I've been wanting to deal with
this for some time now. One of the men came up afterward
and said the same thing. Look at verse 34. Blessed is the man or woman,
young person, that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting
at the posts of my doors. How blessed. We truly are blessed
just to read this book this morning. We really are. John prayed that. And how blessed we are. if we read
with the understanding. I looked, just glanced, as we
were reading Proverbs 8, and you were reading with the understanding. You knew who that was speaking
of, who this was speaking of, wisdom. And flesh and blood didn't
reveal it to you, but the Father which is in heaven. They shall
all be taught of God through Christ Him, their need of Him.
I was, when I preached recently up in Pennsylvania, an older man. I preached about
Noah, the ark type of Christ. And an older man who'd been in
religion for years, Reformed religion at that, that has the
doctrine. He came up afterward, he was
just rejoicing. And he said, I never knew that
that ark was such a picture of Christ. And he was so rejoicing
in that. I cut my teeth on that. So blessed. How blessed are your ears, our
Lord said. They hear. Blessed are he that
readeth with understanding. This proverb is all about the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know that, don't you? Wisdom. He is wisdom. And as all the
scriptures testify of him. And this proverb is an urgent
exhortation to all of us, not to the lost only, but to all
of us, an urgent exhortation to hear him. To hear him. Look at verses 5 through 8. Oh,
he's simple. And John again prayed that, because
we are, aren't we? We don't know much. We don't.
Beginning with me. If any man thinks he knows anything,
he knows nothing yet, as you ought to know. Understand wisdom,
he said in verse 5. Understand who Christ is, why
he came, what he did, if he did it for you. Oh, you fools. We're
so foolish. We're so carnal, aren't we? Unbelieving. Be ye of an understanding heart.
Hear, for I will speak of excellent things. Excellency, Paul wrote
of. The knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord. Excellent thing. Opening of my
lips, Christ said, shall be right thing. This is Him speaking.
I hope He speaks to us. He said, My mouth shall speak
truth. Christ said that, didn't He? I am the truth. Do you want
to know the truth? The truth will set you free.
Lies leave you captive to sin, the world, yourself. Truth sets
you free. Lord, tell me the truth. Wickedness
is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are
in righteousness, the right. Everything He says is right. I want to know what's right.
I want to walk right. I want to be right. I want to do right,
don't you? He said there's nothing fraud or perverse in them. It's
hard to hear anything today that's not fraud and perverse. Does
it grieve you, everything you're hearing from the lips of human
beings? It's perverse, isn't it? It's the Holy Word of God. Christ.
Pure. And I love this verse 9. Verse
9. It's all plain to him to understand.
If the Lord gives you an understanding. In other words, if He opens your
eyes, it's clear. But not until then. And right. to them that find knowledge.
Verse 32, he says, Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children,
hearken unto me. Verse 33, Hear instruction, and
be wise, refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth
me. Faith, as you know, cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The Word, the Gospel
of Christ, Peter said. This is the Word which by the
Gospel is preached unto you. The Gospel of Christ. Faith cometh
by hearing the Word. Now, it's not just hearing the
Bible. And it's a mystery, and I don't
think I can explain it. I'm going to try. Faith is to
know God. Faith is to believe God. Faith
is to trust God. Faith is to see Him. I mean,
really see Him with the eye of faith, not with His eye, but
to really see God is reigning and ruling, though you can't
see Him. You know. Faith is to believe Him, to lay hold of Him
with all your hope, all your future, all your desire, cast
all your care upon Him, to look to Him, to believe Him, to trust
Him, to depend on Him and rest in Him and not... Just rest in
Him. Believe God is. He that cometh
to God must believe He is. And He's a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. Faith is to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. To believe He is God. To rest
in Him. To trust Him as your Lord and
your sovereign Master who does what's right and who knows what
is best and cares for you and provides for you. And the thing
he did when he came here was live for you and die for you
and lay down his life for you and ever lives to make the intercession
for you and lives that you might live as your own. Faith is in a person. Faith looks
to and depends upon and leans upon a person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That comes by hearing the Word.
And our Lord said, My sheep hear My voice. They hear Him speak. Blessed is the man, Christ said,
that heareth Me. See that? Verse 34. Blessed is
the man that heareth Me. Lots of people hear words. Lots
of people hear sermons. I went for years. and heard sermons. I heard a man's voice, and that's
all I heard about God. One day, in the fullness of time,
in the same way He sent forth His Son to redeem them that run
to the law, came in the form of preaching the gospel and spoke
to me and said, Now hear me." And I started hearing
him for the first time. I started hearing his voice. He spoke to me. He spoke to me. Oh, blessed is he that heareth
me, you see. And this faith that he gives,
it's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Not of words,
lest any man should boast of his workmanship. But he gives
us faith, this trust in him, and he tells us, I am thy salvation,
I am thy wisdom, I am thy righteousness, sanctification, redemption. That's what faith is. Okay, Lord,
I need that. I need you. And you trust him. He says, I'm your prophet. You
don't have to go anywhere else. I'll tell you all the things
you need to know. I'm your priest. You don't have to confess to
anybody. Confess to me. I've already made the sacrifice,
to put it one way. And I'm your king. I reign and
rule over you and everyone concerning you. And you trust Him. And you believe Him. And you
fall in love with Him. You love Him. And He's your master. And you follow Him like a dog
follows its master. Most have ears but don't hear.
Oh my, how blessed we are if we hear Him. That's what our
Lord said, that he said, they shall all be taught of God, and
every man that hath heard and learned of the Father, knows
what? Cometh to me, and him that cometh to me. Sinner though he be, I will in
no wise cast out, not for any reason, not for any reason. Romans 10. Go over there. Blessed
is the man that heareth me. That's the first great blessing.
Blessed is the man, the woman, the young person who really hears
Christ's voice and hears the gospel. Romans 10. Oh, how we
have read and heard this so much. May it still be the sound of
His voice. Romans 10. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. We're talking about wisdom. We're
talking about knowing Christ. The fear of the Lord. Now, I
just read a pamphlet and it disappointed me greatly about the man was
talking about Jesus as Savior. You need Jesus as Savior. Jesus
as Savior. And we do. But that's not who
we come to know first. He's your Lord. Martyrs used
to say you can't have Jesus as Savior until you first bow to
Him as Lord. The fear of the Lord. is the
beginning of wisdom. And you're not going to call
on Him to save you if you don't fear Him as Lord. Fear the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. Fear. Romans goes to great lengths
and detail to tell us before it gets to chapter 10. Romans
goes to great detail and great length to tell us how sinful
we are. That there's none good to God,
not one. There's none righteous. God is
righteous. God is holy. God is just. God will by no means clear the
guilty. And you know what it says about
us? We're all guilty. And it goes to great lengths
to say, and there's nothing you can do about it. By the days
of the law, no flesh will be justified. And he said, God looks
down on all of us. He said, there's none righteous.
All together become unprofitable. So then what? But God, in great
mercy and great grace and a love to many, not all, but many, sent
His Son down here. to live for. This whole book
of Romans is about sending His Son down here to live for these
God-hating, self-loving, unrighteous sinners. To do it for them. To live according to God's holy
law, which God requires, God demands, and will accept
no less than perfection. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Holy One, the Righteous One, came to this earth not to show
us how to live, but to live for His people, and to honor God's
holy law, and to establish a righteous life. Blessed are your ears hearing
what you're hearing. Honestly, there's very few people
who hear this. Very few preachers understand
this. Very few people even care. Over
500 times, righteousness is spoken of. It must be important. And
Romans 10 says, many are religious and zealous, but they're going
about to establish their righteousness. trying to be religious and trying
to work their way to heaven, so to speak. And he goes in great
detail and says, you can't. If righteousness come by the
law, by you keeping the law, Christ didn't need to come. He
died in vain. By the deeds of the law, no flesh
can be justified in God's sight. Because God looks on the heart,
looks on the motive, looks on the thoughts, looks on the motive
behind it. God sees, God knows us. Alright, now look. And it says
in verse 6, with the righteousness of faith, and back in chapter
3, it talks about righteousness without the law. That is, without
us keeping the law. Are you with me? That is keeping
the law. This is good news. If you know
anything about the law, people that are in religion, real strict
religion like Sephardi Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses so-called,
Quakers, Mormons, German Baptists, real strict,
they're miserable. They're miserable people trying
to keep the law. They make it miserable. The law
is a curse. Righteousness without keeping
the law is manifest, clearly revealed from God's Word. Here
it is, verse 9, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from
the dead, first God sent him, God killed him on behalf of his
people. He lived. He died on their behalf. Satisfied the law. Died to pay
for their crimes, their sins against God. Died, and his blood
put them away. There's nothing you can do or
need do to put away sin. He put it away by the sacrifice
of himself forever. and raised him from the dead,
proving that he accepted death. Thou shalt be saved. Not might
be. You can hope that you will be.
You will be saved. This is it, verse 10, with the
heart man believeth. Believeth what? Not what. It's who? Under righteousness. And with the mouth, confession
is made under salvation. If the Lord really shows you
Jesus Christ, you'll confess it. Our Lord said, He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved." You'll confess him like the eunuch
said, here's water, what does it hinder me from being baptized? Oh my. And with the heart And
verse 11, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Let us not be ashamed before God or men, not ashamed of the
gospel. Read on. There's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. Same Lord over all, rich unto
all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of Jesus, no, the Lord, the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah
said Kenneth. The Lord our Shepherd shall be
saved. Read on. How then shall they
call on Him whom they have not believed? How shall they believe
in Him whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall that preacher preach
except he be sent as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, Christ our peace, and
bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. Isaiah said that. Lord, who hath believed thy report,
so then, faith cometh by hearing." Hearing by the Word of God. Not
just hearing anything, but hearing Christ lifted up. Christ said,
if I be lifted up, preach Christ. We preach Christ. I'll draw all
men, my people, unto me. I'll go back to Proverbs 8 now.
So, blessed is he that heareth me. that heareth of me, that heareth
from me." Alright? Listen, how blessed you are if
you've heard Christ preached. How blessed you are if you've
heard His voice, and you've laid hold of Him by faith, and you
believe Him, and all your salvation is in Jesus Christ. Oh, you are
saved. And I didn't say that. Christ
did. Saved from the wrath of the cup.
Saved from sin. Saved from yourself and your
own worst enemy. All right, look at Proverbs 8
now. It says, Blessed is the man that heareth me, and blessed
is he that watches daily. Watching daily at my gates. Watching daily at my gates. I want you to turn to a few scriptures
with me, okay? Revelation 21. Go over there.
Revelation 21. There are so many scriptures
that speak of these gates. And how blessed is the man, the
person who is watching daily at my gates, he said. Scriptures
speak often of these gates. Here's one, Psalm 87. Now here's
the clue. The Lord loveth the gates of
Zion. more than any habitation of Israel,
of all the habitations of Israel. The gates of Zion. What's that talking about? Look
at Revelation 21, verse 10. He carried me away in the Spirit.
In other words, he's looking at something spiritual, not literal. I don't believe there are actual
literal gates in heaven. I don't believe there's a wall.
I don't really think there's a city. What need do we have? John Bunyan wrote a long book
on New Jerusalem, the city. And he tells us what these things
are. He showed me a great high mountain. He showed me that great city,
the holy Jerusalem. descended out of heaven from
God. Look at verse 2. I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride. What is this, this city? That's
His church. That's His church. That's His
people. That's His temple. There's no temple in heaven.
We don't need a temple. God's people are His temple.
And we lose a blessing when we lose sight of the fact that this
is now. I read Psalm 24 almost like for
the first time today. Who shall ascend unto the holy
hill of the Lord? We think of that as Christ going to be in
heaven. Mount Zion is called His hill. The church is called His hill. Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God." The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred
sweets before we reach those golden fields or
walk those golden streets. The church, right now, read on. Holy Jerusalem, having the glory
of God, verse 11. Having the glory of God. Do we
have the glory of God? Huh? God, who spoke light into
existence, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.
And her light was like the stone, her light. What's that? Christ. Like a stone. What's that? Christ. most precious." Who's that? Christ. For you who believe, He is precious.
Clear as crystal. It's all clear to Him. And it had a wall, great and
high. A wall. What's that? Didn't David say,
salvation hath our God made for walls? We're surrounded. God's people are surrounded.
Don't leave the fear for the pestilence. You don't need to
fear for the arrow that flyeth by day or the pestilence by night.
Why? Salvation is around us, hedged
about. And it had twelve gates, verse
12, and the gates, twelve angels, names written on them. Twelve
gates, twelve angels, twelve men. Twelve apostles. Gates. Churches. Scriptures. Epistles. Word. Like so many
things, the Scriptures spiritualizes, and the Church of God is His
field. The Church of God is His kingdom. The Church of God is His city. wherein he dwells. And there
are gates, and that is entrances into the courts. The old tabernacle
of old had the old temple in the city of Jerusalem had gates,
had the sheep gate, the dung gate, the water gate, gates all
around it, okay? And wherever you were, north,
south, east or west or whatever, you could come in these gates
into the outer court and look, and there's the temple. God has His churches all over,
various places. And that's where you go, and
that's where you enter in. You see Christ. Gates, blessed,
is the man that heareth me daily, or heareth me, heareth me preach,
watching daily at my gates. Now listen to this. You'll love
this. The gates of Zion, the city of God, the church of God,
the place where you'll hear Christ preach, where you can go, where
you can enter in. is a place, and when a place has gates, when
a place has gates, have you ever driven up to a enclosed, what
they call a gated community? I'm not trying to be clever here.
This is what this is talking about. A gated community, that
means it's completely enclosed, it's completely protected. It
means, number one, somebody owns this place and you can't come
in. unless you own something or unless
those who do bring you in. If you come in any other way,
if you come in a stranger or a thief, no, you can't come in. Gates prove ownership. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. The world and them that dwell
therein. Everything. The Lord owns everything, but
especially Love Zion. That's His habitation. That's
His holy habitation, His church. And the Lord saves daily such
as should be saved. The Lord puts in His kingdom
those that He owns. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. And He owns His kingdom. And He puts in it who
He will. The earth is the Lord's. And
that goes on to say in Psalm 24, Open the gates. and the King of Glory shall come
in." Where? Into his church. Open the doors and the King of
Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The
Lord. That's who that is. The Lord
Jesus Christ. Open the gates. The gate of the Lord. Listen
to this. In Psalm 118. Listen to this. The gate of the
Lord into which the righteous the gate of the Lord into which
the righteous shall enter." Christ and His church are so
united that you can't have one without the other. Now, listen
to me now. Listen to me. Christ and His
church, two become one. Where two or three are gathered,
that's where I am. Where they are, He is. Where
He is, they are. They're never separated. He's
always with them. Always with them. in the midst
of her. God is in the midst of her. You see it. That's where
he lives. The temple of the Lord. His dwelling
place. His church. And to go where she is is to
go where he is. To be amongst her is to be amongst
him. That's right. Be with him. Be with her. Be
with her. Be with him. You can't bypass
his church. You can't go to heaven and say, I want to be alone with
the Lord. Ever. And what I'm trying to
say here is these gates, and with the righteous inner, Christ
is the gate, the narrow gate, the straight way. This says gates,
doesn't it? Doors, doesn't it? Christ is
the gate. Christ is the, He's the ark in
the midst of the temple, is what He is. We come in these gates,
we come, blessed are they, blessed is the man who's watching daily
at my gates. Have you ever wanted to, and
go to Acts chapter 2 with me. Well, I'm telling you this, Acts
chapter 2. And I'm full of a matter here,
I've got my finger on a hundred verses. Seriously, there's so
many scriptures that apply here. Have you ever wanted to go to
some kind of event, whatever it is, a musical event or sporting
event, and they've got the gates closed, alright? You can't just
come in there. You've got to have a ticket, you've got to
have money. And if you want in Madden, you wait for those gates to open. You want in Madden. I've got
to say this, as foolish as it may sound, University of Kentucky
basketball, you know? Number one basketball team in
the nation. Anyway, they have this event
every year before the season starts called Big Blue Madness.
And it's folly, utter folly. Madness. The word fan comes from
fanatic. Fan. We don't need to be a fan
of anyone or anything. That's a fanatic. Anyway, they
camp out on the sidewalks, waiting for the doors to open just to
buy a ticket to this thing. They do it sometimes a month
in advance, living in tents. Now that's foolish, isn't it?
That's utter foolishness. For what? Vanity. Now this is not vanity. What
we're doing here is not vanity. Blessed is he that is waiting
at the gates. There have been several like
Brother Tony Moody waiting for the Lord to send a preacher. Brother Paul Thacker built a
building waiting for the Lord to send a preacher. The people
up in Pennsylvania waiting for the Lord to send a preacher.
Blessed are those that wait. They'll get what they're looking for. Watching daily.
Watching is what it is. And waiting. But watching. Acts chapter 2, it says this
in Acts 2 verse 38, Peter, after he preached Christ the Lord on
the throne, said, Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. You shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost that promises unto you,
your children, all that are far off, as many as the Lord our
God shall call. And he said, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Then it went on to say, they
gladly received his word, they were baptized, they were added
unto the church, 3,000 sold. They continued, read on, steadfastly
in apostles, doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, fear
came upon them. They were together, verse 44,
whenever God's people were there, they were together. Verse 45,
they gave, they sold, they parted, every man had need. Verse 46,
here it is, and they continuing daily with one accord. Blessed is he
watching daily at my gates. They continued daily in the temple,
breaking of bread and house to house, ate with meat with gladness
and singleness of heart, praising God, having favor, and the Lord
added to his church such as should be said. And that's what you'll
find them all doing, waiting, watching at the gates. Is it time to open yet? Literally. Amy came in this morning 15 minutes
late. Came in at 15 after. Her mother,
you remember, was here 40 minutes before service time started.
I tried to beat her here. She always beat me here in that
white Ford. Torino, wasn't it, Steven? Sit
down there waiting. She's waiting. She's watching
for that door, that gate to open. Literally. And if she was 30
minutes early, she was late to her. Why? What do we have here? We have
the exact same thing here right now as we did then 25, 30 years
ago. What? What? Christ. The gospel of Christ. That's
it. If you love Christ, if you love
Christ, you go where He is. Watching daily. Watching? What does watching mean? You know, how often does it say,
watch unto prayer? Our Lord came and found His disciples
sleeping. What did He say? Watch, pray
that you are not in temptation. What temptation? To stay away. Because everything will lure
you, everything will entice you. And he that observeth lying vanities
forsaketh his own mercy. Where are you going to find mercy?
Within these gates. Watch him daily under prayer.
Pray without ceasing. Watch him. Listen to this. David
said, Open to me the gates. of righteousness,
and I'll go into them, and I will praise the Lord." Are the gates
open yet? David was a king, and he stood
outside the gate. Only the high priest could open
that gate. Blessed, how blessed is he that
heareth me watching daily, and read on, waiting at the post
of my doors. Waiting at the post of my doors.
Literally waiting to hear the gospel. Christ is the door. You know that. But here it says
doors. It's those places. It's the church
where He is. Where Christ the door is preached.
Where Christ is seen. Cornelius was waiting. Cornelius
was waiting, like those illustrations I gave. Waiting. They said, when
Peter showed up, they said, we've been waiting. So glad you're
here. What did the Lord do? Save his
whole house. Save his whole house. The disciples,
the Lord said, you go before me into Galilee, didn't He? The Lord said, you go before
me, you go to Galilee, and you wait, and I'll be there. And they were within the room.
What happened? And the doors were shut. What
happened? He walked in. I told you. I did that. What'd they do? Rejoice! Rejoice! He's alive! No one rejoiced more than Thomas.
Why? Because he missed. He wasn't
watching. He wasn't waiting. When the rest
of them saw him, He was filled with doubts and fears and worry
and ready to quit and ready to halt. But if you're one of His,
He's going to bring you back where His people are and you'll
be waiting. And lo and behold, He'll come.
Thomas, reach hither your hand. Huh? Didn't I tell you? A still,
small voice like Wednesday night. Didn't I tell you, Thomas? It
is I. I told you, wait on me. Wait
on me. And they were waiting. The man
at the Pool of Bethesda, he was waiting. Waiting on the moving
of the waters. And he's waiting there. And lo
and behold, a man came walking up to him and said to him, what
are you waiting on? He said, I'm crippled. I am lame. And I've heard And I've seen
that when the water moves, that the first person in that water
is healed of whatever infirmity. And I have no man. I want to
be healed. And I can't get in. I have no
man. And that man standing there was
Jesus Christ. He said, You've been waiting,
and now your wait is over. You don't need to get in that
pool. And he raised him up. Blessed is he that waits at the
post of my doors." Is the door open yet? Would you turn in closing
to Revelation 3 with me? Revelation 3. Keep your place
there in Proverbs 8. Revelation 3. Turn over there
and close in. The Lord said this, that we wait,
we come, we hear of Him. And I preached the Gospel to
you a while ago from Romans, who Christ is, what He did, why
He did it, who He came for, and where He is now. And those that
come and hear Him are saved, and they wait and watch and pray. And, Lord, open my eyes to see
You, whose wisdom and understanding that we might know You is true,
and I'm in You that is true. I'm in the gate. I'm in the door.
I'm in the kingdom. Give me that, Lord. Open the
gates to me. Open the door. Open my understanding.
Open my heart. That's what we pray. So we pray for Him to save us. And then we pray His people who
are waiting on Him and watching and praying and calling on Him,
whosoever shall call, we're waiting on Him to come back and get us. waiting on him to come back and
get us. The Lord said, when you shall see all these things, he
went to great length in Matthew 24 to describe what's going to
happen preceding his immediate coming. And he said, when you
shall see all these things, he said, know that he, speaking
of himself, is near at the door. That means he's gotten up, like
Noah, ready to close the door. The door's open, and he's ready
to close the door of mercy, of grace, of salvation. And no more
can enter in. And when he closes that door,
Every eye is going to behold Him like lightning. And He's
coming for His own. And they're all like the bride.
It's the bridegroom's voice. We're going to go to meet Him.
This is not fantasy. This is not a fairy tale. This
is the truth. So help me Jesus Christ. He said
this, Blessed are those that I find waiting. They're waiting
on Me. Waiting on Me. Look at Revelation
3. How many times have people quoted
this? Verse 20, Behold, I stand at
the door. Revelation 3.20, Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. What door? Your heart's door?
No, sir. That's blasphemy. Jesus Christ
is not standing outside our heart's door, hoping we'll let Him in.
Ask the Shulamite maiden over in the Song of Solomon. She'll
tell you. He put a hole in the door. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
wait for you to open a door. He breaks that heart. He takes
away that stony heart that won't let Him in. And He comes in.
That's what they said about David, didn't they, when he came to
Jerusalem? The city of David. It's his city. That's his city. And they said, these Jebusites
who were living there, the Jebusites said, he can't come in here.
And the next verse said, he took it. He took what was his. The Lord comes to his own. He's
going to take it. He's going to take their heart. He's going
to capture their heart. He's coming in. Christ in you. The hope of glory. If he pleased, come in. Please
the Lord. That's when. But this is the
church. Again, these doors. This door
is the church. Every preacher you know believes
it. That's so. I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear, I'll open the door. And open the door, I will
come in to him and will do what? Sup with him. Have dinner, supper
with me. You'll sup with me. He with me.
I'll sup with you and you with me. I'll have communion. I'll
have fellowship. We'll eat together. What are
we eating? Bread and wine. Feast on his body and his shed
blood. The door of the church. Oh, blessed
is he that when Christ comes, he hears him knocking. Hears him knocking. Come in,
Lord, please, please. Please come in. Would you come
in today? You said you'd be there. Christ
is always with his people and he always, there's always two
or three gathered in his name and those people are always blessed.
No matter what the preacher does, no matter how poor he is, no
matter if he thinks he has liberty or not, that doesn't depend,
nothing depends on that. It's not by might, it's not by
power, it's not by flesh, it's not by And he said, He that asketh
for my Spirit, how much more shall he give the Holy Spirit?
John said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Why were you
in the Spirit, John? I asked him. Open to me the gates,
open the doors, and the King of glory shall come in and do
what? You'll be like Ruth and Boaz. He'll hand you some corn. It's
me. Oh, my. Waiting on the Lord. Blessed are they that wait on
the Lord. Back in our text, you yourselves, our Lord said, wait. You be like those that wait on
their Lord. And when He returns from the
wedding, see, there's a wedding going on right now. It's not
a future event. See, when he returns from the
wedding, when you go to glory, you'll be in the wedding. You'll
be in the wedding. Okay? The nuptials begin after
everybody gets there. But the supper is taking place. What do you call that before
the wedding? Rehearsals. That's what's going
on. The wedding supper of the Lamb.
Right now, all robed in white. Many we know are right now with
the bridegroom. They're the bride. They're eating
a supper with Him. The marriage supper of the Lamb.
Feasting on fat things and wine on the leaves. There's laughter,
there's joy. It's unspeakable and full of glory. They're with him right now. And
it says, when he comes back from the wedding, when he cometh and
knocketh that they may open unto him immediately, blessed are
those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. And I barely believe that it
will be when God's people are literally meeting like this.
This same Jesus whom you see The angel said, So come, and
like manner as you have seen him go. They were all gathered
on that hill watching him go up. And they said, Keep watching,
because you are going to see him come back. And they went
back where they got back to the temple. And it says here in our
text, finally, it says, Whoso findeth me, findeth life. He
that hath the Son hath life, and shall obtain favor of the
Lord. You are accepted in it, beloved. excepted in the Lord
Jesus Christ only. He that sinneth against me, he
that doesn't believe me, he that doesn't watch and call upon me
and wait for me, you're wrong in your own soul. And all that hate me must love
death. He that will love life You've come. Wait it. Watch at the gates. Wait for
the doors to open. And you'll come in and sing with
me. All right. Let's sing in closing
number 255. 255. Blessed assurance. The last
line says watching and waiting. 255. Let's sing the first and
last verses. 255. Stand.