It's a good song. It's a good song. It's a good
song. I'm going to take the garment
and the shirt off. I love you. I love you. Are you ready? Let's all stand and sing number
37. Number 37, How Great Thou Art. Our God is great. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe
displayed Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great
Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, My Savior
God to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain ranges And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sink my soul my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul my Savior
God to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think That God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sink my soul, my Savior
God, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation And take me home what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim my god how
great thou art then sink my soul My Savior God to Thee How great
Thou art How great Thou art Then sing my soul My Savior God to
Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art You may be seated. Turn to number 256. These first two hymns were a
request, and they both go so well together. They both go so well, How Our
Lord Put Away Our Sin. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Thou has taught me to say, It
is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trial should come, Let this blessed church run control, That Christ
hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed his own blood,
for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And, Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sighed, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even
so it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Amen. Good singing. Turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. For I bear them record, that
they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For
they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law, or righteousness to every one that believeth. Moses describeth
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
these things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thy heart, who shall
descend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above?
Or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ
again from the dead? But what sayeth it? The word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the
word of faith which we preach. that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now then, how then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. For they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to gather here and
to worship in thy holy name. Lord, we pray that you'll be
with us this morning. Thank you for your word. I ask
that you will help our brother Cody to declare it. And Lord, make us to hear it. Make us to hear, Lord. Make us
to understand, give us knowledge, give us wisdom. Lord, make us
to know that our only hope is through you and there is nothing
else. We pray, Lord, for all the preachers
that stand this day and declare thy word and the holy gospel.
Lord, we thank you for our pastor, ask that you'll be with him as
he's traveling Give him traveling mercies home. Thank you for Cody,
bringing him here. Lord, for raising him up. Thank you, Lord, for having raised
up all your pastors throughout the world. Again, Lord, be with
us. Send your Holy Spirit. Make us
to hear, Lord, write it on our hearts. Forgive us of our sin,
Lord. In the holy name we pray, amen. Alright, let's stand again and
turn to number 163. 163. Open my eyes that I may see Glimpses
of truth Thou hast for me Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free Silently now I wait for
Thee Ready, my God, Thy will to see, Open my eyes, illumine
me, Spirit divine. Open my ears that I may hear
Voices of truth Thou sendest clear And while the wave notes
fall on my ear Everything false will disappear Silently now I
wait for Thee, Praying, my God, Thy will to see. Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit
divine. Open my mouth and let me bear,
Gladly those warm fruits everywhere. Open my heart and let me prepare,
Love with thy children thus to share. Silently now I wait for
thee. Ready my God, thy will to see. Open my heart, illumine me. Spirit divine. Thank you, John. Good morning. Isn't it wonderful
to be in the Lord's house this morning? Our pastor is away on a much
deserved holiday with Mindy and his granddaughters. During the last couple of months,
he has worked very hard to make sure that we all hear the gospel. The Lord has blessed us He has
sent such a man to preach to us. We should all take an opportunity
to thank Him and let Him know just how much
He is appreciated here. The Lord has also blessed us
today with a young man from Nashville, Kingsport, Tennessee. I think
everybody, most everybody here knows Cody Henson. He's from
the Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, where Gabe Stoniker
is the pastor. preached to us many times, and
I'm sure that we'll be blessed again today. Cody, if you will. Good morning. It's great to be
back with you again. Sorry, Rachel and our baby couldn't
make it. Life's a little more difficult
now, but it's all good. The Lord's been very good to
us. They send their greetings and the Gabe and Your brethren
in Kingsport, send their thoughts and their love. If you will turn
with me for our message to Proverbs chapter 20. Proverbs chapter 20. Our text will be Proverbs 20.
Verse 12. Proverbs 20, verse 12. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. I want to talk
to you today about the hearing ear and the seeing eye. The Lord hath made both of them.
Now, that is true physically as well as spiritually. Now,
just a few weeks ago, the Lord blessed us with this little baby
girl. And moments after she was born, the most precious thing
I've ever seen, I saw that baby girl look into the eyes of her
mother. Never seen anything like it. And then a few moments later,
she looked into my eyes. And in that moment, I couldn't
help but think, what a blessing. Not just the fact the Lord's
blessed us with this baby girl, but what a blessing that He has
given her the ability to see. What a blessing. And then the
very next day, a nurse came in and brought some equipment and
performed a hearing test. I didn't know they did that so
soon. And it took two tries, but on the second try, after
about 40 minutes, she said, she passed. She can hear. And I thought, how in the world
do you know that? But again, in that moment, I thought, what
a blessing to know. This little baby girl the Lord
just gave us, she can see, she can hear. The Lord didn't have
to give her those abilities. I'm so glad he did. I wouldn't
want her to have to go through this life not being able to see,
not being able to hear. But with that being said, Had
that been the case, had she been born blind or had she been born
deaf or even both, rare cases, she would have still been able
to live. It would not have been easy. It would have been very
challenging, but she could have still lived a life on this earth. What I'm getting at is it's not
necessary to be able to hear or see to live life on this earth,
physical life. It's not necessary. It's a physical
blessing, but it's not necessary. Now, spiritually speaking, it's
necessary. It's absolutely necessary that
we hear and see spiritually. Now, turn back where our brother
just read for us in Romans chapter 10. We must see the importance of
spiritual hearing and spiritual seeing. Romans 10, look at verse
13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed, I report
verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God, faith comes By hearing. That's why this is so important.
We read in the Hebrews that without faith, it's impossible to please
God. And what that means is without
faith, we will not be saved. For by grace are you saved through
faith. That's the means God has chosen.
See, it's faith that calls upon the Lord for salvation. Faith is absolutely essential.
Salvation is by grace through faith, and that faith is in Christ. Salvation is in Christ. Eternal
life is in Christ. This is life eternal that we
might know Him. John 3, 36 says, He that believeth on the Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
We must hear. The Word of God. Turn with me
to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. Verse 3. Incline your ear and come unto
me. and your soul shall live. We must hear. If we do not hear,
we will not live. Now the hearing ear hears that. The hearing ear is nothing less
than a new heart that God gives to truly hear his word. The hearing
ear hears. Incline your ear. Listen to what
God has to say. I'm not here to tell you something
that Cody has to say. I'm here to tell you, thus saith
the Lord. Incline your ear. May God help us to. May God help
me to. And come unto me. That's Christ. And that's what
faith does. God gives the hearing ear and
God gives faith that comes to Christ. Here in your soul shall
live. The hearing ear is a new heart.
The seeing eye is faith that God gives. That's how the believer
lives this life. We don't walk by faith, Paul
said, or by sight. We walk by faith. We don't walk
by the things we see with our eyes. We walk by God-given faith
that looks to Christ. See, faith has one object. You
say, oh, well, we believe things. We believe doctrines. Yes, but
you can sum it up with this. It's the doctrine of Christ.
We believe Christ. We look to Christ. Spiritual eyes behold Him. Nothing
else. John the Baptist said, Behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, the
sin of God's elect. Behold Him. We must behold Him.
Life is beholding Him. You just consider John for a
moment. He came. What was his message? He said,
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before
me. He came with a message of look to Christ. It's Him you
must hear. The Father loveth the Son and
hath given all things into His hand. Hear Him. God, the Father,
spoke from heaven, said, This is my beloved son in whom I'm
well pleased. Hear ye him? John said he must increase. I
must decrease. Look to him. Must behold Lord
Jesus Christ. And faith does. Faith beholds
him. Faith looks to the cross and sees a substitute, a suitable
substitute who made eternal satisfaction for sinners. Faith sees Christ
to be just that. Faith sees him to be nothing
less than God in human flesh. Again, John said the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory. Faith beholds
his glory. Faith sees him to be the sinner's
only hope. I have no hope except him. All my hope is in him. Faith sees Christ throughout
all the scriptures from Genesis 1-1, where it says in the beginning,
God, Created the heaven and the earth. We read in John one in
the beginning was the word. That's Christ. The word was with
God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything
made that was made in him was life. And the life was the light
of men. Genesis one, one, we see Christ.
Revelation 22, verse 21, what's it say? The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. From the first verse to
the last verse and every verse in between, there's a road that
leads to Christ and we must see him. Faith sees him in this book. It's all about him. Not only
does faith see him, faith looks for him. Faith opens its word
and searches for him. Isn't that what we're here to
do? To see him, look for him. Christ told some lost religious
men, he said, search them, search the scriptures. You think you
have eternal life in them, but they testify of me. Moses wrote
of me. He expounded unto his disciples
on the road to me is the things concerning himself. Faith is
Christ and nothing else. I love what the song is that
he said he is my light, all my life and my salvation. Turn with
me to Isaiah, chapter 45. Isaiah 45, verse 22. Look unto me and be saved all
the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. That's speaking of Christ. Look
unto me. You remember when the children of Israel, when they
were bitten by the serpent and they were dying, What was the
means God provided for them to live? He put a brazen serpent
on a pole. He said, look and live. Look
and live. And we read about that in John
3, right before the verse, everybody loves to quote, God so loved
the world. It said, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Look
and live. Without looking to Christ, we
will not live. There's no salvation apart from
beholding him. And we behold Him by faith. It's
the only way we're going to see Him. It's the only way we're
going to look to Christ. And how do we have faith? By
hearing. All right. I hope we see the
importance of this, OK? And my prayer for this message
is the song we just sang. Lord, open my eyes that I may
see. Open my ears that I might hear.
Open my heart. That's what we're talking about.
Lord, open my heart. Give us a new heart to see Christ, to
hear Him. Went back in our text, Proverbs
20, verse 12. The hearing ears and the seeing
eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Now I mentioned
that our daughter was born with physical sight and physical hearing.
Some people aren't born with that. Some people are born deaf,
blind, or even both. But spiritually speaking, we
are all born deaf and blind. And the reason is because of
sin, because of what happened in the garden, we're born spiritually
dead. And that means we have no spiritual
ability, no spiritual knowledge at all. None. What that means
is we're born into this world ignorant of the things of God. We don't know God. Turn with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians 2. Look at verse 14. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Now, that word receiveth, here's
what it means. To embrace, to receive favorably,
to approve of, to make one's own, to give ear to. The natural man does not embrace
the things of God, does not receive the things of God favorably,
does not approve of, does not make our own, and does not give
ear to. We do not give ear to the things
of God. We give ear to a lot of things.
I just considered myself briefly. I won't give ear to God, but
I certainly give ear to myself and anything pertaining to my
flesh and the lust of it. You don't have to think hard
on that to know it's true. Naturally, we have no desire for God. No. We reject him. Now, don't get me wrong, he's
not sitting there begging for us to accept him. But we reject
him. We reject God. We reject his
word. We reject everything about God. When Christ came, it says
he came unto his own and some of them received him. No. It
says his own received him not. Was his own received him not?
Then who did receive him? Nobody. Isaiah prophesied in
Isaiah 53, he said he is despised and rejected of men, all men.
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, we hid, as it were,
our faces from him. He was despised and we seemed
to not. We all naturally reject him. I know it's not a popular message,
but we just read it here in 1 Corinthians 2, 14. It's foolishness unto
him. We hear God's word preached. We hear the gospel, the good
news of God's mercy and grace in Christ declared. And we say
that's foolishness. Oh, it's so foolish. What in
the world do you mean I don't have to work for salvation? What do you mean God chose the
people? God loves only the elect. Christ only died for them. The
spirit only quickens them. That's not fair. Oh, if God ever
gives an ear to hear, that'll be the best news you've ever
heard in your life. But naturally, the gospel comes and we reject
it. We say what the psalmist said.
No, God, there's no God. I don't need God. No God for
me. I'm good. That's a bad place
to be. And that's exactly where we're
all at on our own. I thought of those false disciples
in John 6 whom the Lord fed, who followed him for a moment.
You know, first it says they tried to make him a king. The
Lord had to set that straight. Well, they were interested, at
least physically, because he filled their bellies. But then
the Lord started saying some things. They said, what can we
do to work the works of God? He said, this is the work of
God that you believe on him whom God has sent. He said some more
things, he said, all that the father giveth me shall come to
me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. He
said, no man can come to me except the father which has sent me.
Draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. He said, except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.
And what did they say? It said they went back and walked
no more with him. They said this is a hard saying.
Who can hear it? I'll tell you who can hear it.
Those whom God gives an ear to hear. But naturally, that's our
reaction. Oh, it's so hard. Who could possibly
believe that? Who in the world believes such
a thing? None of us by nature. None of us by choice. It's offensive
to our flesh. The reason is it puts us in our
place. Puts us where we belong, puts us in the dust. What's God
saying? God says we are dust. He knows our frame. He remembers
we're dust. Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return. The gospel
is offensive to our flesh. And the truth of the matter is
no son of Adam will believe it. No son of Adam can believe it.
It takes the spirit of God to cause us to believe it, to cause
us to look to Christ. We will not Christ said, You
will not come to me, but you might have life. And we cannot. We do not have spiritual knowledge
and we can't obtain it on our own. We didn't read it, but in
Isaiah 45, here's what it says. It says they have no knowledge
that set up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a
God that cannot save. What does that mean? Religion
has no knowledge. What do they do? They set up
An image like Nebuchadnezzar, they set up a false God in the
name of Jesus, in the name of God, they call him Lord sometimes. But that's no more than a little
G God, false God that has no power to save. Now, Christ is
able to save to the uttermost. But a God of our hands, in Psalm
115 says, they that make them are like unto them. They have
ears, but they hear not. They have eyes, but they see not.
Mouths have they, they speak not. Feet, but they walk not.
Hands, but they handle not. That's a man-made God. And that's
the only God we're going to believe in on our own. We can't give
ourselves a knowledge of God Almighty, the true and living
God. Romans 10, we just read it. He said, I bear them record. Paul speaking of his brethren,
kinsmen, according to the flesh. He said, I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. They're religious, but not according
to knowledge, not according to the knowledge of Christ, the
true knowledge of God. And as a result of that, what
do they do? He said, they go about to establish their own
righteousness. He said, I was there. I was more exceeding zealous
in the traditions of my fathers. I was right there with them. But God. But God, we're all born
in spiritual darkness. Christ said you've not so learned
Christ, he is who we must learn. You know, we want to get up and
grow up and get all this knowledge, all this useless knowledge may
benefit you as far as worldly concerns go. And that's OK. But
all knowledge is useless knowledge if we don't have the knowledge
of Christ. Salvation is knowing him. We don't have the ability. Can
man by searching find out God? No. He must be revealed. All we can do, the only ability
we have is to get religious and be lost and not know it. You know where that puts us?
That puts us at the mercy of God. And that's where we're at,
whether we like it or not. That's the truth. We read about this. We can do
many wonderful religious works. Lord, Lord, look what I've done.
He said, I never knew you. We can be highly esteemed in the
eyes of men. We can have all the praise of men in this world.
There are some people that have it. A lot of people have that. But that's nothing but abomination
in the sight of God. God looks on the heart. God says
our hearts are deceitful, desperately wicked. Who can know it? And
He knows it. That ought to give us some concern.
Only God can judge me. God knows my heart. I slow down. Getting religious won't do it.
We're lost. We've all, we've gone everyone
his own way. We've gone astray. We're lost. No knowledge of Christ. We don't
trust in Christ. We trust in ourselves that we're
righteous. We despise others. We despise Christ. I've heard it said that false
preachers will say, you know, they'll convince somebody into
making a profession of faith and they'll say, you're saved.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Now, I never, the Lord graciously
allowed me to avoid all that, but some of you may have experienced
that. I don't know. But that's what religion teaches.
That's that's how they operate. But here's the truth of the matter.
Judgment is coming very soon. And I'd much rather find out
now that I'm lost and don't know God than find out then. That
rich man who lifted up his eyes in hell being in torment, he
found out too late. And you know what he said? Father
Abraham, send Lazarus that he may dip his finger in water and touch
my tongue. I'm tormented in this land. He
said, no, no, no. In your lifetime, you had your
good things. Remember that. Lazarus' evil
things. Now you're tormented. He's comforted.
And when he could find no mercy in hell, You know what he prayed? This was his prayer from hell,
and I believe this is the prayer from hell, if there is such a
thing. He said, would you send Lazarus? Would you send him back? Would you let him testify to
my brethren, lest they also come here to this place of torment,
everlasting torment? And we need to hear this. Abraham
told him. He said they have Moses and the
prophets. Let them hear them. He said, even if one went back
from the dead, they wouldn't believe. And that's the truth.
God must give us an ear to hear, a heart to believe his word. That's what it takes. Judgment's
coming. If only the world would get a
grasp of that. We're going to stand before the king, not the
president, not the prime minister. We're going to stand before the
king. Capital I, capital K-I-N-G, the king of heaven and earth,
the judge of all, the only one, the holy one of Israel who's
holy and just and right. He's the one we're going to stand
before and he's going to judge righteously. Let me show you
something in John, chapter nine. John 9, verse 39. Our Lord had given a blind man sight
and people were astonished. Well, they went and told the
Pharisees and the Pharisees thought, well, he did that on the Sabbath
day. I can't believe that. How dare he heal a man on the
Sabbath day? Well, they confronted the man.
They went and got his parents and they wanted to know this
man was born blind. Well, they found out he was born
blind. Well, then they get in a confrontation with our Lord.
I want to show you what the Lord said to them in John 9, verse
39. And Jesus said for judgment.
I am come into this world that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto
him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If you
were blind, you should have no sin. But now ye say we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. These Pharisees, they were the
most religious people around, but they never knew themselves
to be blind. The Lord called them blind leaders of the blind.
And all they're going to do is lead people into the ditch. What
our Lord told them here is you think you see. We see just fine. We're saved. You think you see,
but the truth is you are yet in your sin. You say we see,
therefore your sin remains. If you were blind, you should
have no sin. When God reveals that we're blind, He reveals
Christ who put away our sin. Isaiah prophesied, seeing they
see not, hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. I think I left it out, but in the
verse we looked at, 1 Corinthians 2.14, it says, neither can he
know them. The things of the Spirit of God,
because they're spiritually discerned. It takes the Spirit of God to
reveal these things to us. I thought of the song we often
sing, Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound, and it's
so sweet to a sinner who needs a savior. How sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see. You know, I've been to the funeral
of a believer. It's a bittersweet thing. You
know, we miss him. We hate to see him go, but oh,
how we rejoice. But I've been to several funerals
of an unbeliever, and even there, usually Amazing Grace is sung.
And that's why I consider that song, how many people sing those
words, I once was lost, who never have known themselves to be lost?
How many people sing, I once was blind, who have never known
themselves to be spiritually blind? And it breaks my heart
to think about that. That's why I'm bringing this
message. I pray God will open some eyes, open some ears, open
our hearts. Just like that rich man in hell,
I'm sure he thought he could see and hear just fine. First Corinthians 10, 12 says,
Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall. May God help us. Come with me
to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation 3 verse 17. Because thou sayest, I am rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing. That's a bad place to be. I pray we have a need. Because
thou sayest I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,
and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor
and blind and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried
in the fire as Christ, that thou mayest be rich. He became poor
to make us rich. And white rain, that's the righteousness
of Christ. That thou mayest be clothed and
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine
eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. I urge you, I urge
all of us, hear the word of the Lord by the truth. All the truth we've been reading.
Buy it. Believe it. Own it. Make it your own. However
hard it may be, God commands us to buy it and sell it not. Believe God. Believe His Word.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we do, if we find ourselves
believing on Him for salvation complete, we will know the Lord
did it. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye The Lord hath made even both of them, not just one of them,
both of them. We can't hear and we can't see. Faith comes by hearing, but it
takes God to hear. By grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, but the gift of God. Salvation
is a free gift. Free, sovereign gift. Salvation
is of the Lord. And how I rejoice to know that.
It's an honor to get to say that. From start to finish, it's God's
work. God the Father did the choosing, Christ the Son did
the saving, and God the Holy Spirit does the calling. It's
His work, completely, from start to finish. Christ told Nicodemus,
this religious leader, master of Israel, comes to the Lord,
and the Lord tells him, you must be born again. You're not going to see
the kingdom of heaven except you're born again, born of the
Spirit, water and the Spirit. The Spirit must blow where it
will and give life. Must be born again. And we can
no more be born again spiritually than we birthed ourselves physically.
You know, it's foolish. He said, can a man enter into
his mother's womb the second time, be born again? Of course
not. But we can't save ourselves. Takes the spirit of God. Look
with me at Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Verse 3, Know ye that the Lord, He is
God. It is He that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. He made us. He saved us, not
we ourselves. That's the only way it could
be. That's the only way it could possibly be. Salvation is something
that the Lord hath made. Praise God. Turn back just a
page, if you have to, to Psalm 98. Look at verse 1. It says, O sing unto the Lord
a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand
and his holy arm, that's Christ, hath gotten him the victory.
The Lord hath made known His salvation. His righteousness
hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath
remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Oh, the goodness of God, he hath
done marvelous things. The Lord hath made known his
salvation. He didn't know it to us. He didn't
have to, but he did. Aren't you glad? What's that
mean? He hath made known his salvation. I'll tell you what
it means. He hath made known Christ. He hath revealed Christ. The mystery that's been hid from
ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to the saints,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. God's made him known. Praise
the Lord. I thought about the Apostle Paul,
what he said. You know, he was a religious
Pharisee, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He said, but when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace to reveal his Son in me." He said, when he did that,
immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. God revealed
Christ in me. The Lord asked Peter, who do
men say I am? Then he asked Peter, who do you
say I am? He said, I believe thou art the Christ, the Son
of God. He said, you're blessed. Blessed are your eyes, for they
see. Your ears, for they hear. Their flesh and blood didn't
reveal it to you, but my Father, which is in heaven, Christ prayed.
He said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it's been good in thy
sight. How good, how gracious that God would make known the
Lord Jesus Christ to a sinner. And I must say this, when God
reveals Christ in a sinner, that cannot be stopped. You know, you may be in a conversation
with somebody and you hear where it's going and say, no, no, no,
no, no, no, don't hear it. No, it's not so with God. When God
speaks, when God opens the heart, when God opens the ear, he opens
the eyes. It can't be stopped. You know why? Because he's the
one with the power. He has all power. God's calling
cannot be ignored. His revelation can't be stopped.
says He hath saved us and called us with a holy calling. And we
had nothing to do with it. It wasn't according to our works.
It's God's Word. I love in John 10, He said, My
sheep hear my voice. Maybe they'll hear my voice.
If they work hard enough, someday they'll hear my voice. No. He
said, My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me.
I give unto them eternal life. They'll never perish. Praise
God. It's His work. Praise God, it's
not left up to you and me or we're doomed. Well, how does God call his people? How does he reveal Christ? Through
the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the word of
God. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching gospel preaching. to save them that
believe. Thought about Ezekiel. The Lord
sent him out in the midst of a valley full of dry bones, said,
Lo, they were very dry, very dead. He said, I want you to
prophesy upon these bones, upon these slain, that they may live.
That's exactly what God's doing today. That's what God's still
doing today. Wherever his gospel is, he sends
his messenger. How can they preach except they
be sent? He's got to send them. And he sends them with this message.
You see those sinners Spiritually dead, dry bones. You see that? You stand and then thus sayeth
the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord. How in the world is a dead,
dry bone going to hear the word of the Lord? I'll tell you how.
God's going to quicken them. In Ezekiel it says that God the
Holy Spirit will breathe upon these slain that they may live. That's what it takes. That's
what we're talking about. God, the Holy Spirit, blesses his
word to his people in his time through the preaching of the
gospel to everyone that he's purposed to hear it. They're
going to hear it. They're going to believe it.
They're going to rejoice in it. You know, about the hearing ear and
the seeing eye, it's not a one time thing. I don't pray God
will cause us to hear and see one time. For myself, week after
week after week, the Lord allows me to come back and hear again,
to see Christ in His glory again. And I pray all the days we have
on this earth, He'll cause us to do that, enable us to hear,
enable us to see Christ. The fact that God uses the preaching
of the gospel to quicken His people, to cause them to live,
to cause them to have faith in Christ, that's why we preach
Christ. That's why Paul said, I determine
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
We preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. Turn
with me one more passage here in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake, verse 6, for God. Here's why we preach Christ.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's why we
preach Christ crucified. That gospel, it may be a stumbling
block. It may be foolishness to us by
nature. But to them which believe, to
them which are saved, it's the power of God unto salvation.
There's power in this message. No power in me. There's no power
in reading a book. But when God makes it known,
when God reveals the mystery, when God reveals Christ in you,
that's salvation. When Christ is preached, some
believe and some believe not. What's the difference? If you
believe and the person beside you doesn't believe, what's the
difference? I can tell you this, it's not us. I have four siblings. As far as I know, they don't
believe. I didn't make myself to differ. And I pray, Lord,
give them an ear to hear you. Give them eyes to see Christ.
We're not the difference. Here's the difference. We just
read it. God commands the light to shine in a sinner's heart,
and when He does, that sinner sees the light. That's Christ.
When God said, let there be light, praise God, there's light. God's not begging and hoping
that we'll believe. God's saving His people. Right
now, I pray someone somewhere is hearing the word of God and
looking to Christ by faith. I pray we are. May God cause
us to. If we're going to see the glory
of God, it's going to be in the face of Jesus Christ. I think
last time I was here, we dealt with that text, the Sermon on
the Mount, where they beheld no man. They saw no man save
Jesus. Again, it took God intervening
and shutting them up. Peter wanted to build all these
tabernacles. They saw no man save Jesus only.
That's my prayer for us. May God open our hearts. May
God give us ears to hear him, eyes to see him. I pray he will. Amen. Alright, let's all stand and
let's turn to number 227. 227. I marked it and I still
can't find it. Okay. Oh, now I see the cleansing wave
of fountains deep and wide. Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save,
pours into this wounded side. The cleansing stream I see, I
see, I plunge and oh, it cleanses me. Oh praise the Lord, it cleanses
me, it cleanses me, it cleanses me. I write to walk in heaven's own
light Above the world and sin With heart made pure and garments
white And Christ enthroned within The cleansing stream, I see,
I see, I pledge, and oh, it cleanses me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanses
me, it cleanses me, yes, cleanses me. Amazing grace, it sets me
low to feel the blood apply. And Jesus only, Jesus, no, my
Jesus crucified. The cleansing stream, I see,
I see, I pledge, and oh, it cleanses me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanses
me. It cleanses me, yes, cleanses
me. It's a pleasure.