Book of Hebrews, now, go there. Book of Hebrews. This will sound much like last
Sunday's message. Do you remember? I'm sure you
remember exactly the text and all my points and everything.
No, you don't. I don't even remember all the
time. But we looked at Isaiah 55. Here, and your soul shall
live. Do you remember that? Here, and
your soul shall live. You read with me how many times
it says, let us hear. Today, if you will hear his voice.
So this is the same message because it's the same message throughout
the Scripture. The Hebrews were God's people. They seemed to be, but not all of
them were, right? This is so needful, vital for
this congregation, those who have heard the truth over and
over and over and over, like the Hebrews. The Hebrews were
former slaves. You remember we just were looking
at Exodus, and it was about Hebrews. They were slaves. They were in
a slime pit. They were in bondage to Pharaoh,
the god, the ruler. which is a picture of every one
of us held captive by the God of this world, enslaved to the
things of this world, the slime pits. But God, some have escaped,
led out by a great hand, so great salvation. The Word of God came
and brought them out. So this is to God's professing
people, Hebrew. And it's the same things. You're
going to hear the exact same things you heard last Sunday
and probably this Sunday after that, or Sunday before that and
the Sunday before that. But Paul said, and we believe
he wrote this, Paul said, to write the same things to you,
to me, is not grievous. You know, I've heard these things
over and over again. I heard these things from my
faithful pastor for years, years. I grew up hearing these same
thing and heard them as a young adult. And I'm still hearing
them and I'm preaching them to you. Same thing. Paul said, it's not grievous
to me. I need to hear this as much as
you do. You remember the story of Moses
and Aaron? Moses was gone 40 days and Aaron
was down there. What happened? What Aaron did? And every man at his best states
altogether vanity. We need to be reminded and reminded
and reminded and reminded of these things, told over and over
again, lest we forget. And this is what chapter 4 said,
verse 2, lest these things slip. So I need these as much as you,
and the preachers of the gospel are called the Lord's Remembrancers. Anybody ever read that in a psalm?
The Lord's Remembrancers. That means we're to remind, keep
reminding the people the same things over and over again. Simon
Peter said that. I want to stir up your memory,
your mind. I want to tell you these things.
And this is what Paul wrote there. have been told to us by the Lord
Himself, and then those that heard Him, and then He gives
pastors and teachers who are just telling the same thing.
Same thing. And so He says, these things
will be peace and joy and comfort and salvation if you keep in
mind, if you hold fast. Kept saying that, didn't I? The
thing is, our memories are not very good, are they? Young people, you have to tell
them the same thing over and over and over, don't you? The
younger they are, the more you have to repeat yourself. All
right. And then they get a little older
and they say, you already told me that. Well, did you did you
get the lesson? Do you understand? Then you get older, then what
happens to your memory? It reverts right back to where
you forget things so quickly. So you have to be reminded. Right now, her short-term memory
is gone, and she tells us the same things over and over and
over and over. And we have to tell her the same
things over and over and over. So, it's not grievous to me to
preach the same message. And I'm going to do it according
to the command of God until everybody in here hears this and understands
and comes to Christ. Because there's one thing, one thing that we have husbands
and I think every message, I honestly pray for you. I call your names and the names
of your unsaved spouses and children and grandchildren. I do. And we need them to hear. And
there's some in here that need to hear this. I mean hear, not
just with these ears. We have ears to hear, but we
really don't, many don't hear. We need the word to go from here
to here. No. We have husbands, we have
wives, unsaved spouses. The older I get, and as time
becomes more, to me, shorter and shorter, This is more urgent with every message. So much more,
he said, as we see the day approaching. Let us exhort one another. And
that's what I'm doing this morning. We have children. I want so badly
to know the Lord. And they come in here and they
sit and listen to me over and over and over and over. I can't do it. I can't make anybody
hear. And if all you hear is me, it's
a waste of time. It's not a waste of time, because
His Word doesn't return. So, chapter 3 of Hebrews, that
we read, says this three or four times. In verse 7, Hebrews 3, verse 7, Wherefore,
as the Holy Ghost said, Today, if you will hear His voice. Verse
15, While it is said, Today, if you will hear His voice, harden
not your heart. Chapter 4, verse 7, Again, and
David, he said, Today, today, if you will hear His voice, harden
not your heart. today. So here's my first point. Let us hear. I pray, I hope, you know, we
sang that song. Did you pay attention to the
word? Did you hear what you were saying? It said, break now the
bread of life to me, to me. It said that every verse. Open
my ears, my ears. Break thou the bread of life.
Open my eyes that I might to me, to me, to me. If we would
say from the heart, we would call on the Lord from the heart,
Lord, speak to me like young Samuel. Did you read the article
in the bulletin this morning? The Lord was speaking to young
Samuel and Eli observed it and said, son, go home and When you
lie on your bed, call on the Lord, and when He speaks, say,
Speak, Lord, to me. To me. I hope we're here to hear. Over in Acts chapter 10, you
don't have to turn. I'll turn for you. But Acts chapter
10, there was a man named Cornelius. And the Lord sent Simon Peter. Who's Simon Peter? He's a nobody.
He's a fisherman. He's a nobody from nowhere. Nobody
knew him or cared about him. He had no education. But the
Lord called him to preach the gospel. And I'm a nobody from
nowhere, former railroader. But the Lord has sent me to preach
the same gospel, Simon Peter. And the Lord sent Simon Peter
down to this place. And there was a man named Cornelius
who the Lord was working on his heart. He was seeking the Lord,
calling on the Lord. And he's not going to know the
Lord until he hears Simon Peter preach the Gospel. Right? Faith comes by hearing. Hearing comes by the Word of
God. How shall they hear without a preacher? The Lord was preparing this man's
heart, and here he gathered his wife, his children, his grandchildren,
like you have yours here. And I hope and pray that you're
just like this man, that this is your heart's cry, Lord. He
said, we're here present to hear. Now preach to us, please. We need to hear this. And he
did. Cornelius heard it in his whole
house. And Simon Peter baptized the
whole place. Boy, wouldn't you like to see
that happen? Well, if he doesn't do it for anyone else, how about
you? We're here to hear. Here to hear. Faith cometh by
hearing. Faith is just another word for
life, eternal life. Hear, and your soul shall live,
Isaiah 55. Faith, where does it come from?
It's a gift of God. But it comes by hearing. And
this preaching of the Word is a gift. The reading of the Word
is a gift. In Revelation 1, it said, blessed
are they that read this book. We are so blessed to have this
book. And this morning we read from
God's holy word, the Bible. And what a blessing. Isn't it
a blessing? Do you consider this your greatest
treasure, material blessing on earth? Do you really? It really
is. Because in it are words of life. In it is the unspeakable gift,
Christ and Him crucified. Blessed are they, our Lord said
in Revelation 1, that read the words of this book. Do you read
it? You read it with me. Do you enjoy hearing it read? Do you enjoy hearing the gospel
preached? We're so blessed. I often think,
I go by these religious places. I don't call them churches. But
I go by these places and I think, oh, what they're doing in there.
What they're hearing. And some of you have been there. We're so blessed. There's some
places here and there. There's not everywhere. College
Grove, Fairmont, Kingsport, Houston, Madisonville. Blessed. Reading of God's Word. The hearing
of the Gospel. And he said, blessed are they
that keep, that lay hold of by faith, which is a gift, which
lay hold of, hold the Gospel, which is Christ Himself, And
He is their life. I'm so blessed. You're blessed
to have read with me. You're blessed to be hearing
this right now. And oh, may God bless every person
in this room to lay hold of eternal life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is an urgent message. It's today. There may be no tomorrow. I'm no preacher at all if this
doesn't get more and more urgent to me. The older I get, the older
your children get, the older you get, the closer you get to
meeting the Lord. If it's saying it's not the most
urgent thing on my heart and my mind, you find you another
preacher. It says in chapter 2, look at
it, chapter 2, verse 1. It says, we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. We've heard
these things. We ought to give earnest heed. I want to be in earnest when
I preach. I want you to be in earnest when you hear this. Because
it is that serious. What are we hearing? These are not the words of a
man. Look at chapter 1, Hebrews 1. What is it? Whose words are
these? What's it about? Hebrews 1, God
begins with God, doesn't it? How does the Bible begin? In
the beginning, God. This begins with God. Everything began with God. Life
begins with God. Life on earth. Life in heaven
begins with God. Born of God. How were we born?
By the Word. By the Gospel that's preached.
God, who at sundry times, that is various times, and in divers
manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophet. God
spoke. This wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. No sign is going to be given.
But this book is the sign for God's people. This is the evidence.
This book. This is the voice of God. God
doesn't speak out loud. He did. He did, but He hasn't spoken
out loud in 2,000 years. But in times past, He spoke unto
the fathers, the Hebrews' fathers, by the prophets, Isaiah and Ezekiel
and Daniel and Jeremiah and on it goes, Malachi. God spoke. This is the Word of God spoken
to the fathers by the prophet. And verse 2, but hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son. Whose words are they? The
words of the Son of God. God came to earth. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that man named Jesus of Nazareth 2,000 years ago, born in a stable,
lived as a boy, worked in a carpenter shop and walked Judea and died
on a Roman cross, 33 years old. You believe that's God manifesting
the flesh? It is. He is. This book begins
with He who was in the beginning, and it is the same, and it ends
in chapter 13 with Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday and today
forever. God. Hebrews 1. Read verse 2. He hath in these
last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom also He made the world. Didn't you read
with me? Did you catch it? Helen, did
you catch... I'm calling names. Did you catch where over here
it says, He that made all things is God? Chapter 3. Did you catch
that with me? Every now and then you see a
verse, you see a verse, and then you see a verse. Use this on
the Jehovah Witnesses. Use this on the Mormons and all
that. It says that He that made the house is greater than the
house. And He that built all things is God. So what does that
make Jesus Christ? He's God. He's God. Without controversy. But in chapter
1, it says, By whom He made all the worlds, who be in the brightness
of God's glory. All these verses. God's glory,
God's person, God's power. Upholding all things by the word
of His power. Who has absolute control of this
planet and everybody and everything in it? Who does? Jesus Christ. Verse 3. When He had by Himself
purged our sins. Whose sins? Hebrews. His elect. That's who He came
to save. His people. And He by Himself,
here's the message, here's the Gospel message, that God sent
Christ into this world to save His people from their sins. That's
the whole problem with this world. Sin. Death. You read with me
in chapter three, to deliver them who all their lifetime were
in fear of death and bondage to this fear of death. But he
abolished death, brought life and immortality to life through
the gospel, through the message of Christ crucified. He by himself
purged, put away, paid for, made reconciliation for the sins of
God's people. They're gone. God's not angry
with his people. He is angry with the wicked. and unbelieving every day. And the wrath of God, Romans
118, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men and women who hold this truth in unrighteousness. But
he's not angry with his people. They are without fault, without
spot, without blemish, wholly unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight. Why? Because of anything they
did? No. Because of everything Christ did. He by Himself purged
our sins. Whose sins? His people. And He sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high. This is the Jesus Christ of Scripture. He's God. He by himself put away
the sins of God's people. He didn't try to do it. He did
it. He didn't make an attemptment.
He made an atonement. He didn't make a down payment.
He paid in full. He's not outside anybody's heart
door hoping they'll let him in. He's seated on the right hand
of the Majesty on high. This is the Jesus Christ of Scripture.
Do you know Him? So who is it that spoke? God
spoke. And Christ came to this earth
and He spoke. Who's hearing Him? Who heard Him back then? Who's
hearing Him today? What did He say? He said, repent. When's the last time you heard
that word today? Repent. Kingdom of Heaven is
what? At hand. It's time to hit the
door. Right now. Who spoke? Who came? See, this is not just a Sunday
sermon. I'm repeating the words of God. The words of Jesus Christ. And
He said today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart. Go back there to chapter 3. It
says in verse 8, Harden not your hearts as in the provocation.
He keeps talking about the provocation. Your fathers proved me, that
is, God proved Himself to them. He was so good to them. Blessing
after blessing after blessing. Why are you alive today? Why
are you living? Because God in whose hands your breath is says
live. Why are your children living? Why do you have those children?
He gave them to you. Why do you have your home? Why do you have
your clothing? Why do you have your feet? Because He gave it
to you. We have good reason to be here, don't we? To thank God,
to praise God, to call on the Lord in whose hands our bread
is, and our children, and our grandchildren. Oh Lord, save
us. We need to hear. And the provocation
is these children of Israel, these Hebrews, how long did they
walk in the wilderness? How long did they hear the Word
of God? How long did Moses preach to them? Aaron, make those sacraments. How long? Forty years. How long have you been coming
here, Margaret? Over forty years. John, over 40 years. Stephen,
married. Right? Today. Not yesterday. Today, if you'll hear his voice.
Forty years. I've been hearing the gospel
since I was a boy. Way over 40 years. Forty years. But they provoked him. They provoked him. Not all of
them, thank God. Not all of them. Caleb, there
was a Caleb, a faithful dog. God said, he's followed me faithfully. He heard everything I said. He's
coming in. Joshua, well, I want to be a
Caleb, don't you? Faithful dog, just follow. Just
follow. Listen to the Master's voice.
Climb your ear, he said. Remember that? Isaac, come unto
me. Like a faithful dog, keep coming,
keep coming. Might run away, but come back
if he calls me. By the gospel. Oh, they provoked
him. They provoked him. Mindy told
me this illustration, good illustration.
I think she used it with her young people in the class for
a while. When Hannah was about 15 or 16, a young teenager. And Mindy would call her and
say, Hannah. And Hannah would say, just a minute. And then she'd call her again,
Hannah, now, just a minute. You mothers ever heard that? All right. And then she finally,
came and Mandy said, I don't want to hear you say that anymore.
She raised her voice. Hannah got upset because she's
raising her voice. You ever raise your voice for these children?
Why? Why? You hear me raise my voice? I don't want to. But why do you? They're not listening. Well, I happened to come home
at that time, and Hannah tried to appeal to me. Daddy, she's
great. But anyway, so things settled
down and Mindy went to her and said, OK. Next time. When I say come. And you say
just a minute. The consequences are going to
be severe. You're not going to say just
a minute again. You're going to come. And did you read with me in Proverbs
1 last Sunday? He said, OK, I've called. I've been calling. And you didn't
hear me. So there's going to come a time,
he said, you're going to call and I'm not going to hear you.
Is that what you said? Well, preacher, you've already
said that. You know, everybody in here hadn't heard this. So much more. And I'm exhorting
you so much more as we see this day approaching. Hear! Let us
hear what is called today. The next thing. Look at chapter
3, verse 6. Christ has a Son over His own
house, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and
rejoicing of the hope firm on the end. Let us hold fast. Let us lay hold of Christ. If you've heard this Gospel,
If you're poor and needy, a sinner, if you're hungry and thirsty,
oh, bless the day of the hungry and thirsty. If this world has
left you thirsty, if you're needy, if everything's vain, unsatisfactory,
and you feel empty and lost and without peace, without hope,
come to Christ and lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come right
now. Just a minute. No. Come now. You're being too dramatic. We just don't know how serious
this is. I gave you several instances of people that heard their last
messages, some old, some young, real young. You just don't know. You just don't know. Today. Just
a minute. Today. Let us lay hold of this
hope that's set before. Christ is our only hope. Christ
is our only peace, our only confidence. There's no security, there's
no safety, there's no assurance of anything or anyone in this
world. This world is a perishing place.
Don't look to the leaders of this country. Don't look to the
president to fix things and to make anything great again. This
world is going down. And nothing anybody can do to
stop it. That's a fact. So he says, so
much more as you see the day approaching, exhort them, now,
not tomorrow, now, come now, and lay hold of the Lord Jesus
Christ while the gospel is being preached. The door of the ark
is open right now. The gospel is being preached.
Come. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Come now. Don't wait until you're
older. You might not get older. Come. There was a woman with
an issue of blood in the Gospel. Three or four Gospels. She had
an issue of blood. It was killing her. And the Lord
told her that. And she tried many things and
it was worse. Like the woman at the well. She
kept trying husbands and she was worse. This woman kept trying
positions of no value and things to try to help her because she
had this issue and it was killing her. She was dying from this
issue. We've got an issue called sin. It's killing us. It's holding
us captive. We're in bondage to the people
and the things of this world. We're in bondage to ourselves.
We're in bondage to lust and all that. It's holding us captive.
It's going to kill us. Where's our help? Well, this
woman said she heard of this Savior, the balm of Gilead, the
only one. She said, I just touched the
hem of His garment. And there was a big crowd of
people. That was not going to keep her from coming to cry.
It says she came behind in the press. She came behind. She came to
cry. She came crawling. to touch and
lay hold of Him. Him. And she did. Oh, the lame excuses,
people. I'm not coming because I'm not
this and that. Nothing was keeping her. She needed Christ, so she
came crawling and she laid hold of the hymn of Christ's garment. It says immediately the issue
was gone. peace and joy and comfort and
not the captivity and not this killing issue in her now. Countless brightened and her
heart was new again. She had hope. She had help. And Christ stopped and said,
somebody touched me! And the disciples said, Lord,
everybody's around you. Everybody's brushing up against
you. And I said, no. Somebody touched me. Because
virtue has gone out of that man. And he looked around to see her.
He says he looked around and looked right at her. And she
said, was it you? He knew. He caused her to come. And it says she told him all
the truth. She told him all the truth. She confessed her sins.
Yes, it's me. I needed you. And I laid hold
of that. I've got hope now and all that. And he said, go in
peace. Your faith has made you whole. Everything's going to be all
right now. Everything's going to be all right. You've come
to cry. Until you lay hold to cry, everything's
not going to be all right. No, it's not. But if you come to Christ by
the grace of God, why'd she come? Christ brought her. Why'd she
come? She needed Christ. And she came. And nothing stopped
her. If you come to Christ, if He
brings you to Himself, everything's working together for your good.
If not, it's all against you. I'm trying to give you hope. I'm trying to tell you there's
only one hope. It's a person. It's not a place, not a thing,
it's not this country, it's not our rulers, not anything you
do, it's not in money. That's not security. It's in
Christ. It's in Christ. So let us come
to Christ. Let us hold fast. Have you come
to Christ? Say, yeah, I did. No, no, no, no, no. Are you coming
to Christ? Peter said, to whom coming? Are
you coming? Did you come here this morning
to hear about Christ? Did you come here to hear from Christ?
Did you? I hope so. If you did, like Cornelius, you're
going to hear from Him. And your heart's going to be
bad. And you're going to lay hold of Him again. Come thou found, especially because
of the last verse, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave
the God I love. And here in Hebrews it says it's
a serious thing to depart from the living God. And that's what
these people did. What for? What made them depart? What was it that lured them away
from their Lord? The world. And that we all have that temptation. And I might preach Wednesday
night on him that was tempted and who's touched. He was tempted
in all points. And we're tempted by the things
of this world. And quite often these things, you know, the cares
of this life and the lust of the flesh and lust of the eye,
they do get a hold of us. And we go back and we forget
God. Just like the Hebrew, we forget
God. We forget His mercy. We forget
the one thing needful and go after these things. And we lose
all our peace. And God strikes us and convicts
us. The Holy Spirit who dwells with
us convicts us of this. But we feel like, I'm lost. I
can't be one of His people. The world's got a hold of me.
I'm just as worldly as I used to be. But God calls you back. How? The same Gospel. And you come
crawling like they want you. I can just touch Him with His
garment. If virtue will just go out of Him into me, lay hold
of this gospel one more time, I'll have some hope, I'll have
some peace because I have no hope in myself. Prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Do you? Here's
my heart. Oh, take and seal it. Because
we're the heart, men, believe. Seal it. Don't let me shut up. Sealed. Pitched. with blood so
that I can't get out of the ark, and nothing can touch me. Is
that what you want? Well, let's hold fast. I was
going to go back to Genesis 32. Mack Torrance, it's his favorite
story. Every time I even mention it,
he'd get big tears in those big eyes. He was a Jacob running,
sinful, rotten old Jacob. You know the story of Jacob.
And he was running. Well, he was left alone. Boy,
how we need to be left alone with the Lord. He was alone. And a man came to him and grabbed
hold of him, laid hold of him, and wrestled him. Look at you. Look at you. Look where you came
from. Look what you've done to yourself.
You've done all this to yourself. Where are you headed, Jacob?
I don't know. Where are you running from? Where
are you running to? And this man who is the Lord
Jesus Christ laid hold of old Jacob and said, What's your name?
What's your name? He said, Jacob. That's all I've
ever been. That's all I ever will be." No.
No. He said, no, I'm going to change
that. I'm going to change your mind. I'm going to change your
heart. I'm going to change your walk. And so this man, who is the Lord
Jesus Christ, lay hold of old Jacob. What was Jacob doing?
He was holding on to him. They were both wrestling. Hope. Salvation was this man
came and laid hold of Him, wasn't it? And our hope and our salvation
is that the Lord will lay hold of us and our children, our grandchildren.
Lord, touch her. Touch Him. Lord, grab a hold
of Him. The world's got a hold of Him.
Would you grab a hold of Him and bring Him out of this world?
He's just like Lot. Lord, lay a hold of Him. My wife,
my husband. Lord, lay hold of them and bring
them out. They're not coming out unless
you bring them out! Right? That's what old Lot went
and told his sons who were lost. They didn't hear him. He'd mock
them. He had other daughters married to those fellows. Lost
them. He had two more left. Honey, we're going out. His wife,
we're coming. And even he himself lingered,
didn't he? Lot did. But the Lord being merciful
did what? Laid hold of it. See, that's
our hope. That's our help. Well, how do
you know the Lord laid hold of you? You laid hold of Him. Jacob said, I will not let you
go until you bless me. until I'm in the land of Canaan,
resting with my son Joseph. I'll not let you go. Let us hold
fast, steadfast, not drop this for anybody or anything. Forsake
all you have, everybody you know. Forget them. Lay hold of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Steadfast. For we're His house. We are His people. We hold. A preacher would just say we're
not saved unless the Lord holds it fast to us. That's true, isn't
it? My dad preached a message entitled,
This is True and So is That. Now don't run out and try to
get that message. Listen to this one. Okay? That's true. But so is this.
If you don't hold on to Him, if you quit coming to hear this
Gospel, if you leave, if you sin willfully after you've heard
the Gospel, there's no hope. Right? That's what Hebrews 4
said. Let me close with Hebrews 10. My last point is let us exhort
one another. Let us hear. Let us come to Christ. Let us fear. Fear the Lord. Fear departing from the living
God. Let us hold fast, steadfast to
the end. And let us exhort one another.
That's what I'm doing right now. I'm exhorting you and me. In
Hebrews 10, I close with this. Look at it. Where do I start and stop? Verse
22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance, a sincere
heart in full assurance of faith. That is, if you come to Christ,
He'll have you. He will. If you call on Him in
truth, He'll hear you. And hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience by the blood of Christ, bodies washed with
pure water, the water of the Word. Let us hold fast, verse
23, the profession of our faith without wavering. He's faithful. See, we walk by faith, we live
by faith, the promises, we escape by these promises. He's faithful,
the promise. And let us, verse 24, consider
one another to provoke Unto love and to good work. James
said this, he said, many things we offend all, don't we? We provoke
one another. We provoke one another. We all
do. You know, the reason, you know,
we're different families. And, you know, you get along
with your own blood kin and all that. They say blood's thicker
than water, and you never separate blood brothers and all that.
There's something thicker than that. It's the grace of God. But anyway,
naturally speaking, we put up with our brethren, we love his
brethren, and other people, they're just not like us. We think, I
think, you know, those, let me pick on somebody, those Sheesley,
boy, they're strange. They're not like us. They're
really strange people. We're all just alike. We're all
sons of Adam. You know that? Different personalities
and different characters raised a different way. We're all just
a bunch of no-good sinners. You know that? That God would
call us brethren and not be ashamed to call us brethren. That's amazing
grace, isn't it? That God would put up with us
all these years. We're strange. We were real strange to Him when
He came here. He's not like us. He's separate from sinners. He
came here. Why? Let us provoke one another to love. Love who? Us? No. God. Christ. This gospel. I'm trying to provoke these young
people. I can't make them love the Lord.
I can't do it. I can't make them love this. But my preacher preached
to me again and again, hoping, praying that I would come to
know and love the Lord. And lo and behold, I do. Not I did, I do. And I'm
still coming. And I hope and pray that your
parents won't have to bring you, but you'll drag them. Come on, it's time. Provoke unto love and to good
works. What's good works? This is a
good work. There's not a better thing you
can't do. There's nothing better. Remember that Wednesday night? Better than.
This is better than anything. I remember thinking, they actually
enjoy this as a young teenager. This is a good thing. There's
nothing better than that. Not forsaking, in verse 25, the
assembling of ourselves together. When the Scripture says, keep
yourselves in the love of God, what does that mean? Keep yourselves
here in the gospel of God's love in Christ. Be not moved away
from your hope. What's that? That's the gospel.
Don't go somewhere. Young people, don't go somewhere
where there's no gospel. Don't marry somebody that doesn't
know Christ. Don't do it. You're asking for trouble. Not
forsaking the assembly of ours as a matter of some end. Read
on, verse 25. Every eye, look at this, but
exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see
the day approaching. Exhorting one another. You know
what exhorts me? You being here. You being here exhorts me to
keep preaching. We exhort one another through
coming faithfully. Did you read the bulletin? Did
you read Henry Mahan's article on that? What can I do? Come
and sit. It's an exhortation. It's an
encouragement. It's an edifying. Virgie Jones
used to say this to me all the time. And Virgie was an older
woman when I first came here. My age. But she was, when I first
came here, and she said, I can't do nothing. That's all she ever
said to me. I can't do nothing. I'd say,
Virgie, it's so good to see you. I'm so glad you're here. I can't
do nothing. She sewed every pair of pants
I had. Hemmed every pair of pants. I can't do nothing. That's something,
isn't it? I needed my pants shortened because I'm short. I had to shorten
all of them. But anyway, she did every one
of them like that. I'd go over and visit her. But
she'd be sitting right there every service, wouldn't she?
Mary? Right there, Virgie. Until the
day she died. And laying in that hospital.
She said, I don't want to go to no nursing home. Why, Virgie? I hear bad preaching. And that woman talked to her
family. She did. It was urgent to her.
She was hearing every servant. And she talked to her children,
her grandchildren. I remember hearing, there ain't
no gospel down there. You need to come here. You remember?
And she did until the day she died laying in a hospital bed.
She said, I don't want to go to a nursing home. Hear bad preaching.
God said, ok. You won't. Next day, come home,
Virgie Jones. Come home. She exhorted me. Ellen, your
mother. That first car, I tried to beat
her every Sunday. Couldn't do it. That old white,
what was it, Stephen? A Torino? Sitting right there. Her daughters
say if she was 30 minutes early, she was late. Why? Hungry. Thirsty. Seeking. Calling. To whom? Coming. And
every time I'd preach the Gospel, she'd walk out of that every
single time and say, now that's the Gospel. With a big old smile
on her face. Until the day the Lord took her
home. And the last thing, Nancy, you
remember going to see her, the last thing we heard her say was,
the Gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Those were the
last words I heard her say on planet Earth. Boy, it's all right with her
now, isn't it? Exhort one another. In the days
of people, here your soul shall live. Come to Christ. Lay hold. That woman who laid hold of Him,
she confessed Him. Confess Christ. And hold fast. Don't let go for anybody or anything
at any time. As Christ is ready to do. Amen. Okay. Let's sing a closing hymn.