Now, go there. Matthew 13. These verses, one
verse in particular, came clearly to my mind after Sunday, after
we saw yet another blessed story and picture of our Lord, which
is hidden to most people. Few people see and hear the things
that you see and hear from God's Word. That's a fact. And this
came to my mind and I was so, and Minnie and I were talking
about it, how blessed we are to hear these things and to see
these things from God's Word, see Christ in Scripture. He had
just been speaking in parables to the multitude, multitude,
great multitudes gathered together and followed him and he sat in
a boat and he, remember he preached the parable of the sower, which
is the word. You know what that parable means,
don't you? How many do? You know. And the
disciples asked him in verse 10, Why speakest thou unto them
in parables? And he answered and said, Because
it is given unto you to know the mystery. I'm adding these
things. To them it's not given. What
a gift. What a precious gift. And he
says, whosoever hath, to him shall be given. We have an understanding. We know in part that he's going
to keep giving us more and more knowledge of him. Those who want
to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, he's going to keep
giving more grace and the knowledge of him. And he says, those who
have not will be taken away even that they had. And therefore
I speak unto them, verse 13, in parables, because seeing they
see and see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they
understand. And he quotes Isaiah 6, "...and them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear,
and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and not
perceive." But this people's heart is waxed gross, and we're
going to see what it is that makes their heart fat, that is,
nothing can penetrate. And their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed." They've closed their eyes. "...unless
at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted,
and I should heal them. But, blessed..." He's speaking
to His disciples, He's speaking to us. Blessed are your eyes,
they see. And your ears, they hear. We're so blessed, aren't we? Two points. Our natural blindness
and this wonderful blessedness that God has given to us. Go to Isaiah 6 that he quoted,
Isaiah chapter 6. And you know Isaiah 1 where the
Lord speaks about A natural man, even Israelites, religious people,
he says, the whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. Sinful
nation, laden with iniquity, evildoers. He said, the whole
head is sick, the whole heart is faint, from the sole of the
feet to the top of the head. No sound dissent, no sound judgment. Sin, like Genesis 6 says it,
thoughts are evil, only evil continually. This is mankind. And he says in Isaiah 6, Isaiah
saw the Lord. How did he see the Lord? What
did he hear? Holy, holy, holy. And seeing the Lord he said,
I'm cut off, I'm going to die. Like Manoah. No, no you're not. And he said, you go tell the
people, verse 9, you go tell the people, hear ye indeed. You
hear, but you understand not. See ye indeed, but perceive not.
Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy. Shut
their eyes, as they see with their eyes and hear with their
ears. and understand with their heart and convert, they might
be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? How long is this going
to go on, this deafness, this blindness of man, mankind? He said, until the cities be
wasted. It's going to always be that way. Verse 12, the Lord
hath removed men far away. There would be a great forsaking
in the midst of the land. Yet in it, though, in it shall
return a tent, a remnant, Like a teal tree, like an oak. Remember
that? The substance is in there. The
Holy Seed is the substance thereof. You are that remnant. You are
that remnant. What is it that blinds man by
nature? What is it that blinds us? Well,
number one, it's our own sinful self. We come forth from the
womb speaking lies. We come forth from the womb in
sin that our mother conceived us. We come forth from the womb
loving sin, loving ourselves. And we do not want a God over
us. We do not want to be ruled. We
don't want parents to rule us. So we are blinded by our own
sinful selves. And then God blinds us. Remember,
Pharaoh says, Harden his heart. And then the next time, it would
say, God harden his heart. How does God harden people's
heart? Well, man's heart is hard by nature. Okay? Nothing can
penetrate unless God breaks that heart. His heart is hard by nature. Our Lord said one time, You will
not come unto me. And then he stood up one time,
Come unto me. And they were all around him.
He said, you will not come. And another time he said, leave
him alone. God hardens people by heart, hardens them by leaving
them alone. He said, you keep hearing, you
keep hearing, you keep hearing until finally you don't hear
a thing. I grew up, well, I used to go to my grandparents' home
in Tecumseh, Georgia, a little two-bit town. There was no stoplight. I lived right beside the general
store where the old men sat and played checkers on the nail keg. Really, you know, you've seen
them. Some of you were born that way, raised that way. Well, my
grandparents had a little country house, a few acres and a couple
of cows. Across the street was a train track. It was only about
50, well, maybe 60, 70 feet from their house. And we'd go to visit
them, and all four of us kids, well the three boys, would sleep
in their feather bed. They had a feather, and we'd
all, you know, sink in the middle. And I remember the first time
we went there, that train came by, and we all woke up. We thought
it was going to run right over that house. Well, the next time I woke up
again, the next night, the next night till finally, didn't even
know the train passed through. And that's man. And all these
prophets, and all the apostles, and all the pastors and teachers
keep warning like Noah's hammer for a hundred years until finally
nobody paid any attention to it all. They had shut their ears
and blinded their eyes. And God said, okay, leave them
alone. Blessed are your eyes. They hear. And you keep hearing the same
thing, the same thing. And unbelievably, you say, say
it again. Tell it again. I want to see
that again. I didn't see enough of it the
first time. God blinds men. That's how the God of this world,
Satan, has blinded men's minds. And God allows him to do that.
The only way he can do it, hold men captive, is God lets them
in His hands. False religion, you know, blinds
men to the truth. False religion doesn't enlighten
people, it darkens. If the light is in you, Scripture
says, be darkness, how great is that darkness. And most of
the people in religion have a totally false conception of God. And
they have a refuge of lies. And our Lord said in Matthew
7, multitudes will stand before Him in judgment and talk about
what wonderful things they did for Jesus. And hear Him say,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity. You're going to be
shocked. And then the world blinds men's
mind. Flesh, material things. Man lives
by sight. Our Lord said that He didn't
judge by the sight of the eyes or the hearing of the ear, did
He? He looks on the heart. Our Lord sees things as they
are, and so should we. Things that are seen are what?
Temporal. Things that are unseen are eternal.
We walk by faith, not by sight. We shouldn't judge things by
sight or the hearing of the ear. Because the world says, look,
this is good. You know what God says? That's evil. The world
says, Satan says, this is sweet. God says, no, it's just sour. This is bad. The world said,
there is no sin. God said, there's nothing but
sin in the world. The world says, God loves you.
That's a wonderful plan for your life. Scripture says, God's angry
with you. The world says, look here, look
there. Don't listen to them. Don't listen to them. That blinds
our eyes and shuts our ears. Oh my, Romans 1, I was going
to turn there. You know, the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and righteousness. The Lord said,
how long shall I smite you? And you're not turned to. He
keeps sending these things. Men don't see it as a hand of
God. In fact, Egypt, they did not see the plagues as coming
from God. They just thought, It's just
a hundred-year plague or something. But God sent it because of sin. And men weren't repenting and
calling on the Lord. I'll tell you who it was. There
was a remnant. There were some people sitting
in little houses with blood on the doorpost. They were. They
believed it was the hand of God. Romans 1 says, The eternal power
and Godhead of God is clearly seen by the things that are made
of men. They don't see it at all. And that Isaiah 55 says,
when He opens our blind eyes and our deaf ears, He says, you
go out and the trees start clapping their hands. You hear, you see God in everything. You see His hand in everything.
You see Christ in everything. Why? Blessed are your eyes, they see.
Now I want to just talk about our blessedness, okay? We're
going to turn to several scriptures. I had to whittle down from a
thousand scriptures to about a dozen. You know where you can
turn and see the blessings of God? Okay? Our blessedness. Our Lord, He opens blind eyes
in Isaiah 43. Oh, don't you love Isaiah 43? Hmm. Isaiah 44, Isaiah 45. Don't you love it? You know how
few people do, brother? Oh, my. Isaiah 43 says in verse
8, Bring forth the blind people who have eyes, the deaf that
have ears, He's going to open blind eyes. In chapter 29, he
says, the blind are going to see out of obscurity. He says,
the deaf are going to hear the words of the book, and the eyes
of the blind will be opened. That's us. We look at Isaiah
43, verse 10. You're my witnesses, saith the
Lord, my servant whom I've chosen, that you may know and believe
me and understand I am he. Before me there was no God formed.
Neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord. Beside
me there is no Savior. I have declared, you've heard
me, I've declared who I am, what you are, who Christ is, and have
saved. I have showed, you've heard it
and you've seen it. Blessed are your eyes and your
ears. Who He is. We've heard His voice. We've
seen something of His glory in Him. Our Lord God has opened
our blind eyes and our deaf ears. Broken our proud hearts. Revealed
Himself to us. Revealed ourselves to us. Unveiled
the truth to us. Exposed the world to us. Huh? Puts the love of Christ in us.
You know, the Lord healed many blind people when he was here,
didn't he? Many. Deaf people. Like Mark 7. Didn't you love
that story? How did he do it? How did he heal the blind and
deaf? Same way every time. He spoke to them. He spoke to
them with his Word. He said His Word will heal. It's
the Word that opens blind eye. It's the Word that opens deaf
ears. Nothing else will. You and I can talk to people
all we want to. We can show them scriptures all we want to. But
until God, the Holy Spirit, sends the Word in power. And our Lord,
several times, would take something from His mouth. Remember? He
took spittle from His mouth. That's the Word of God. The Word
of Christ. and then take clay or dirt and
make clay. That's the preaching of the gospel.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of
the power might be of God. This is how Christ opens blind
eyes every time through the preaching of the truth, the gospel, the
Word of God. through an earthen vessel and
he took that clay and he put it in his eyes. Now how can you
make a blind man see by putting mud in his eyes? Well, what's
that going to do first thing? It's going to really blind him.
Really blind him. The first thing the Lord's got
to do to us is shut our eyes to everything we see. Completely
blind us. He said if you're blind you have
no sin. Remember that? Bartimaeus knew
he was blind. How many blind men were in Israel? One man was crying. Remember
there were ten blind men one time. Ten! And one of them turned
back and gave him gold. The Lord said, where are the
nine? I healed them too. They didn't. Blind Bartimaeus
started calling and calling and calling. They said, quit calling. He called even louder. And the
Lord called him. What do you want? What did I
do unto you? He said, I want to see. So the Lord took this play of
anointed eyes. Another time, the deaf man, Mark
7, he put his finger in his mouth, remember? And he put it in his
ears. How are you going to make a man
hear by putting his finger in his ears? He's going to have
to shut our ears to everything and everyone but Him. Because
the next time when He took His fingers out of His ears, He heard
Christ speak. And He touched His tongue. Loosed His tongue. And He spoke
plainly. What did He speak? Just like
our Lord. He spoke the language of salvation. We know what He
said. Salvation is of the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within them. Christ is the Word. Christ is
the light. You can't see anything without
light. And He lights every man. If anyone has any light, true
light, it's going to be Christ. In light of Christ. So Christ
is the light we see. In that light we see light. Christ
said, my sheep hear my voice, every one of them, and they follow
me. They follow who? They follow Him. Oh, how blessed
we are. And you know, once you hear Him,
you know what I'm going to quote, don't you? Oh, Ephraim. I quote this all the time in
Hosea 14. Once you hear Christ, once you
hear the Gospel, once you hear the truth, once you see Him,
you don't want to hear anything or anyone else. Ephraim said,
What have I to do anymore with idols? I've heard Him. And people come here and they
leave. And I think, they didn't hear it. They didn't hear His
voice. How could you leave? This. Christ. Now, I want us to look at some
of these blessings of God's Word, okay? Real quickly. And material
blessings are the least. They are a blessing. Everything
we have from our Lord, in some ways, is a blessing. Brother Kelly and I often think
that one of the greatest blessings in this life is hot water. Hot,
running water. Isn't it? I just stay in the
shower, especially in the wintertime. Thousands of years I didn't have
that. Things like that are a great blessing. Many things. But these are the least blessings.
The blessings I want us to consider. How it was blessed in terms of
Revelation 1. Revelation 1. How we're blessed
to read God's Word, to hear it. We're blessed to fear. We're
blessed to trust. We're blessed to believe. We're
blessed to repent. We're blessed to hunger and thirst.
We're blessed to mourn. We're blessed to be vexed. We're
blessed to be gathered. We're blessed to dwell in God's
house. We're blessed to call. We're
blessed to repent. We're blessed to be tried. We're
blessed to be chastened. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed,
blessed. Name something. Spiritual blessings. All spiritual
blessings. All right, Revelation 1. Don't
you love this? Our Lord said in Revelation 1,
verse 3, He said, Blessed is he that readeth, look at verse
1, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to show
unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. What
is this book about? You know, don't you? The very
first line says it, doesn't it? It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. God didn't, you know, the whole
Bible is of Christ, speaks of Christ. He didn't change the
subject in the last chapter. It's the culmination of all.
It's the epilogue of it all. It begins that way. And even
the translators got it wrong, the revelation of St. John the
Divine. No, it's not. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ to John. To us,
the saints. Oh, how blessed we are if we
know that this book is not all about the apocalypse, it's all
about the gospel. It's all about Christ, from beginning
to end. How blessed. But verse 3, blessed
is he that readeth. Were you blessed in reading Isaiah
55 now? Are you blessed, Matthew 13? Do you read the Scripture? I
know you do. You mourn over the fact you don't read them more,
don't you? You mourn over the fact that you don't get more
out of them. You mourn, but you do hunger
and thirst for them. You do want to read them, don't
you? How blessed you are. Was there
a time when you didn't give any thought to God's Word? Was there
a time when you couldn't read the last thing you'd read? When
you'd just be immersed in the foolishness? Oh, blessed is he
that read it. And they that hear the words
of the prophecy, like old Eunuch said to Philip, how can I except
some men show me? Are you blessed to hear what
you hear? And keep those things. How blessed
to keep? That means lay hold of, and not
want to let go, and not want to lose, not want to trade, not
want to sell it for anything. You can take anything, but don't
take the truth from it. Don't take the Gospel from it.
Don't take Christ from it. Do you feel that way? So blessed. Oh, blessed be the Lord who blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly blessings in Christ. In Ephesians 1 it said. Look
at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. So we're blessed to
hear the Word, to have the Word, to believe the Gospel. 1 Peter
1, blessed new birth. We're blessed to be born again.
I know people say that. A lot of people claim it. But
here, you know how it comes. You know what happened to you.
You know that it's not something that you did. You know it wasn't
something that, you know, you accepted Jesus that, you know,
you heard so many verses just as I am and just felt compelled. No. You heard the Word of God. You heard the Gospel that opened
your ears. The Gospel that touched your
heart. The Gospel that opened your eyes
to yourself, who God is, to see Christ. You're born again, James
said, of His own will. You know how many people think
man has a free will? They're all lost. Everybody thinks
that's lost. Huh? Every one of God's people
know this. Blessed knowledge. You know,
it's not of him that willeth. How plain can Scripture be, sisters?
Not of him that willeth. Of his own will, James said,
begat he us with the word of truth. And we should be kind of first
fruits of His creatures. See, all of His people know He
begat us by the Gospel. And it says in verse 3 of 1 Peter
1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us. Look at verse
23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Verse 25,
the Word of the Lord endureth forever. This is the Word that
we are born again by, the Gospel that's preached unto you. Oh,
how blessed we are. And God's people are born of
God. The love of God has been shed abroad in their heart. Love
for the truth. Some people don't receive a love
for the truth. But God's people all do. They
love the truth. The truth. All right. Blessed
hunger and thirst. Where is that? Matthew 5. Come on. Matthew 5.
This is where, you know, Malachi ends with a curse. The last verse
ends with the last word is curse. When our Lord came, He is the
blessing of God, isn't He? And His sermon on the mount,
He opened His blessed mouth. And He said in Matthew 5 verse
3, Blessed, blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is a kingdom
of God. You know what that means, don't
you? You feel poor. You feel like you don't know
anything, can't do anything, don't have any goodness, no righteousness,
no nothing, don't have any faith. You feel like you don't have
any faith. Oh, theirs is the kingdom of
God. Blessed are they that mourn, as shall be comforted. Mourn over sin. Blessed are the
meek. No, the world says the proud are blessed. No, God says
the meek. They're going to inherit a new earth. Nobody proud is
going to be in His heaven. Nobody proud is going to be in
his new earth, not one. You got a lake of fire reserved
for the proud. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. What is righteousness? That's
right. Sister went. Christ is our righteousness.
You know how few people know that? You know how few people
care? That's why Isaiah said, Surely
shall one say, And the Lord have our righteousness and strength.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. You know
what that means, don't you? Oh, hunger and thirst. Kelly
read that song. I thirst after Thee in a dry
and thirsty land. As the heart panteth after the
water brook, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. Crying. Hunger
and thirst for Christ. A lot of people want to go to
heaven. God's people, Christ is going to be heaven to them.
Because he's their husband. Blessed repentance and faith.
2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. Blessed repentance
and faith. Do you know it's the goodness
of God that leads us to repentance? Do you know that? We won't repent.
We won't repent. Mankind doesn't think he has
anything to repent of. And religions told him that so
long, and philosophers told him that so long, and psychiatrists
and psychologists told him that so long. Yet man keeps killing
himself. Why? Because guilt! Guilt! Because God says there's
not going to be any peace to the wicked. None! Not going to
have any. But to the man that humbles himself before God, and
repents, and calls, and says, God have mercy on me, the sinner.
Peace. forgiveness. That's another point,
blessed forgiveness. But repentance is a gift. We
won't repent unless God leads us to do so. Then blessed faith, 2 Peter chapter
1. Oh, verse 1 says, To them that
have obtained this like, precious, this most precious and rare gift
called faith. It's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. It's according to the working
of His mighty power. Brothers and sisters, for me
to believe this and be so adamantly for it, when at one time I was
It's a miracle. It's a miracle if anybody believes
the truth. It's a miracle if anybody says. It's a miracle
of God's grace. No matter who it is, it's a miracle
of God's grace if somebody believes. I mean really believes. Now people
go to church, people get religion. It's a miracle. Somebody really
believes God's Word, God's truth. It strikes them, fear in their
heart, and gives them repentance. And they call on the Lord, and
they hear the Gospel as something they need. so desperately, and
they believe, and they trust Christ, and they confess Him
in believers' baptism, and they walk the rest of their days by
faith in Him, looking to Him, waiting on Him. That's a miracle
of God's grace. Every child, every son of God
is a miracle of grace. And verse 4, 3, it says, According
as His divine power has given unto us all things, And verse
4, He's given us great and exceeding great and precious promises.
The world doesn't need these promises. We do. Blessed repentance, blessed faith. Go to Psalm 32. Oh, blessed mercy of God, blessed
grace of God, blessed longsuffering of God. That's salvation. God's
going to put up with us all our day. That's our salvation. And
blessed forgiveness of sins. Who needs that? As we said, the
world doesn't repent of sin. They don't have any sin to repent
of. God's people do, and it plagues them all their days, and they
want to be rid of it. And the thing that gives them
the most hope and joy is to hear that their sins are forgiven.
Look at Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. whose sin is covered. It will
never be brought up. It's covered. What's it covered?
Blood. Blessed, verse 2, blessed is
the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. My, my, my. Few need mercy. Few need forgiveness. Well, that's the thing we want
and need more than anything else, isn't it, brothers and sisters?
When you hear the Word, I remember the first time the Lord began
to work on me, the first time I heard of mercy, I thought,
this is the greatest message I've ever heard. I just heard that one word, mercy.
That's what borrowed me, is have mercy on me. Go to Psalm 2. Blessed are they how blessed
we are if we trust in the Lord. You know how blessed you are
if you trust in the Lord and don't trust in man? Don't trust
yourself? No confidence in the flesh? Don't
trust in Egypt? Don't trust in our rulers? Don't
trust what you hear? Don't trust what you see? You
know how blessed you are? As said, the whole world is trusting
in Egypt and they have no peace because of it. And Psalm 2, verse
12 says, Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish from
the way. With his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all
they that put their trust in him. Chapter 3, verse 1, O Lord,
how are they increased that trouble me? Many that rise up against
me. Many say there's no help for him in God. But thou, O Lord,
art shield for me. You're my shield. My glory, the
lifter up of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice. He heard me out of His holy hill. So I laid down and
I slept. I've been reading how there's
people addicted to sleeping pills and melatonin and all this stuff,
addicted to it. Well, David said, I cried unto
the Lord and I went to sleep. He heard me. Why? Trust the Lord. He said, I wait, the Lord sustain
me. I'll not be afraid, verse 6,
I'll not be afraid of ten thousand of people who set themselves
against me round about. Verse 8, salvation belongeth
unto the Lord, thy blessings upon thy people. Look at Psalm
4, just keep reading the Psalms. Psalm 4, verse 7, thou hast put
gladness in my heart more than when their corn liquor and wine
is increased. Verse 8, I'll lay me down in
peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. Somebody asked me one time, do
you own a gun? I said, no, I don't. I don't
have a gun now. He looked at me like I was crazy.
Well, I'd like to think it's trust. Psalm 5, "'Cause thou, Lord,
only, only, only, huh, makest me to dwell safely.'" Psalm 5,
verse 11, "'Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice,
let them never shout for joy, because thou defendest them.'"
Let them that also love thy name be joyful in thee, for thou,
Lord, wilt bless the righteous. With favor wilt thou compass
him as with a shield. One more on this thing of trust,
and there are one million more, but one more, Psalm 34. Oh, don't
we love this? Oh, don't we love this? Psalm
34, verse 7. You have it? Psalm 34, verse 6, this poor
man cried, the Lord heard him, saved him out of all his trouble.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him,
and delivereth them. Oh, taste and see, the Lord is
good. Blessed is the man, the woman, that trusteth in the Lord.
Oh, fear the Lord, ye that say. There's no want, there's no lack
to them that fear him. The last verse. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of his serpents, and none of them that trust in him
shall be destroyed. Left out, cast out, left to themselves,
uh-uh. God has taken, Christ has taken
full responsibility, full care of all of his people that trust
in him, and he's never let one single person down, ever. He
won't do it. He said, all that thou hast given
me I have kept, I have lost nothing. Never has, never will lose one
that trusts in Him. Blessed fear. You just read that. Cross the page, Psalm 33. You
know how blessed it is if you fear the Lord? If you fear the Lord, you shouldn't
fear anything. You know that? We shouldn't,
we do, but we shouldn't, shouldn't. We fear the Lord. The fear of
man is a snare. The fear of God is salvation,
freedom from the snare, the trap, the pits. Fear the Lord, we shouldn't
fear anything or anyone else. Psalm 33 verse 8. And I'm not
just preaching, I'm telling you the truth. That's what Scott
used to say, I'm not just preaching, I'm telling you the truth. Trust
the Lord. Verse 8, let all the earth fear
the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him. He spake, it was done. He commanded,
it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to naught. He maketh their devices of none
effect. We see that now. Verse 13, the
Lord looketh from heaven. He beholdeth all the sons of
men from the place of his habitation. He looketh upon all the inhabitants
of the earth. He sees everything. Verse 16,
there's no king saved by a multitude of a host, a vast army, Russia,
China, America. No, you're not saved by your
army. You're not going to do it. Verse 17, a horse is a vain thing
for safety, technology, whatever it may be. Neither shall he deliver
any by his strength. Read this, verse 18. Behold,
the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that
hope in His mercy to deliver their soul from death and to
keep them alive in famine. Our soul waited for the Lord.
Here it is again. He is our help and our shield. Our hearts are rejoicing in Him.
We've trusted in His holy name. Blessed fear. Blessed fear. And the world, there's no fear
in the world. And now they're in fear where
there was no fear, aren't there? Oh, blessed gathering. And I'm
not going to have you turn now because I'm out of time. Blessed
gathering. Stephen read Psalm 84 last Wednesday. How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord. He said, the sparrow hath found
a house where she may lay her nest and her young. He said,
I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God. He said in
Psalm 27, one thing have I desired, and that what I seek after, I
want to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Is this not like a little city of refuge? You come in here,
the house of God, you hear this message of hope and peace and
comfort of your God reigning and ruling and you're in His
hand. Doesn't it just comfort you? Doesn't it just bless you?
Doesn't it just ease your mind? You'll go home tonight and sleep
better, I hope. Have you heard this? Oh, how
blessed we are to be gathered. You know, He gathered, in Ephesians
1 it says, He gathered together in one all His people in Christ.
He made us sit together in heavenly places. This is a little heavenly
place here. Kingsport, Paramount. Oh, He's
gathered up. Blessed fellowship. Blessed fellowship. Joy divine. Blessed dwelling
in God's house. Why do we gather here? We gather
to worship, we gather to give thanks, we gather to hear His
Word, we gather to wait on the Lord. You know what we're doing?
We're waiting. You know how many times it says,
blessed is the man that waiteth on the Lord? In Psalm 37 it says,
wait. Psalm 20 says, wait. Again I
say, wait. Like Rahab. Psalm 27 and 36. Rahab was waiting
on Joshua, wasn't she? He did not tell her when he was
coming. She's waiting. She's waiting. They said that
Rahab, that's all she wants to do, stay in that house. She keeps talking about that
scarlet line. She's talking about Joshua. He ain't coming. Jericho
said, he's not coming. And one day, the trumpet sounded. And Paul said, The dead in Christ
shall rise. We're waiting, waiting. Job said,
All my days I wait until my change. Waiting on our Lord, waiting
on our change. He said, He's going to call,
and I'm going to answer. I'm going to answer, Trump shall
sail, the dead in Christ shall rise, the Lord shall descend
with 10,000 of His saints. Mack, Joe, Henry, Henry and Henry. Going to come with Him. Won't
that be something? He's worth waiting on. And the
last thing is this. I want you to turn to Revelation
14. And the world thinks this is utter foolishness. Blessed
death. That's the last thing the world
wants to talk about. Fear it by all. What a blessing. What a blessing to remove that
fear of death from us. So much so that we almost welcome
it. We do welcome it, and I say that
carefully because, you know, we're sinful. We're flesh. But
when the time comes, you're going to welcome it. You're going to
welcome it. You're going to be glad. You're
going to be ready. In Revelation 14, verse 13, I heard a voice
from heaven saying unto me, write, write this down. Write it down. Blessed, blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth. They're going to rest forever.
Blessed death. Do you know how blessed you are
if you think death is going to be a blessing? It's not the end, it's just the
beginning. You know how blessed you are. I hope you feel blessed
to have heard this and read this with me. Stand with me.