderful.
He goes, I remember it was like it was yesterday. He goes, I
remember everything you said. He goes, I just had such a good
time of peace and looking at that, because the Lord set that
there. He sees Christ when he looks upon us, and there is no
judgment. We ain't never gonna get killed
again. There's no condemnation. That's
the second thing that'll happen. He sees him, and he says, boy,
that was good. Every time, the Lord gave us that. That's a token
to remind us. It's earnest. It's down payment.
Every time, here. Not this. The token's nothing. The refraction
of light going through the moisture. No, it's who did it, whose that
is, what he promised. That's special, isn't it? Why
do we need to hear it thunder? What'd our Lord just say? Why
do we need to hear it thunder? To be reminded of Christ and
Him crucified, that it was for our sakes, truly, and that we
may fear not. We'll stop running around like
scared little babies and act like men and women that believe
God and say, oh, that's right. That's right. That's good, isn't
it? Turn to 1 Samuel 12. This was good motivation for
me, and I hope it stays that way. 1 Samuel 12. Verse 16. First Samuel 12, 16. Remember
that Israel wanted a king. It would be like everybody else.
And the Lord said, you want a king because you don't want me ruling
over you. Hmm. Now, therefore, stand and see
this great thing for 7, 12, 16, which the Lord will do before
your eyes is not wheat harvest today. Y'all busy. You go about
getting married and giving a marriage and having feasts and babies
and naming them and you have birthday parties, right? Ain't
y'all going out and do that stuff as in the days of Noah. He said
today, wheat harvest day. I will call unto the Lord and
he shall send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see
that your wickedness is great. which ye have done in the sight
of the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel called to the Lord,
and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people
greatly feared the Lord." That's the first thing. And Samuel,
they honored him because he told you so, didn't he? You do what
they want, but you warn them. You tell them what's gonna happen
if they get him a king. This is several chapters later. They got a king
and he didn't like it. And he said, I told you so. What's
the fundamental requirement for me to tell you I told you so?
I had to tell you. They honored Samuel too, but
they greatly feared the Lord. Verse 19, and all the people
said to Samuel, pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God
that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this
evil to ask us a king. Which is one on top of a billion,
isn't it? One more thing. And Samuel said unto people,
fear not. Don't be afraid. Ye have done all this wickedness.
Don't you dismiss it. You did it. You did it. Yet turn
not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with
all your heart. You did it, now knock it off
and follow him and serve him. What'd our Lord say in John 12
to 26? If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am,
there shall also my servant be. You departed from the Lord, hug
up to him. Get to his feet and grab ahold
of him, don't let go. So follow him, serve him, be where he is.
When? Now. What time's now? Right now, always, it's always
right now, isn't it? Constantly, verse 21. And turn ye not aside,
For then should you go after vain things, which cannot profit
nor deliver for they're vain. For the Lord will not forsake
his people. You say to him, he ain't gonna forsake his people
because his great namesake. For the honor of his name, he
won't do it. For his glory, he won't do it.
And his namesake, that's his son. For Christ's sake, he ain't
gonna leave his people. He won't forsake them because
it's pleased the Lord to make you his people. To make you his
people. Samuel turns to himself, moreover
asks for me. God forbid that I should sin
against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. That hit me. I thought, have
I prayed for you enough today? Have I prayed for your family
enough today? Have I ceased from it? Oh, God
forbid that I cease from praying for your family and for you and
for your children. But I will teach you the good
and right way. I'm going to pray for you, and I'm going to teach
you something. Can I teach you something? If it ain't right,
well, why you go to a teacher if they ain't going to teach
you nothing? I'll get fired. What's he going to teach? Only
fear the Lord. Thunder's scary, isn't it? They
make vests to put on dogs so they don't get scared when it
thunders. Thunder can be scary. Lightning can be scary. Tsunamis
can be scary, isn't it? Only fear the Lord. Only fear
the Lord. He's going to teach that to them
over and over and over. He's getting old here. We're
going to raise up another one, isn't he? Only fear the Lord
and serve him in truth with all your heart. Why? Why would we
do such a thing? For consider how great he hath
done for you. Things is in italics, isn't it?
You consider the great he's done for us. Here's the lesson I want
to teach you. I want to learn, and I want us
to learn. When we see a rainbow, when we see a token that the
Lord's given us, when we hear thunder, when we see the lightning,
when we see a raging river, when we see a forest fire coming over
the hills, Fear, honor, have reverence to the Lord, and consider
the great He's done for us. Be reminded of His power, and
be reminded of Christ and Him crucified. That's it. People ask me, the fire we saw
when we got evacuated that first year we was here. On the map,
it was past Hillary Lane or road or whatever, and our house is
gone. It burned up. It's burnt through there anyway.
People say, oh, that's terrible. Well, it ain't terrible. It ain't
my house. It's the Lord's house. If he's going to keep it standing,
you can't burn it down. And if he's going to burn it
down, you can't keep it from burning down. He gave us good insurance.
He gave us faith and obedience. We had good common sense with
all of it, didn't we? That's fine. I ain't one bit worried
about it. It'll just be a trial. People say, your great faith.
Ain't my great faith. He's God. Do you know him? Do you believe him? Well, there
you go. He gave his only begotten son
for me. I think he can swing a house.
Can't he? That's one thing to nod to is
another thing to believe it. Stand in. We need to be reminded of
his power often we need to be reminded what he's done for his
soul was troubled. And then he was lifted up on
a Roman cross. And God forsook him. What else matters? Tell me something more important. Turn over to Job 37. One book
to the left of Psalms. Find Psalms, turn left one book.
Job 37. There was a gathering of elders. This young fellow
named Elihu showed up. He didn't say nothing for a long
time. And he said, I'm like a fresh thing of wine, buddy. I'm going
to bust if I don't say something. He cut loose on all of them,
didn't he? He had something to say. God the prophet is what he was.
Job 37, verse 1. That young man, Elihu, was speaking.
He says, At this also my heart trembleth, Job 37 verse 1, and
is moved out of his place. Hear attentively the noise of
his voice, the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directeth
it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of
the earth. After it a voice roareth, he thundereth with the voice
of his excellency. And he will not stay then when
his voice is heard. God thundereth marvelously with
his voice. Great things doeth he which we
cannot comprehend. He thunders marvelously with
his voice, and we can't understand what he's doing. What'd them
disciples do? They said, boys, we told us to
hide all the time. Now he's walking out in public,
walking in Jerusalem. He's got a cult task. I don't
understand that. They didn't know nothing, did they? Well,
we don't know what he's doing. We don't know what he's doing.
But he thunders with his voice marvelously. During a thunderstorm,
if you're close to where the lightning is, where it's striking,
and you're close to where that thunder's cracking, you can't
hear anything but the thunder. The rolling thunder. The roaring. That's all you can hear. Everything
else is drowned out. You can't even hear yourself
yelling. That's important. We need to be shut up to ourselves,
don't we? Turn this self off. Turn over to Job 40. One page
there of Job 40. The Lord dealt with Job and says
in verse 3, Job 40 verse 3, Then Job answered the Lord and said,
Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth. I have spoke, once I have spoken,
but I will not answer, yea, twice, but I will proceed no further."
What'd he say? I'm just gonna shut up. I'm gonna quit telling
everything I know, and I'm just gonna be quiet. Then the Lord
answered unto Job by the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now
like a man. I will demand of thee, and declare
thereunto me. You answer me. Wilt thou also
disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou
mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God, or
canst thou thunder with a voice like him? I can yell pretty loud. I ain't never done it here. I
can get pretty loud. I can get pretty loud. But I
can't sound like thunder. I can't do it. I think sometimes
it's like smooth jazz. Gotta be. Thor can't sound like
thunder either. Only God can. Only God can. And when God thunders in the
hearts of his people, whether I'm whispering, screaming or
kicking this pulpit over, when God thunders in the hearts of
his people, when he speaks to one of his children, it must
be heard. They can't not hear it. They can't not hear it. When he speaks, he doesn't suffer
anybody. The Lord thundered in my heart
one time. Man was preaching from Daniel 4. I'd never heard thunder.
Been through a lot of rainstorms, right? Never heard his voice.
I never had heard it. I knew a lot about rain. I could
tell you the science of it. How does all that snow get on
the mountains? Well, it's got to evaporate somewhere first, doesn't
it? Well, the sun's got to heat it up. I knew all about it. I
could tell you all about it. And then one day a man stood up, and he was
preaching out of Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar, and he had us
turn over to Job 37, and he read that. God thunder marvelously
with his voice. We don't understand what he says
to the snow. Be thou on the ground. And it is. I didn't hear him speaking. I
knew that man. He stayed in my house, but I
didn't hear him talking. God spoke to me. He spoke to
my heart that day. I can hear right now. And he
thunders the glory of Christ into someone's heart. They bow.
They bow when he thunders Christ into their heart, they hear him
and they follow him and there's reverence and they praise him
for it. They praise him for it. Turn to Revelation chapter one.
Revelation one. Revelation 1 verse 12. I can define brass. What does
Nahum tell us? The clouds are the dust of his
feet, isn't it? That's where storms come from.
His feet's like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace,
and his voice as the sound of many waters. Thunder. Thunder. The voice of many waters.
What's that? That's him preaching. That's
the gospel. Paul told us, he said, that sound,
they heard it. He says it went into all the earth. Go into all
the earth, preach the gospel. Baptize them, teach them. Drain
them up, didn't he? Tell all of them. Verse 16. And he had in his right hand
seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword.
You can't unhear the gospel, can you? If he's going to send
it, you can't stop it. And his countenance was as the
sun shineth in strength, just like lightning. And when I saw
him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon
me and said unto me, fear not. I don't know if we'll ever hear
thunder in this county again. You'll probably hear another river,
like I sent that video out, going through my property, just raging.
You can't hear nothing. Next time you hear that, you
hear the Lord speak to his child saying, fear not! Fear not! I ain't never been scared in
a thunderstorm. Fear not, I'm the first and the
last. I'm he that liveth and was dead. That's why he said
he must be lifted up, isn't he? He's got to be lifted up on a
cross. He's got to die. He's got to go in the grave. He's got
to be lifted up out of that grave. He's going to have to rise again. I'm he that
liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.
And I have the keys of hell and death. That gospel roars. This is precious, ready? The
gospel roars out of the mouth of the line of the tribe of Judah.
And what's it, what's it, remember what it was that Judah's name
meant the other day we learned Sunday? Praise. Praise. What'd he say in John, John 12?
You see this coming around? Father, glorify thy name. That's
thunder. What's that say to us? Fear not.
Because he glorified the Father's name, didn't he? You get that?
Well, Kevin, I thought you started talking about some creek run
through your property. Well, I was standing there by the creek
filming it to send to you all, because I know the Lord's thunder and
fear not to me, and he satisfied everything for the Father. How
could that be? Well, in love with the person,
they don't leave you mind much, do they? Where does this voice
and this thunder and this lightning and all these things come from?
Look over at chapter four, Revelation four, verse five. Out of the throne
proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices. Raging waters. At our come, Christ was gonna
be lifted up. He said, at our come, the Son
of Man's gonna be glorified, isn't he? If there was anything
on this earth that was, what we would say in our words that
God wasn't in that, God couldn't be doing this, was when Christ
hung on that cross, wasn't it? Where was God when Christ was
hanging on that cross? He had it thundered. He spoke. He's on it. Where's that come
from? The throne. He's on his throne. It's his determinate
counsel and the foreknowledge of God put him up there. Wicked
hands did it. Whenever you're scared, when you fear, hear fear
not. When you're worried to death about everything underneath the
sun, stop it. God's on his throne. Not inside
of these walls. You hear that? This ain't a Wednesday
evening and two times on Sunday morning, because it's the church
time when I'm at work, when I'm at the grocery store, when I'm
doing this, when I'm talking to somebody else. He's on his throne 24-7. We learned this now, and then
you're going to be out next to a creek one day, and it's going to be
so loud, and I pray to God he'll come to you and make you remember.
Oh, he's got the voice of many waters. He told me to fear not
and calm me down. That'd be precious, wouldn't
it? It'd be precious. He's on his throne, it thundered.
Raging waters, many waters. As the Lord grows us in grace,
we'll think on him more and more throughout the day. Not quoting
scripture, not saying what Spurgeon said. We'll think about the one
that saved us. I was working on an ice machine
one day and I was like, look at this magnificent stuff the
Lord made. He let us learn this to squeeze gas and squeeze it
here and expand it there and we make ice. This is fabulous. I dropped a screw down there
between a little tight crack. I thought, well, that's going
to be hard to get. I said, Lord, help me get that screw if it pleases
you. Lord, for your name, but I'd like to have it if it can't
be handy. And I got it. I said, thank you,
Lord. And I went back to work. Worked all day thinking of him.
He said, work as unto the Lord, didn't he? He put it in your
hand. Do it. Do it as unto the Lord.
Lord might save a lazy person, slothful person. They don't stay
that way. That new spirit in them ain't. That's a profitable
servant, isn't it? Working to the Lord, loving Him, loving
Him. And work. Get two or three jobs.
Money ain't the root of all evil. You pay good, close attention
to me. Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money
is the root of all evil. Well, if you love the Lord, do
what you want. The Lord said a bunch of rich folks. A lot of Solomon and David
and a whole bunch of them. Job, Abraham, list goes on. Jacob. Go on vacation if that's
what you want to do. But if you're his, you ain't
gonna go to Italy without thinking about him. Like, I don't know if I want
to go to Rome or not, man. I don't want to go to Israel. Bad memories, isn't it? Go up
and see El Capitan. Beautiful. Big old rock. It's
God's rock. He put it there, didn't he? We
don't worship creation, but I'm thankful for the tokens from
the Creator, isn't it? I don't worship hummingbirds,
but I'm thankful for them because it's a reminder that the Lord
put it there. And we get to see His power,
His promise, and His finished salvation. See what He did in these things. Paul said it, didn't he? He said,
this world, they've changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped
and served the creature more than the Creator. who's blessed
forever. I got Kimberly flowers. She started
back to work yesterday and I went and got her some flowers while
she's at work. I'm gonna go get her. I take her to work and I
go get her. She likes the flowers. She loves the one that gave her
the flowers. Do you get that? You men, go buy your wife some
flowers. It'll be good for you. Lord might show you Christ and
him crucified and you buying your wife flowers. Do you get
that? You go buy him some flowers, and you remember old Miss Cousin's
words, that widowed woman. She, her husband was a pastor.
She wrote a hymn one time, and it says, The bride eyes not her
garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory. That's how people want to go
to glory, isn't it? But my, on my king of grace, he is my glory. He's my heaven. Turn to chapter
19, Revelation 19. What's the culmination of this? How's this all going to end up?
That's what I was thinking. What I cut off, I didn't know
she'd said it. She said, why don't you go stick your leg in
that water and see if it's cold? I'd have been swept downstream,
wouldn't I? Well, then what good would it
have done me? Here's what good it would have done me. Been wonderful.
Lord's coming. Good. Good, right? I saw him clouds rolling, that
marine layer coming out. I said, well, maybe the clouds will be rolled
back like a scroll. Here we go, boys. This is it. Lord's coming. That's a good thing, isn't it?
Revelation 19, verse 5. And a voice came out of the throne
saying, praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great, every one of you. And I heard as it
were the voice of a great multitude. And as the voice of many watery,
many waters, what was that? What would we see it determined?
That was and the voice of mighty thunderings. We're going to thunder
saying, hallelujah. Praise you, the Lord for the
Lord. God omnipotent Reina, the one that controls everything. Omni potent, all powerful. He reigns. Let us be glad and
rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb
has come and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white for the fine
linen is the righteousness of the saints. Why is that? How's
that bride allowed to be there? She's got a dress on, don't she?
So you know she's the bride, that's the righteous one. He's
made her righteous. And he saith unto me, right,
blessed are they which are called into the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And he saith unto me, these are true, the true sayings of
God. That's the truth. We see these
things now, it's just a token. Oh, we're gonna sing glory. All
his victories, aren't we? The captain of our salvation.
He did something, he saved us. We're going to sing like thunder,
like the voice of many waters. You ain't going to hear nothing
but praise the Lamb, like Judah. Praise, praise. It's all going
to hear. Well, he's worthy. He's worthy of that, isn't he?
It's going to be marvelous. I can't wait. When the thunder
and the lightning and the flooding and the raging waters comes close,
we seek shelter, don't we? If you're outside and it starts
pouring and lightning's striking next to you, you run for shelter,
don't we? Or we're going to go from shelter to the flood, cross
to our ark. Or we're going to go from shelter from the rain.
He said in Isaiah 4, verse 6, he said, there will be a tabernacle
for a shadow of the daytime from the heat and a place of refuge
and a place of covert, a place of refuge from the storm and
from the rain. God's going to provide it, isn't he? What kind
of shelter is he going to provide us? Moses had saw, I don't want
to hear nobody's talk about their experience. I don't want to talk
about mine, and I don't want you talking about yours. It don't
weigh nothing, does it? We're not saved from experiences.
I mean, we're thankful for them, but Moses went through all those
things. He walked through the dry ground
and the Red Sea and saw people healed. He saw the earth open
up and swallow people that denied God. I mean, everything, didn't
he? In Exodus 33, he said, I beseech thee, show me your glory. Ain't he seen it enough? Show
me one more time. I want to hear thunder one more
time. I want to hear that river just rip-roaring through that
canyon. I want to hear it. I want to see lightning strike.
He said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And the Lord said,
I'll make all my goodness pass before thee, and I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. And I'll be gracious to whom
I'll be gracious, and I'll show mercy on whom I'll show mercy.
And he said, you can't see my face, so no man can see me and
live. And the Lord said, behold, what
John the Baptist said. Behold! Behold, there's a place by me,
and thou shalt stand upon a rock. I'm gonna set you on Christ,
and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by. He said,
show me your glory. Now it's true, he's sovereign
in all things. He'll be gracious to whom he's
gracious. That's a doctrine though, isn't it? Are the words gonna
pass by? No, he said, my glory's gonna
pass by, and I'm gonna take you, and I'm gonna put you in the
cleft of the rock. Nobody can see me and live. I'm going to
put you in Christ. You're going to live. And you're going to see my hind
parts. I thought, what kind of hind parts do we see of the Lord?
We see everything He's done, don't we? After He's did it.
He says what He's going to do. We don't understand. And then
we say, He did it. That's what He did. He said,
I'll save my people. I'm going to keep them. How can
I see that? When I'm kept. When I'm sitting down with a
voice of thunder singing His praises. I said, he did it. He's right
again. He ain't been wrong yet, Cass.
He ain't lied, has he? Where were we kept? That chorus. Under the blood of Jesus, safe
in the shepherd's fold. Under the blood of Jesus, safe
while the ages roll. Safe though the worlds may crumble.
We might get to see that in our lifetime. Safe though the worlds
may crumble, safe though the stars grow dim. Under the blood
of Jesus, I'm secure in Him. Now, Emma? Am I? I'll forget. And you know what's
going to have to happen? Seven and a half inches of rain
is going to fall in Hamoul. So that creek gets up, and I
go, duh, I'm security man. I've given nations for you. Remember
these things. When there's rain, there's lightning,
there's thunder, there are high waters, there are fires, there
are tsunamis, there's trees falling. That blind man, Lord healed that
blind man. He said, what'd you see? And he said, it looks like
men's walking around like trees. Go read Psalm 29 again. The voice,
the voice, the voice, the voice. He shatters those cedars of Lebanon.
They came to him, 500 men and Judas. Judas said, I'm gonna
kiss him. I'll tell you, you'll know which one it is. And he said, who y'all
looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I am. And
every one of them trees got knocked clean flat. And them fools, that's
how dumb man is. They got up and said, what's
your name again? We're gonna come get you. Run,
buddy. Either bow or run. Jesus answered him, he said,
Who you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth said it again.
And he said, I told you that I am. If therefore you seek me,
let these go their way. Substitution. Let these go their
way. He's risen satisfaction. Next
time it thunders, don't forget next time it rains, next time
fire comes. Or maybe it ain't got to be that
grandiose. Next time you turn, signal blinker goes out, or you
get a flat tire, or the election goes the way you don't like it,
or whatever. Who's on his throne? What's the
great thing he did for us? He gave his son for us. I'm securing
him. I ain't got nothing to worry
about. That's good news, isn't it? I hope that token's fresh
with you. Brother Mark.