Well, you feel like sometimes
when you've heard a message, you should just go ahead and
dismiss and go to dinner. That's one of those messages.
My goodness, I rejoiced in that. Darwin, not a very smart man. Don't look all that good. But
doesn't that just show you the Lord can take nothing or nobody
and preach this gospel through Him? They preach the gospel with
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. That's what we just heard. I want you to turn to two places
with me. You want to Mark Romans chapter
8 and Isaiah chapter 12. I just want to read the verse
that I read to you yesterday morning. I think the parallel
verse to Romans 8.15 is found over in Isaiah 12 and that's
where I want to begin at. I want to just read this Romans
8 to you and I want you to put a marker there because I'm going
back there. Romans chapter 8 and verse 15. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, that you have received the Spirit
of adoption, whereby you cry, Father, Father." We looked at
this yesterday morning, and we saw a reason, a reason for us
to be afraid of our lost condition. The Holy Spirit comes upon us.
He makes us aware of our sad and dangerous condition that
we're in. We looked at the several reasons for that. He does that
that Jesus Christ may get all the glory and the honor from
our hearts when he saves us. God is very concerned about getting
all the glory from our hearts and that's what we learn here.
Now I want you to turn over to Isaiah chapter 12 and I think
this is the parallel passage. Look what he says in Isaiah chapter
12 and beginning here in verse 1. In that day thou shalt say, O
Lord, I will praise Thee. Though Thou wast angry with me,
Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me." Now I see
Romans chapter 8 and verse 15 in this, don't you? You know
when the Lord first comes to us, He doesn't come to us to
comfort us. He doesn't come and show us His
smiling face. I remember when I was a kid living
on the Cumberland Plateau just outside of an old log house that
I was raised in, and the sky was very red and lorry. It looked
like it was on fire. And I looked up in the sky, and
I was suddenly struck with this awesome thought and reality. God is not pleased with you.
You're a rebel against God. I saw His frowning face. I heard
an old Jew preach just the other day and he said, the Hebrews
have no word for face. There's no such word as face
in the Old Testament in the Hebrew language. It's faces. And they
said one of the reasons for that is that God cannot be looked
at from one direction. He's a God of many faces. And I looked and that was so.
It's always faces. Cause thy faces to shine upon
us. He has a redeeming face, a smiling
face. We see that face in Jesus Christ,
don't we? But He has a frowning face. That's
the first face He shows us. You were angry with me. That's
the moral judge of all of this earth. And that's the first face
He shows us. That's the face He showed me.
I felt like He's angry with me. Does that mean that He was going
to damn me? Because He showed me that frowning
face? No, that meant He loved me. And
He was going to break me and show me His smiling face. And that's what Isaiah is saying
here. You were angry with me. You made me aware of it. but
your anger is turned away. And now you've shown me your
smiling face, that redeeming face in Jesus Christ. And then
he goes on in verse 2, Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song. He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy, where we
draw water out of the wells of salvation. Now here's my title
this morning of my message. I will trust and not be afraid. God is my salvation. I will trust
and not be afraid. When Paul said he had not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, he never said the saints
would not fear. I think poor saints have a thousand
and one fears. None of them are legitimate.
Fear God. Fear God. And here is the motto,
here is the principle that every believer should live by. I will
trust and not be afraid." That's where God is glorified in His
children. That's where they rest, when
they trust and are not afraid. Some people say this, I used to believe that He was
my salvation. I can say He was, He was my salvation. I really thought He was. I believed
that He was. I could truly say, Jesus, Thy
blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. But I
have been nagged with these doubts and this fear. You ever been
there? I've been there. The Lord Jesus says to His people,
It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And
for some reason or another, they'll find reason to doubt that. There's
some dear saints of God that's going to fear all the way to
glory. Do you know that? Instead of
trusting and not being afraid, they're going to fear all the
way to heaven. And when they get there, they're
probably going to say something like this, Why didn't I trust? I hear some wonderful things,
what a wonderful message that was with this year. And here's the only way I'm going
to get any lasting good out of it, is to trust and not be afraid. The disciples had some wonderful
experiences on the Sea of Galilee. Let me give you an example of
a couple of them. One time when the Lord Jesus came walking in
that storm, and the disciples saw Him walking, thought they
saw a ghost, and He said, It's I, don't be afraid. And Peter
said, Lord, if it is indeed You, bid me come unto You. And the
Lord Jesus come, and Peter started walking on the water, and he
saw the waves, and the Bible said he was afraid, and began
to sing. What was the source of his fear?
Why did he become afraid? The Lord Jesus told him, O thou
of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? You know why he was afraid? He
doubted. Doubted what? He doubted what
the Master just said. Lord, if it be you bid me come
unto you, will come. Come! Come to Me!" He doubted
that, and he became afraid. Has the Lord bid you come? Has
He bid you come to Him? Why are you afraid? What's between
you and Him if He says, Another time they were out on the Sea
of Galilee, and the storm came and was filling their ships.
And they woke Him up and said, Lord, we perish. And He said
almost the same thing to them. Oh, ye of little faith. Why are you so fearful? Another
place in the parallel passage, He said, how is it that you have
no faith? Little faith and no faith. They
had little faith, but they had no faith in exercise. We let
the Armenians drive that word from us, this phrase, exercise
your faith. Well, that's what I'm saying.
Live in the exercise of your faith. Little faith can bring
great comfort when it's exercised. It's like a muscle, isn't it?
You take a weak muscle and you start exercising it, what happens?
It becomes strong. You take little faith and exercise
it, and it becomes a strong thing. Little faith doubts if it's not
exercised. And doubt brings fear, and fear
has torment. They should have exercised faith,
but upon what? It goes back to faith without
a foundation. It's like a hole without reason.
You have no faith in what? What I just said. Let us go over
unto the other side. Lord, we're going to perish.
After He said, let us go over unto the other side, we're going
to perish? O ye of little faith, why are you so fearful? Because
we're doubtful of what you just said. Did they make it to the
other side? And couldn't they have enjoyed
the trip if they had trusted and not been afraid? I have suffered
so many fears. I still have my fears. It's difficult
to get, it's difficult to dispel nagging fears. And I've had my
nagging fears that kept me awake, that's tormented me. And I'm
sort of like John Newton. I wanted all of these fears to
be dispelled by the Lord appearing to me in some glorious way, flooding
my conscience and driving all of my doubts away. That's what
I wanted. I wanted that suddenly. That's not been my experience.
Here's been my experience. A deep, continued trust in what
God has said. I can't answer those evolutionists.
It wouldn't do me no good to debate these scientists. I can't
debate those guys. But you know how I know that
God created all things by Jesus Christ? Because He said He did.
I trust and I'm not afraid. Little faith doubts and is afraid. Great faith trusts, and its fears are dispelled.
And here's my title this day, and I want you to turn back to
Romans chapter 8. I will trust and not be afraid. I will trust and not be afraid. And I hope you take Take this
with you, and this is just as simple as God can make it. And I have four fears that I
have faced myself, and I want to tell you how I've had those
fears dispelled in my own heart. And it's simply by trusting.
I can tell you this from God's Word, if you'll trust, If you'll
trust Him, you'll trust what He says, your fears will be dispelled. Your fears will be dispelled.
The first fear is this, and we've given something to dispel that
fear in verse 29 and 30 of Romans chapter 8. The first fear is
this, did you ever fear that you're not going to make it at
last? You're just not going to make it. You're not going to
make it to the Father's house. I'm just not going to make it.
I can't see myself there." Do you ever have that fear? Well, He's given us something
here, Believer, Child of God, that would dispel that fear. If you'll trust. If you'll trust
what He says. God has made your salvation as
sure as He can. Is that enough for you? And He's not only made it as
sure as He can, He's told us that He has. And if you will
believe Him, if you will trust what He's told you about that,
it has to dispel this fear of whether or not I'm going to make
it after all. Look what He says. Look what
He says in verse 29 and 30. Speaking about His purpose in
verse 28, according to His purpose, and here's His eternal redeeming
purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Do you notice the first thing
here? And I want you to see this. I'm
preaching to the choir. I realize this. Maybe I'm just
reminding you of this. But one of the first things you
and I need to see here There wasn't a one of these lost. There wasn't a one of these misplaced. He begins with those that He
foreknew, those He foreloved from eternity, loved with an
everlasting love in Jesus Christ. And He ends with every one of
them is glorified. And in between there, not a one
of them is lost. We're always misplacing things,
aren't we? We're always losing things. As
we get older, we lose things. We all got out in the truck yesterday
to come to church. Larry had misplaced his keys.
And we sat there while he went back in the house to find his
keys. Misplacing things, losing things. That will never happen
to God. Never happen to Him. Those He
foreknew Every one of those He predestinated. He provided for
them. He called them. He justified
them. And He glorified them. All of
them. Not a one of them is lost. We
used to sing the old song, when the roll is called up yonder,
I'll be there. Here's the roll. This is His
roll. And not only will I be there,
you'll be there. If you're in Christ, is that
enough for you? Can you take what He has said
and trust Him? If you can, that will dispel
this fear of whether or not you're going to make it or not. And
the second thing you see about this Scripture here and God's
eternal purpose is this. It's all history. Every bit of
it is history. You notice that? It's all in
past tense. Those he foreknew, he predestinated, he justified,
he glorified. I told somebody I had the opportunity
to have to visit the lawyer, and he kept talking about, we're
going to get this rescinded. We're going to get this notice
rescinded. I said, what do you mean rescinded?
He said, we're going to make it void. We're going to make
it void. We're going to rescind it. You
know something? You can't rescind history. The saints are glorified. With God, it's history. With
God, His purpose is accomplished. Not with you and not with me,
but in Him, it's finished, isn't it? And He says that, so you
and I might trust and not be afraid. Hold that right there and turn
over to another scripture that's very familiar with you. Over
in Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Look at this. Ecclesiastes chapter
3. And look in verse 14. Look at this. This tells us about
God's decrees. In verse 14. I know that whatsoever
God doeth, It shall be forever. No man,
nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And He
doeth it, that men should fear before Him." This number won't be increased,
but thank God it won't be decreased. Never will be. It's settled. It's fixed. Your salvation is
fixed. God has fixed it. It's unavoidable. It's inescapable. I will trust and not be afraid. Here's our whole problem, brothers
and sisters, and you know it yourself, and it's shameful.
We think God is like us. I have changed so much. I'm changing. Everything around
me is changing. It's just change, change, change
on every hand. And we think God is like us.
We think God is like everything else, but He's not. He's eternally
different than we are, and that's our hope. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you'll
never be consumed. Will that dispel your fears?
If you'll trust. Or you can go on fearing, dear
child of God. Or you can trust Him. I just
don't feel. Well, here's where God is glorified. When you trust Him right in the
teeth of not feeling like it. I'll trust Him. I'll trust what
He's told me. I'll trust what He said. I'll
not be afraid. That's the first thing. Second
thing is found here in verse 31. Here's another fear that
can be dispelled. If we will trust Him, we'll not
be afraid. Look what he says in verse 31.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who,
and we could add in there if we want to, what can be against
us? Here's another fear that I still
have if I don't trust. Are you fearful about tomorrow?
Are you fearful about next week, next year, ten years down the
road? Are you fearful? Are you so anxious
about what's coming or what you perceive may be coming? And you
just live, you just live. You're not going to enjoy anything
because you just live in the torment of what could be coming.
I often used to scare me to death when I thought, what if I had
foreknowledge? And what if I could project five
years down the road? And suddenly, wake up five years
from now, what would I find? Well, I'd be standing there on
the street where my house was, and I'd say, what happened to
my house? Oh, it burnt down. Where's my kids? Oh, they all
got killed. Where's my wife? She died of
cancer. What happened to me? You lost your health. What happened to the church? Where's Central Grace Church?
Oh, it's split up, it's gone. You ever concerned about things
that's coming? Job said when he lost his family,
he lost his cattle, he lost his servants, he lost his health,
he's sitting there in those ashes. with all the bulls over him,
scratching him with a posture, and he was smelling, and he was
miserable, and he said, that which I feared has come on me. I don't know what you and I may
face. I really don't know what we may face, brothers and sisters.
I don't know. But I tell you what, it don't
matter if God is for us. Does it? If God is for me, when
everything seems to be against me, it doesn't matter because
He's greater than everything. When Jacob had thought he had
lost his sons, one of them is gone, they've got another one
in jail, now you're going to take little Benjamin down? All
these things are against me. Were they? We perceive a lot
of things that are not even true to begin with, but let's suppose
it's true. If God is for us, it don't matter. It don't matter. I love Psalms
chapter 46, where David was talking about, though the earth be removed. Remember that? He imagined the
worst scenario that a man could imagine. He said, what if the
earth was removed? Where's that going to leave you
if the earth is removed? What if the mountains be plucked
up and cast into the midst of the sea and you've got this roaring
and these tsunamis? We will not fear, for God is
our refuge. And He is a present help in time
of trouble. There's nothing sometimes that
encourages me when some dear brother comes up to me and says,
I'm for you. Brother, I'm for you. I know
you've been going through some trouble and your heart's broken.
I'm for you. Oh brother, thank you for saying
that. How much more when God says I'm for you? Everything
seems to be against you. I'm for you. Can you trust that? Can you trust what He said? That's
the only thing that's going to dispel the fear about anxiety
of what's coming. God is for you. I will trust. The Lord is my helper. I will
not fear. Here's a third fear that can
be dispelled, and I guess maybe we've all had this fear at one
time or another. Maybe one thing that will dispel
this fear, and that's a deep trust in what He said. I really fear about standing
before Him sometime. I don't know exactly how the
judgment's going to be, but I'm sort of apprehensive just a little
bit about it. I'm just afraid that He's going
to find some fault in me somewhere. Maybe I'm going to be condemned
after all. We're so wretched. We find sin
mixed with everything we do. The farther we go, the more we
find out about ourselves. How in the world can I stand
before the eternal judge of all the earth and have any hope that
he's going to accept me and not find any condemnation in me?
Here's a good question to ask yourself, dear child of God,
right now. How is it right now? When you stand before Him right
now, and you are, in all your unworthiness, can you say with
the Apostle Paul, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus? He gives us a few things here
in the 8th chapter to dispel this fear of not being afraid. Reverence, yes. Holy fear, yes. But this old spirit of bondage, being afraid to go and leave
this earth and to stand before Him right now, you should not
be afraid to do that if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You should not have a fear of that. And He gives us something
here to dispel our fear. Look here what he says in the
8th chapter and look in verse 33. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Am I one of His elect? Do I believe it? Have I come
to Jesus Christ? Then I'm one of His. All the
Father gives to me shall come to me." Then he says, "...who
shall lay anything to your charge? God has justified you." That's
the most amazing thing. That's the most amazing thing
between the eternities. I wonder sometimes if I even
believe it. God has justified me? There's men in hell suffering. And they're there because they've
committed the same sins that I have committed. What's the
difference between me and them? The only difference, God has
justified me. He's cleared me of all charges.
He can do that. He's God. And He has. I trust
Him, Paul. I trust Him. Somebody made the
point and talked about Abraham and David in the fourth chapter.
And of all the sins and the shortcomings and the falls that those two
men committed, nothing was said about it. He didn't bring it
up. Abraham, what did he find? He found that God had justified
him. Why bring his sin up? God had justified him. Look what
David did. David said, Blessed is the man
unto whom the Lord imputeth righteousness. You're not, dear child of God,
you're not a person that has no sin. A man says he has no
sin is a liar, but the truth is not in him. But you're a man
to whom God will not impute sin. He's justified you. And somebody
said, Well, if I believed that, I'd go out and live like the
devil. I cannot believe that for a minute. I don't believe
for a minute that you'll believe God has justified you and go
out and live a life that's contrary to His glory. But on the contrary,
if you don't believe that He's justified you, you think that He's waiting for
you to add something to Him justifying you. Your little feeling of guilt
or your little feeling of doubt, and you'll think that's adding
something. It's some kind of humility before Him. Instead
of you saying Him and trusting Him that He's just about you,
you want to put just a little bit of yourself in there. And
then you become resentful. Oh, why am I feeling this way?
Why is all these things against me like this? What's He want? How much more does He want? How
much more does He expect? Nothing. Who shall lay anything to your
charge? It's God who has justified you. And then he goes on in verse
34 to give the grounds of that lesson. Look what he says in
verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? A bunch of people condemns. Nothing. Our enemies condemn us. They
find fault with us. Our conscience sometimes does. Satan is always
doing it. But who is he that can justly
condemn? Look at this. It is Christ that
died. That's the ground upon which
the eternal God can justify any man. Christ has died. Christ took our sins and made
them His own And He suffered for those sins, the just for
the unjust. And by the merit of His own death,
He put those sins away. Christ has died while we confess our sins and
grieve over them and weep before God. The only way we're allowed to
consider our sins is that 2,000 years ago, outside the old walls
of the city of Jerusalem, those sins were purged away. Your sins may be sought for,
but there are none. They may be sought for, but they'll
not be found. Why? They've been purged away. Jesus has died. Live and He loved
me. Die and He saved me. Bury and
He carried my sins all away. Can you trust Him? Can you trust Him? Can you trust
what He said? It's not about your feelings,
John. If He was, you've got reason to be afraid. It's not about
our feelings, brothers. It's about what He's already
did. About what He did. And He goes on to say this with
it, Yea, brother, that is risen again. Why does He add this? Well, if Jesus Christ is not
risen, then it's because our sin is still upon Him. And he's
still condemned. But when he says that he's risen
again, that means that he actually did put sin away. And therefore
he rose again from the dead. I heard a man say one time that
Christ had to justify himself. And I thought about that and
I thought, really? That's so. He took our sins and made them
his own. And stood responsible before
God. Guilty before God. Psalm chapter
69. But now He's justified Himself.
He's raised from the dead. And if He's justified Himself,
then you're justified in Him. There's no sin upon Him. It's
evident because there's no sin on Him. If there's any sin on
Him, He wouldn't be alive, would He? Can you trust that? Can you trust what He said about
that? If Jesus is condemned, then I'm condemned. If Jesus
is not condemned, then neither am I. He is risen again, and look at
this, who is even at the right hand of God. What a wonder that
is! Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, Jesus of Nazareth, was
hanging on the cross, groaning in darkness. bowed his head and
said, it's finished. He gave up the ghost. They put
a sphere in his side and all of his blood and water come out.
They wrapped him in all this gray clothes and put him in a
tomb. Three days and three nights in that lowly earth. But now,
he's at the right hand of God. Out of that lowly place, he's
ascended to the highest place between the eternities. at the
right hand of the majesty on high. And here's what will dispel
our fears. He didn't do that for Himself.
He didn't take possession of heaven for Himself. He's called
the forerunner. For the forerunner has entered
for us. You say, Bruce, I just can't
hardly get a hold of this to believe it and rest in it that
someday somebody like me to be with Him. Well, I tell
you what will dispel that fear. Your representative is already
there. Out of His lowly condition. Now
listen, you've never been as lowly as He has. And you never
will be. But you will be exalted with
Him. I will trust. I will trust and not be afraid. And the last portion of this, who is even at the right hand
of God, look at this, who also maketh intercessions for us. He's there for us. He's not a
private person. He never did anything for himself.
Everything he's ever did and ever will do is for his people.
He's in the presence of God for us. And what's he doing there?
ever make an intercession for us. It's a wonderful thing when
we go to the Father and plead Christ. My neighbor asked me
one time, she said, do you just ever have to plead His blood?
I said, every day. Every day I plead His blood,
I plead His marriage, I plead His intercession before God.
How much more when He's there pleading Himself? When He says to the Father, Father,
if I hold My hands, Father, take your hands and thrust them into
my sight, and forgive my child. Receive my child. Be a father
to my child. Brother John was singing the
other day. They wanted John to sing this
song. John told me, he said, I really don't want to sing.
He said, I just feel like a dog. But he sang this song, and it's
been, I can't get it off my mind. It's been three weeks now, and
I can't get it off my mind. Listen to what old Wesley said.
How do you feel about the Wesleys? Boy, they wrote some good songs.
And here's my point about this. Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off your guilty fears.
Why? Your bleeding sacrifice in my
behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands. My name is written on His hand.
My name is written on His hand. He ever lives above for me to
intercede. He is all-redeeming love, His
precious blood He bleeds. His blood atones for all His
race and sprinkles now the throne of grace. The Father hears Him
pray, His dear Son, His dear anointed One. He cannot turn
away the presence of His Son. His Spirit answers to the blood
and tells me I am born of God, and tells me I'm born of God.
My God is reconciled. His pardoning voice I hear. He
owns me for His child. I can no longer fear." Can you trust Christ being there
before the Father in your stead? You mean to tell me you could
go to court before the judge and you're a lawyer sitting there
and you say, just be quiet, I can represent myself. You'd never
do that, would you? We have a representative in heaven
in the presence of God for us. The last thing quickly is this. I fear that someday Jesus Christ
will stop loving me. He'll stop loving me. You ever
fear that? We've lived long enough that
we've fallen out of love with ourselves. We're like Joel, I
abhor myself. I hate myself. Here we are stumbling
along in all of our misery and our failures and sin mixed with
everything we do. We can't even love ourselves.
How can the Lord love us? I saw a book that fell out in
Texas when the big mega church wrote. It was The Power of I
Am. I thought, man, don't tell me
he's going to say something. And I opened up the book, The
Power of I Am. Don't say I am weak. Say I am
strong. Don't say I'm ugly. Say I'm beautiful. And he goes on and on, The Power
of I Am. You know what's the matter with
that man? He's in love with himself. God loves him. Yes, God loves
him. Why wouldn't God love a man like
that? Ask Him. He'll tell you. Oh, God loves
me. Why wouldn't He? Look at me! But you're sitting here this
morning and you're standing wondering that Jesus Christ could love
you. You're amazed by it, aren't you?
But you've got some evidences of it. He's called you. You've come to Him. Your hope
is in Him. Your trust is in Him. You have
no other. That means He loves you. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn you. You have some evidence of it.
As wonderful as it is, there it is. That's a fact. And having
loved you today, He'll never cease to love you. And that's
what Paul is teaching here in verse 35. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? See, all this trouble, this tribulation,
all this distress, this narrowness, this pressure that I'm feeling,
this persecution, the famine, nakedness, the sword, they and
all these things were more than conquerors through Him who loved
us. Some place these trials come
to try our faith. What Paul is talking about here,
these trials, this distress, that's not coming to try you.
It's coming to try His love. These aren't against you, they're
against His love. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Nothing. Why does He allow these
persecutions? Why does He allow this distress
and suffering to prove His love to you? You think something can
separate you from my love? Let me prove it to you. Take
all of this suffering, take all of this pressure, and when you've
come through it all, you can say this, He loves me still.
Why would we think that He would quit loving us? Do we have this little notion
that maybe He loves us for something He sees in us? We love each other because of
something we see in us. We can increase our affection one to
another by being faithful one to another and doing things like
that. You don't increase His love towards
you. He don't continue to love you because of who you are or
what you're doing. His love sets upon His own bottom. The cause is found in Himself.
I will love you freely, without any obligation on my part. Spurgeon asked the dear old lady
of his congregation, said, do you believe Christ loved you
before you were born? And she said, oh dear Spurgeon,
if He didn't love me before I was born, He sure couldn't love me
after I was born. Don't you feel that way? Dear
soul, if He loved you yesterday, and did you believe He loved
you yesterday? Wasn't there a time when you could say with confidence,
He loves me? He really loves me. Look what
He's done for me. Look what He's done to me. He
loves me. He caused the light to shine. He's turned the light
on. He loves me. Then trust that
He will ever love you. If He loved you yesterday, He'll
love you way back in eternity. If He loves you today, He'll
love you tomorrow and He'll love you forever. I have loved you. I have loved you. I have loved
you. And I'll never stop loving you. I will trust you. Now if God is not your salvation,
if He's not your salvation, you can't trust. I'm just saying
if He is your salvation, if He has become your salvation, then
trust Him. Trust what He says. And have
those nagging fears dispelled. Well, I think I'll take a text
and preach some more. I remember people, you get a
bunch of preachers together, you may not know this, but this
is my message, I'm finished with it. Let me say this. You get
a bunch of preachers together and they've all got their Henry
Mayhem stories. And one of the things I like
to say to them, you guys, me and Henry go way back. You guys
don't know anything. There's a fellow that asked me
to come and help him. I had been going there for just
a few weeks, and he wanted to know if I could bring somebody
up to preach a meeting. I said, yeah, I know a man. I
called Henry. Henry came up, preached Friday
night. The best message I ever heard,
still to this day. You may have heard it. I preached
it. Why won't you come to Christ? That's the best message I ever
heard in my life. Why won't you come to Christ? The next night,
Henry came back and he preached two messages. The place was packed
up. He got up and took his text and preached a message. And then
he quit and took his text and preached another message. And the next morning, real, real
early in the morning, the pastor called and said, we're not going
to meet again. We're not going to meet again. I couldn't get off from work.
I called my wife in and said, you've got to go tell Henry.
They ain't going to meet tonight. She went to the motel room and
couldn't get in the door because Henry would take his hearing
aids out. The guy had to come up and open the door to let her
in to tell Henry, and they'll go meet again. And I tell some
of these preachers that, I said, have you ever experienced anything
like that with Henry? Me and Henry go way back. That's
my chance to fame. I drop Henry's name everywhere
I go. There's a couple moved down from Anchorage, Alaska,
and he was in the Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong,
Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California. I was raised on him.
This man and his wife was deep into that, deep into that darkness. He said, I heard Henry preach
it. And I said, I've got to hear some more of that. He said he
listened to Henry about a hundred times, and he is as clear on
the gospel today as he can be. And he'd been coming, he'd moved
down to where I pastor, and he was talking one day about Henry
Mahan. And I said, you know, I know Henry Mahan. He said,
what? You know Henry Mahan? I said, oh yeah, made him go
way back. I love you, Henry Lahan. I love
you. Love you, Doris. There's not much doubt in my
mind you'll probably never see me here again. This is probably
going to wind me up. But I'll tell you what, I've
enjoyed it with all my heart. What a message. What a message. What a place to worship. God
has been here, hasn't He? God has been here. Bless you,
Pastor. Bless you as you lead this group. I hope you bust the
walls out. The Lord bless His work in this
place. Amen.