Go with me to John chapter 10
now. John 10. Read a few verses here. John
10. What a chapter. And we'll look,
next time we look at it, we'll look at verse 28. Eternal life. I give unto them
eternal life. What that mean? They shall never
perish. Never perish. The security of the sheep. We've
been looking at the shepherd of the sheep. Tonight, the voice
of the shepherd and the security of the sheep. Shepherd's voice. Look at verse 3. Our Lord said
to him, that is the shepherd, the porter openeth God, the Father,
the Holy Spirit. And the sheep hear his voice,
and he calleth his own sheep. my name, and he leadeth them
out. Look at verse 4. And when he
putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him. They know his voice. They know
his voice. Verse 16. Other sheep I have
which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice. That's us. He's talking about
the Gentiles. And some if not most in here
have heard His voice. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Verse 27, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. My sheep, only the sheep,
only sheep hear His voice. You remember, He has said it
so many times in Scripture, having ears to hear, but they don't
hear. But the seeing eye and the hearing
ear, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made
them both. The Lord must give us ears to hear. And all of His
sheep have been given ears to hear, hear His voice. Only the
sheep hear His voice. Go back to chapter 5. Do you
remember this? He was speaking to these Pharisees. Chapter 5,
verse 24. He said, barely, barely, I say
unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that
sent me hath everlasting life. Now I've heard his word, haven't
you? I believe on it, don't you? He says we have everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation. But is, not shall be, but is
passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming. One of these days the Lord is
going to come back and all the graves are going to open. The
Lord is going to call all those who died in the Lord out of the
graves. But He said it now is. Right
now. The dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. I was dead in
trespassing and sin, weren't you? And you hath He quickened. How? By His voice, by His Word. Look at chapter 8. Again, He's
speaking to these Pharisees. Chapter 8, verse 43. Remember
this? They argued with Him. They didn't
believe Him. He says, Why do you not understand
My speech? Because you cannot hear My word,
verse 47, he that is of God heareth God's words. You therefore hear
them not because you're not of God. Well, I do, don't you? You
do. You're here tonight. I believe
you're here like Cornelius of old, aren't you? We're here to
hear. You believe His word. Well, that means you're of God. That means you're a sheep. My
sheep hear my voice. Now, before I go any further,
let it be clear, unless somebody doesn't understand, someone in
here or someone listening over at the Mixler, no one will ever
hear the Lord speak to them audibly. No one has or will ever hear
the word of the Lord speak to them with these ears. Robin and
I were talking about a song, a hymn that we I like it. I sing it to myself all the time.
I come to the garden alone. But it seems to imply that the
Lord is actually speaking out loud to this person. He doesn't
do that. He doesn't do that. We devoted
a whole message one time to why doesn't the Lord speak out loud.
Well, He speaks one way. He speaks through His words.
It's always the same, and that's not my message. It is no method. But He speaks through His Word.
This is how He speaks. Through His Word. He says, My
sheep hear My voice. What voice is that? What voice
is that? What is it? How is it? Have you
heard it? Now I go back to Psalm 29 that
we looked at. My sheep hear My voice. Psalm
29. The voice of the Lord is His
Word. The voice of the Lord is His
Gospel. And he principally speaks through
preaching of the gospel. He does. The public worship is
the most important aspect of a believer's life. Absolutely. How many times, and I don't know
how many times you've told me this, and you know it's so, that
you read the Word for yourself and you don't get much out of
it, then you come here and hear that very same Word preached
and proclaimed, that's it. Because we gather together as
sheep, two or three or more, and the Lord meets with us, and
the Holy Spirit takes the Word and speaks to us. Together. Collectively. As a congregation. David, remember Psalm 73? David
said, I shall end this, and this and that and the other. He said,
until I went into the sanctuary. Didn't David read God's Word? He wrote it. And yet he, had
to go meet with the saints and a man stand up and preach the
word to him for him to be blessed, to really be blessed, to be spoken
to. Now I don't often do this. Matthew Henry does it almost
exclusively, an alliteration where he used the first letter.
I use the same letter in several points. I've got five points
here. The word of the Lord, the shepherd's voice, it's powerful. The shepherd's voice is powerful.
The shepherd's voice is particular. He says some particular things.
And this is for ease of remembrance. The reason men do this is for
ease of remembrance. Powerful is a particular voice. It is personal. My sheep hear
my voice. It's personal. It is preserving. Preserve it. Preserve your soul. It's persevering. He continues
to speak. All right. Voice of the Lord.
The shepherd's voice is powerful. Look at Psalm 29. I had written
down here to read the whole thing. We just did. Look at verse 3. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters. God of glory thundereth. Don't
you love to hear the thunder? When it's raining. Don't you
love to hear the rain? Mindy and I were out in the middle
of the woods for ten days. Rain came down and just pelting
that tin can. And we loved every minute of
it. And on the waters and the thunder. You and I know what
the Lord is saying when it thunders, don't we? One time the Lord was
walking along and He prayed. He just prayed. He said, Father,
glorify Thy Name. And it thundered. And that's
what people thought. But God spoke to Christ. He never
speaks. He spoke to Christ. And He said,
I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. So every
time it thunders, you think of that. Think of that. The voice of the Lord is thundering. The God of glory thundering.
The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. Powerful. God's voice. He said,
let there be light. Darkness was on the face of the
waters. Brother Pruitt preached this good. This is salvation.
Same as creation. You won't have light until God
says, Let there be light. Open his eyes. Open her eyes.
Open her ears. You won't hear a thing. You won't
hear His voice until He says, Spirit of God, open her ears. You can hear sermon after sermon
after sermon. There's a man going to be baptized
Sunday in Dingus. I told you about it. He sat there
for 30 years. And the Lord always hears. And
now he's going to confess Christ Sunday. Isn't that wonderful? In his time. The voice of the
Lord is powerful. The Lord said, let there be light.
The Lord says, live. Passed by that child in the field.
Lying in its pollution, its blood. It's a time of love. How do you
know He loves you? Live. He heard his voice. She heard his voice. The voice
of the Lord is powerful. Hear, see, walk, speak. My sheep hear my voice. Powerful. Look at the first thing. It says
the voice of the Lord is powerful, full of majesty. Look at the
first thing the powerful voice of the Lord does. Verse 5. The
voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. That's the first thing
that's got to happen. And it breaketh. You know, the
only good heart is a broken heart. A broken heart. Didn't the Lord
say in Jeremiah 23, is not my word as a fire and a hammer that
breaketh the hard rock? He says, the first thing, look
at Habakkuk. Find a little book of, I think
it's really supposed to be pronounced Habakkuk. I listened to an Irishman
preach from this and he kept saying, Habakkuk. And I thought,
he says that funny. And then I looked it up and I
thought, that's how it's pronounced. We say it funny. Habakkuk. Find that little book. I'm having
trouble finding it. A little book of Habakkuk. The
first thing the Lord does is He creates fear. The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord.
And the Lord spoke. When the Lord spoke, the Scripture
says the earth trembled. Back in the beginning, when He
gave the Word to Moses, and it says the whole earth trembled
when He spoke. It says the people trembled.
The people said, don't let the Lord speak to us. Remember that?
Even Moses, even Moses exceedingly quaked. The Quakers, they don't
know the truth, but that's where they came up with that term,
Quakers, trembling. Isaiah 66 says, To this man,
a woman, will I look. This is the person I will look
to in mercy and grace. To him that is poor and of a
contrite, that's a broken heart, over sin, and trembleth at my
word." If we ever get to the point where the Word of God does
not... Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 2. You remember this? Oh Lord, I
have heard thy speech. I was afraid. You ever read the Word of the
Lord and it made you afraid? How often? if it ceases to do
that. You see, before justification,
there's condemnation. Before comfort, there's conviction. Do we ever cease to be convicted?
No. No. The gospel will cease to
mean anything to us if we're not convicted of our sin, right?
Before there's pardon or peace, there's guilt. I heard a man
say one time, he said, I no longer feel any guilt. You don't have any guilt over
your sin. Repentance is a constant state of feeling, being sorry
for your sin. But the Lord speaks peace to
those who feel guilt, who confess their guilt. There's no promises,
no assurance without fear. That's presumption there. Presumption. David said, deliver me from presumptuous
sins. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is a, well, it's powerful. For people that
say this, The Lord is trying to tell me something. They don't
know the Lord. They don't know. The Lord never
tried to tell anybody anything. The voice of the Lord, the shepherd's
voice is a particular voice, a particular voice. Go to 1 Corinthians
14 with it. 1 Corinthians 14. The shepherd's
voice is a particular voice. He says particular things to
a particular people. Yes, he does. 1 Corinthians 14.
See why I'm saying this, and you'll rejoice, I believe. 1
Corinthians 14, look at verse 6. Now brethren, if I come unto
you, and you know this is the chapter that deals with tongues
or languages, which so few people understand. But he's talking
about languages that were given to the apostles. They learned
these languages immediately. Immediately. They didn't have
time to go to school. The Lord gave them this gift
to speak the gospel, the truth, in unknown or languages they
had not known before. And they now knew them. They
weren't speaking in some ridiculous gibberish that nobody can understand.
No, look at it. Verse 6. Now brethren, if I come
unto you speaking with tongues or languages, what shall I profit
you except I shall speak either by revelation, except you know
what I'm saying? Either by, or by knowledge, unless
this, unless this instruction, or by prophesying, preaching,
or doctrine. He said all Scripture is given
by expression of God. It's profitable for doctrine,
for instruction. The things, even things without
life-giving sound, pipe, flute, harp, guitar, piano, except they
give a distinction in the sounds, well, you don't know what to
say. If you go over and start banging on the piano, look, he's
playing in spirit. No, it's noise. If the trumpet, verse 8, give
an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle? John,
you men that were in the service, in the morning, it was reveille,
is that what you call it? Reveille. Get up! They didn't
play taps. Played that at night, didn't
he? That means rest. One of these days I want to preach
on those two trumpets, two silver trumpets. But it must give a
certain sound, a certain sound, a certain sound. So likewise,
verse 9, except you utter by the tongue words easy to be understood,
how shall it be known what is spoken? You're just speaking
into the air. There are many kinds of voices
in the world, none of them without signification. So you see, the
Lord, The shepherd speaks to his sheep. What does he speak?
What does the shepherd say to his sheep? He says the same thing
to all his sheep. He speaks the truth. I said the voice of the Lord
is powerful. No, I know your election, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, 1 Thessalonians 1 says, because our gospel came
unto you not in word only, but also in power. Power. The gospel came. The gospel came
to you in power. You just didn't hear a wildfire
sermon. You heard the gospel. This is
the voice of the shepherd. This is the truth that all the
sheep hear. They hear and receive and believe
and love the truth. The Lord sends mercy. Scriptures
all through the scriptures. I can't tell you how many times
it speaks about mercy and truth. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace. You only get peace through righteousness. It's the Lord's mercy for you
to hear the truth. By mercy and truth, men depart
from evil. Mercy and truth. The truth. This is how the Lord speaks to
us. This is what He speaks to us.
Here are the particulars, okay? I'm going to give you the particulars.
This is what all the sheep hear. There's no exception. There's no gray area. It's all
plain to him to understand it. Proverbs 8, 9. Number one, God is holy. All
the sheep hear this, that God is holy. God is just. God is
sovereign. God is God. This is what you first heard
when you first heard the truth. When you first heard the gospel.
Every one of his sheep. You ask anyone of His sheep,
they'll tell you this is the first thing they heard. They
heard that God's not trying to be God. He is God. They find
out who God is. God is holy, not all. God is
love. Oh, my. We'll talk a little more
about that in a little bit. But it's the first thing you
hear that creates fear. God's holy. God is just. God will by no means clear the
guilty. God is sovereign. The God in whose hands your breath
is. You heard when you were in false religion that God had no
hands. Then when God opened your ears, you found out you were
in His hands. That He has to save you by His strong hand.
Right? This is the first thing you hear
from Him. He's holy. He's sovereign. Where do you turn? Isaiah 43,
Isaiah 45, Deuteronomy 32. You've heard these things. Do
you get tired of them? The last point is going to be
a perpetual voice. You keep hearing it and keep
hearing it. If you ever get tired of hearing it, people, this is
our peace. This is our comfort. Not only
does it strike fear in us in the beginning and cause us to
repent of our sins and call on Him for mercy, but it gives us
great comfort and peace. Our God is God. He's holy. He's just. Even His justice gives
us peace. Because if Christ died, I'm not guilty. We hear this, that man is dead.
This is the truth. We hear it, not only hear it,
we experience it. Man is dead, depraved, corrupt.
The whole heart is sick. The whole head is faint. The
head is sick, the heart is faint. The will of man. We need to quit arguing that,
you know. When a person never gets ears to hear and the Lord
quickens a person, let's quit arguing about the will of man.
You know, man's will, his way, he's unable and he's unwilling
to come to Christ. He will not come to Christ. This is the truth. That's why
it was necessary for God to choose a people. That's the next point.
God chose a people. He had to. They were dead. They were dead. And He chose
them. They would never choose Him.
God chose whom He would. He had to. They were dead. And
He did it before the world began. Before they were born. Before
the children were born. That's not Calvinism. That's
Romans 9-11. Isn't it? All of God's... All the sheep hear this. If somebody
rejects this and buts, but, but, but, they're a goat. Sheep, hear
this. God had to choose a people. He
chose them before the world began, before they were born. This is
election. This is the voice of distinction. This is a certain
sound. This is what distinguishes the
truth from error, from heresy. Isn't it? This is the defining
point. Well, God is God. Number two,
man is dead. They say, no, he's got faith,
you just have to fan it, fan the flame. He's dead. What's
it going to take to raise him? The voice of the Lord, like Lazarus
come forth. Did you choose God or did He
choose you? What does the Scripture say? Every one of the sheep know
that they were out there running. But God chose them and came and
found them, called them by His grace. They all hear this. They all hear this truth. They
all believe. They all know. They all love this. Don't you
love election? Don't you love God's sovereign
election? They all hear this. They all
believe. There are no exceptions. No exceptions. This is the truth.
So help me God. Then God gave those elect to
a particular Redeemer. There's only one. To redeem those
particular people. I'm talking about particular
redemption. This is as old as God. Who did the high priest
go in and offer up the atonement for? Huh? The world? Egypt? Israel. He had twelve names on
His shoulders, on His breastplate. Twelve names, twelve tribes.
That's who He offered up the blood before the Lord. Nobody
else. At particular minute. This is
the distinct sound. Did Christ die for everyone?
No, He did not. That old saying made by, who
was it? I forget. It doesn't matter.
It's a good saying. That if Christ died, Jesus Christ
died for all the sins of all people, then all people are saved.
Because it's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses, that pays
for our sin. Right? If He died for all people,
then all people must be saved. Who is He that condemns? It's
God that justifies. Who shall lay anything to charge of God's
elect? Christ died. But if Christ died for some of
the sins, of all people and nobody's going to be sad. All sins must
be paid for, right? But now, now here's the truth.
Christ died for all of the sins of some people. So some people
are going to be sad. That's the truth. That's the
truth. Christ died. He said, look at
John 10, look here in our text. Let's hear what the shepherd
said, okay? He says it two or three times, doesn't he? In verse
11, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the world, for everybody. No sir, but the sheep. Isn't that what
he said? Isn't that what he said? Look at verse 15. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. In verse 26, he said to those
that didn't believe him, he said, you believe not because you're
not my sheep. That's why he said to old Nicodemus
there in chapter 3, whosoever believeth, that's who he died for. Who believes? The sheep that he gave the faith
to believe, because he gets all the glory. God gave these elect
sheep to a particular Redeemer to redeem them, to lay down His
life for them, purchase their pardon, pay for their sins, and
He did it. He paid it all. He paid for all the sins of all
of His people. Did you hear that? Do you believe
that? Well, good, because that's the
truth. All the sheep hear it. And the Father sent the Holy
Spirit through preaching, preaching of the truth, to call those sheep,
to bring those sheep. And He does it through a man.
Everybody in here heard the gospel through a man. And this preaching of the gospel
of Christ that I'm trying to lay out right now is what gives
repentance, what gives faith, We're bound to give thanks for
you, to you, to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord.
Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Through
sanctification the Spirit sets you apart. You got a brother
or sister or a spouse or a daughter or son, somebody that doesn't
know the truth. Why do you know? Why do you believe?
Why do you love the truth? Because the Spirit sanctified
you. The Spirit sets you apart. You
were chosen of God. You were given ears to hear.
The shepherd said, give that girl ears. You didn't have to. You didn't deserve for him to.
But he did it. It was his good pleasure. And
he gave you ears to hear. Through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto He called you by our
gospel. There's only one gospel. To the obtaining of the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know I wouldn't have let
that out, Joe. To the obtaining of the glory, to be with the
Great Shepherd. And then the Spirit of God, that same Spirit,
stays with the sheep all their days. They're led by the Spirit
of God. This is the truth. You can grieve
Him. You can quench Him. And He'll suffer for it. And other
people will too. But He won't leave you. There
is therefore now no condemnation of them that are in Christ Jesus
who walk according to the Spirit. He sent us a Spirit. He said,
I will not leave you comfortless. I will send another comforter
like myself. He'll take the things of mine.
The Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and keeps showing them
to you. These things, these particular
things is what all the sheep hear. It's a personal voice. The shepherd's voice is personal.
He said, My sheep hear My voice. Each one of His sheep must hear
Him personally. And they do. Though it's through
a man. Though it's through preaching. They will hear. They will hear
from the Lord Himself. I've told you so many times.
I don't get tired of telling it. Because it's a perfect illustration. I sat and listened to this man
who's my father. This is my flesh and blood father
for years. That's my dad. I grew up. I know him. That's my dad. That's
all he is. He's just my dad. Huh? That's right. He's just a man.
But the Lord made him a preacher. And a good one at that. When
I heard message after message after message after message after
message, I didn't hear a thing. It wasn't that. And the fullness of time, God's
time. That wasn't my dad speaking.
And you know, I ceased to look at him the same from then on.
He became my pastor. And that's the way I began to
look at him from then on, first, my pastor. This is the man the
Lord sent, not just to give me life on this earth, but to give
me life. More abundance, right? I heard
that. Don't even have my ear in anything. All the sheep. All sheep. You can't find one example in
all the Scriptures. Somebody sitting out on the hill
and the Lord spoke to him. No sir. No, sir. I'll give you a good example.
There was a man riding along in a chariot out in the middle
of nowhere, reading the Bible. He was sincere. He just came
back from Jerusalem. He just went to worship. He was
very sincere. He heard lots of preaching, but
he didn't hear a thing. He didn't hear from the Lord. He's riding
along in his chariot, reading the Scriptures, reading Isaiah
53. Oh, what a verse. What a chapter. The Lord sent
a preacher. all the way out in the middle
of the desert to one man, Philip, the deacon. And he was walking
alongside that chariot, you know, heard him read. He said, you
understand what you're saying? He said, now this is meekness,
this is humility, this is a person, a childlike person that's going
to hear from the Lord. He said, how can I? He said,
some man showed me. He said, would you like for me
to get up there in that chariot with you and we'll look at it
together?" I sure would. And he got up in that chariot
and the Lord opened his hand. And Philip preached the gospel
to him and they were riding along. You know, he told him what the
Lord said, who that believeth on me hath everlasting life and
is baptized, shall be saved. And they were riding along and
there was a pool of water there, a lake or something. The man said, stop
the chariot. Here's water out. This can't
wait. Well, nobody's here to see it.
Oh, the angels are with us. Confess Christ right there. He
heard his voice through a man. And then the Lord removed that
man. My sheep hear my voice. His personal
voice. As I told you, that man, after
30 years, he finally heard from the Lord. He did. He heard. I
did, after several years. I did. My sheep hear my voice,
the Lord said. When he speaks, you'll know it.
You'll know it. Others will know it. Somebody
said one time, even an old hound dog will know it. When he says, come, you'll come.
Not until then. When he says, speak, I used to
love to get Adam to speak. He loved my voice. He loved me
to speak to Him. Chip knew that. He loved me to
be with me. He heard my voice. And I said,
Speak. He said, Speak to me. And I spoke to Him. When the Lord calls on you, you
will start calling. The Lord said, Sit. Sit. Mary, you'll sit, you'll sit,
you'll sit, and that's where you'll want to sit. If you ever
hear from the Lord, and most of you have, you'll love to come
and sit like Mary. It's a preserving voice. John
10, look at verse 27. John 10, 27, My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. They shall never perish. My Father
gave them to Me, and He is greater than all, and no man is able
to pluck them out of My Father's hand. When the Word, when the
Gospel comes, the Gospel is the saving power of God. Power of
God. Saving power of God. And He keeps
saving us. It's not a one-time thing. It's
a lifelong thing. He keeps saving us. We're kept
by the power of God. We're preserved. We're kept from
falling. And Him is able to keep us from
falling. How does He do that? His Word. I tell you all the time to read
the Scriptures. And you should. I tell you all the time. The
Word of God tells us to read. Word of God tells us to come,
sit, renew your strength. Their strength is to sit still.
In returning and rest shall you be saved. In quietness and confidence
shall be your strength. Keep coming. Keep sitting. Keep
reading the Word. Read, read, read. Hear. Faith cometh by hearing. There's nothing that takes the
place of the preached Word. Live preaching, number one. Live
preaching. where the Spirit of God is promised
to be. Nothing takes the place of it.
Anybody listen to this by Michler? Nothing takes the place of live
preaching. That's where the blessing is.
You know it so from experience. And yet, thank the Lord, He's
given us these means of CDs and sermon audio and Michler and
tapes. And I listen to preaching all
the time. All the time. When I get down,
I turn one of my brothers on, and I start listening to this
man. Preserving power. Keeping power. Keeps us from fear. Keeps us
from doubt. The Word of God. The Gospel keeps
us from despair. It picks us up when we get down.
It reproves us when we get... when you need reproving. It rebukes
us when we get out of hand and it corrects us, chastens us.
If you be without chastening, you're a bastard. And yet the voice of the shepherd
is a calming voice in it. Only the gospel can give peace.
Only Christ can give peace. And no man can take it from you.
Nothing that happens can take it from you. He speaks peace. He did that all the time with
his disciples. He was all the time saying, peace
be unto you. Be of good cheer. He was the
man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He was the one that was
going to be forsaken by God. He was the one that was going
to endure the hell, the wrath of God. He was the one. But he
kept cheering them up. Be still. Be still. Peace. Peace. And it's a persevering
voice. He keeps speaking. He keeps speaking. If the Lord quit speaking to
you, He never really did speak to you. If you quit hearing the
gospel, He never spoke to you. If a relationship,
you have a relationship, husband and wife, or friends, or brother
and sister, or whatever, and you quit speaking to each other,
you don't love each other. You don't know each other. Isn't that right? Yes, it is. And you won't care if that person's
alive or dead. If the Lord ever quits speaking
to you through this word, through this gospel. But here's the good thing. Did
you get anything tonight? You haven't heard one new thing.
I haven't said one thing you haven't heard a thousand times.
Haven't. It's called gospel. Good news. Well, you've heard this before.
Yeah, but this is His voice. Mandy and I, you have, well,
whoever, family, you talk about your husband, you talk about
those you love, you talk about them, don't you? You never get
tired of talking to me. You tell the same old stories,
don't you? Huh? Your husband and wife, this
is how you know they love one another. You can tell the same
silly joke or whatever. for the thousandth time, and
laugh. If that stops, there's no love there. All right? The Lord keeps speaking
to His people. What does He speak? The same
things. And this is how you know. He
spoke to you and is speaking to you if you keep getting a
blessing out of the same one. We go to the same scriptures.
Some of you have favorite scriptures. There's nothing wrong with that.
Everybody loves Isaiah 53. Everybody loves Psalm 51, Psalm
27, Psalm 37, Psalm 25, Psalm 1, Psalm 2, 3, 4. Everybody has
a favorite. Ephesians 2, Romans 8. We go to those same Scriptures,
don't we? We go to those same Scriptures,
and He speaks to us. We hear a man. I see your faces light up sometimes.
I say, I want to preach from Ephesians 2. This is His voice. It's not just
a dead doctor. It's not just a letter. It's
not just a sermon. It's His voice. It's persevering. Keep speaking. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, oh, how we thank You
for Your Word, for Your truth, for Your gospel. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, thank You. We rejoice
that Thou art God. Beside Thee there is none else.
We rejoice in the Lord. O Lord, let us hold fast confidence
and rejoicing to Thee. O Lord, never let us take this
word, this gospel, this flock, this church, this time, this
privilege for granted. You will surely remove us or
it. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Keep speaking to us. Your sheep
hear Your voice. May we continue to hear your
voice. We believe we've heard you speak
to us, and we thank you. Your gospel speaks peace. It
speaks all that we need. We thank you for it. Lord, keep
speaking. And speak, open the ears of someone, Lord. Open deaf
ears and blind eyes, we pray, for your glory and honor and
for their eternal life. Forgive us of our sins in Christ's
name. Amen. You're dismissed.