In darkness turn to day, wipe
sorrows, tears away. Lord, let me ever stray from
Thee, most bright. When in life's tragic dream,
When death's cold, solemn dream Shall for me roll, Let Saviour
in His arms, Here and His trust remove, Good work, Doctor. All right,
back to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. Let's read verses
10 and 11 again. Second Peter 1, 10, and 11. Wherefore,
the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. For if ye do these things, ye
shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be administered
unto you abundantly. into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you do these things,
you shall never fall. That's the type of dismissal. I don't want to fall away. Do
you? I don't want to leave the gospel. There have been many preachers
over the years who leave the gospel. Many. Many elders. Many deacons. Many preacher's
wives. Many so-called church members.
Many. I don't want to fall away, do
you? Now, John said they went out
from us because they were not others. If they had been others,
they no doubt would have continued with us. I ask this question,
can a believer fall from salvation? No. Not a true believer. Not a true
believer. A person is a child of God. He'll
always be a child of God. He doesn't, even though they
are prodigals, they will come back to the Father. If you're
saved, what's that mean? If you're saved, you've done
it. If you're accepted in the beloved, that means you're accepted,
doesn't it? If you're dead, your life is hidden with God in Christ,
Christ in God. And a believer, a true believer,
a child of God, cannot finally fall away, we fall into sin,
fall into temptation and sin, and it's very hurtful. But fall finally? No. No. I love that passage that
says, though a righteous man fall seven times, yet the Lord
will pick him up. And we do fall, but we'll never
fall away. But why does Peter tell us? If you do this thing, you'll
never fall. Why does he tell us that? He
said it in that last, did you read it there in the last chapter? Beware lest you fall. Why did
Peter say that? Because God's Word speaks to
his people as children. We are the children of God and
we're responsible. We are responsible. We are alive
and listening to God's Word and our Father's commands. And He
not only gives promises and comforts, but He gives warnings and rebukes
and corrections and instructions. Right? But we tell our children,
don't do that. If you do that, you're going to be in
trouble. Now, we're kept from falling.
Peter talks much about the power of God. 1 Peter 1 verse 5, I love that
verse, says we're kept by the power of God. Ask Peter why he
remained faithful, he'll tell you. It was the power of God. Remember, Peter tried to leave. He went fishing, remember? He
tried to deny the Lord, and he did briefly, but it didn't last
long. It didn't last long. He was a fit of madness. He loved
the Lord. One time he, you know, was ready
to take on everybody, single-handedly. And he got a little lifted up
with pride, so the Lord let him fall. Briefly, but not forever. So Peter loved to talk about
being kept by the power of God. He said, I was ready to quit,
but now we're kept by the power of God. And we're kept because
God promises. That's what this is about, this
chapter. And he says here, if you do these things, you'll never
fall. Now, a true believer, now this
is a fact. Listen to me carefully. What
he's saying is fact. If you do these things, you'll
never fall. If you do these things, you'll never fall. If you give diligence to make
your cause and election sure, if you have your faith virtue,
virtue, knowledge, patience, you'll never fall. That's a fact.
Will believers do these things? Well, sure they will. Not like
they like to. Not like they ought to. So this
is why it says, I'm going to keep reminding you to do these
things. But believers do do these things, to a degree. It's like
our Lord in Matthew 5, where he said, blessed are the merciful.
Not blessed are those who eventually will be merciful. Blessed are
the merciful. Believers are merciful. Do we
need to be more merciful? Sure we do. Blessed are the meek. Is there believers not meek?
That's not possible. All believers are humble, meek. They know they're not. Blessed
are the peacemakers. Believers are peacemakers. Well,
that we're exhorted to be merciful. He said, be merciful. It was
Amherst, didn't it? All right, so this is the sense
in which Peter is writing here. If you do these things, it's
a fact. You will not never follow them. And believers do these
things. It's also an exhortation. Do
these things. If you do, you'll never follow
them. All right? I don't want to follow
them. So what are these things? What
things? All right, let's start from the
beginning. Let's go back to verse 1. All right? Let's go back there.
You do these things, you'll never fall. I don't want to fall. Do
you? It behooves us to listen, though.
If you do these things, you'll never fall. I want to know if
I'm doing these things, and I want to continue to do these things,
grow in these things. Verse 1, Peter says, A servant,
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. To them
that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. To them that have obtained like
precious faith. Obtained. Have you obtained this
precious faith? Now, obtained is a word, not
attained. That means it's given to you.
By grace are you saved through faith, and it's not a gift. It's
the gift. Have you obtained it? Has God given you this like? Like? Precious faith means same
as the apostles had. Same gospel that Paul preached,
same gospel Peter preached. The faith once delivered to the
saints, the common faith, Paul wrote that. Same gospel. Like? Precious faith. You know the truth? And those
that believe it are very rare. It always has been in the minority. Eight people saved off the whole
face of the earth. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. 120 years he preached the gospel.
Eight people. Precious means rare. That's what
precious means. Anything that's precious is rare
and you've got to have it. It's something you've got to
have. It's vital. And this faith is both rare and
it's vital. You've got to have it. Without
this faith it's impossible to believe God. What is this faith? It's to believe
God. It's to believe God. And all
that that means, it means to believe God is God. You believe
God is God, don't you? That's what he said to the apostles
there in John 14. You believe God? You believe
in God? No, you don't. I hate it. You believe also in
God. You believe God's God, don't
you? The world doesn't believe that, people. They really don't. You believe His Word, don't you?
You believe every word? Any words you don't like? Any
words you don't believe, anything written in God's Word, you decide,
I don't like that, don't believe that. Anything. Then you believe
God's Word, don't you? You really do. Do you believe
Christ? Do you believe that Christ is
all your hope, salvation? Do you believe that? I mean all
of it. If you get the glory someday,
you get to heaven, you get to God, it's going to be 100% by
what Jesus Christ did to you. You believe that? Well, if you
believe, you have a wearer of faith, do you? You have this life-precious faith.
What are you writing to do? There's one thing you need to
do. Believe. You do these things. Faith. Verse 2. 1 through the righteousness of
our God and Savior Jesus Christ. The reason you have this faith
is because it is given to you by our God, His Son, our God
and Savior Jesus Christ, through His work, His righteousness,
His shed blood, and His faithful giving. All right, verse 2. Grace
and peace be multiplied unto you. If you've obtained this Like
first faith, he's God's been gracious, abundantly gracious. I love these is one Paul said,
Oh, he has abounded us. Wisdom, prudence, knowledge,
goodness, blessed be God. He went on to say, because God
has revealed his son to God has given us this precious faith. He's abounded toward us. The
greatest gift of all, the greatest show of His grace of all, give
you this faith, this rare faith, this saving faith. And it's multiplied. God, His grace. Every morning,
His grace. Give more grace. Every morning. Every morning, grace is multiplied. And peace. And peace. I made the comments
last night that God ought to... Oh, my. God's angry with this
world. That's the reason He's going
to destroy it. The world doesn't think so. But He is. He's going to destroy
this world. It's going to be full of people. Why? Because
He's angry with the wicked. He hateth all workers of the
nation. God, the righteous Lord, loves the righteousness, and
He hates iniquity, and He's going to destroy this world. Old-fashioned
as that sounds, it's true. And God is not at peace with
men, and men don't make their peace with God. And the only
reason we have peace is because Christ made peace for us by the
blood of God. And since Christ did that, we're
at peace with God. God's not angry with us, but
he ought to be, you know? I'm not... When Peter denied him, he should
have been done with it, shouldn't he? After all that Christ did
for Peter. And Peter turned around to deny
him like he did? But no, peace was multiplied
to Peter. Peace was multiplied to Peter.
God's not angry with Peter. God gets displeased with His
children, like we do with ours. God frowns upon His children
when they disobey, like we do with ours. We can grieve the
Father, just like our children grieve us when they act up. But
angry? No. No, He's at peace. Peace. He's ordained peace for us. It's
multiplied, too. Well, look on. Through the knowledge,
and this grace and peace is multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace through the knowledge.
Look over at chapter 3, verse 18. Look at it again. He says
in verse 18, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Grow in grace. Sounds like he's
telling us to grow. He is. Just like you tell your
children, son, grow up. You hear me? Honey, act like
a baby. Won't you grow up? That's, all of our children's
ears, young ears under us, are sent to prepare them for adulthood. to prepare them to be men and
women. And that's what this is all about. That we might grow, Paul said
in Ephesians 4, under the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ, a perfect man. Wanting nothing, whole, complete,
like Christ. That's why God saved us, predestined
us to be Christ-given. And we're told to grow. It's
a It's a fact that if you're alive, you grow. That's a fact. But it's also an exhortation,
brother. When Paul keeps saying, put off
the old man, what he's saying is, quit acting like that old
man. Put on the new man, which is created in Christ Jesus. And
he's handing over to people, put it on. Act like it. You ought to act. That's what
fathers tell their children, don't they? So he tells us that. Grow and grow. Desire the sincere
milk of the Word. Desire it. Do believers desire
the Word? Well, they're not believers if
they don't. Children love milk, and believers
love the milk. But do we need to be told to
desire it? We sure do. There are other things
that we're prone to go after. But the Lord tells us, if you're
done with that and desire, you need to grow. You need to grow. These other things stop your
growth. This is how you grow. Grow up. Grow and grow. How? I just quoted to you. The Word.
The Word. This is how we grow. God's Word. Look at verse 3 in our text,
2 Peter 1, verse 3. It says, the knowledge of God
and of Jesus Christ our Lord, in verse 2, that comes through
the Word, doesn't it? It comes through faith cometh
by hearing. How shall they believe in Him
whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without Him? That's how we We hear who God
is and who Christ is, and that's how we grow in this knowledge
of Him. This is how you grow, all right? Verse 3, according as His divine
power. What is the power of God? It's
His Word. It's His Word. We're born by
this Word. We're born from above by this
Word. The incorruptible seed we're
born by, we nourish upon it. grow from it, everything. This is the power of God. Don't
wait on some mystical, magical miracle. This thing of God's,
of walking with Christ in spiritual life is not a mystical, magical,
you're waiting on something great to happen. No, ma'am. It's just like present day life.
How do you grow? But this is it. This is it. And His divine power, that's
the word, He hath given unto us all things. Read on. Through
His, according to His divine power, He has given unto us all
things that pertain unto life. Real life. Most people live in
this world, but they're just existing. Man was created with life. I mean the life of God. Real
life. Real life is no God. It's life. Communion with God. Man was created
with a higher life. Man was a higher life form. But not anymore. He's dead. He's no better than a beast.
Man's no better than an animal. One of the old Puritans said,
man is worse than a beast with an apology to the beast. Because
animals don't sin. Animals don't sin. Man, animals
sin, do what they're supposed to do. Animals do what they're
supposed to do. Not man. He doesn't acknowledge
God, not interested in God. He's worse than a beast. Worse. Worse than a beast. Well, his
life now, his divine power is given unto us all things that
pertain to real life. Our Lord talked about life more
abundant, more than just existing and waiting to die, eating, drinking,
sex. That's what animals do. That's
all animals do. Human beings got a spirit and soul to seek
after God, and it goes somewhere after this life's over. And our Lord talked about life
more abundant, things that pertain unto life. His divine power,
His Word, gives unto us all things that pertain unto life, real
life. And godliness, the word godliness,
whenever you see that, doesn't mean this superficial put-on
piety that religious people... That's not what godliness means.
That's not what it means. Godliness means the things of
God, everything that pertains to God. It does mean piety in
the good sense of the word, things that pertain to God. Godliness,
how to be with God, how to be like God, the things of God.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, now the natural man
receiveth not the things of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them. But now you have received the
things of God by His power, by His Word, by His sovereign mercy
and grace and power bringing this gospel to you. You have
received the things of God. You've been born from above. Destined for a higher life. He
ain't destined for life, he said. Life of God in Christ. All right? Look at it. Verse 3. This is
all through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory
and virtue. See that? Through the knowledge
of Him. We get right back to this knowledge
of Him. Where do we get this knowledge of God? Well, it's
not sitting out on the hillside. Though the heavens declare the
glory of God, the firmament showeth His handiwork, day unto day others
speak. Yet that won't tell you, that won't impart life to you.
The gospel will, the gospel, the truth, the knowledge of the
character of God, the will of God, the purpose of God, the
covenant of God, the work of Christ, salvation, the knowledge
of God, Christ, salvation, knowledge of yourself. The Word is what
imparts that. Preach the Word by God's Spirit
applied to your heart. The Word. Three ways we get this
Word. And we need all three. Three
ways. Number one, you hear it preached.
This is the first priority. It really is. You're not home
studying the Word all day. I hear people all the time say,
I read that and I didn't get out of it what you got out of
it. If you'd have read it for five hours, you would have. Yes,
you would have. If you'd have studied it for
five or six hours, you would have. But you're not doing that. Well, I'm doing that. So, you
come here and you get... You get the equivalent of several
hours of personal study. Plus, this is what God has promised
to really bless. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, I'll be there to see. Our Lord's greatest
blessings were when His people were met together in the Sermon
on the Mount, John 14 through 16, where our Lord was talking
to all 11 of His disciples. The greatest sermon ever preached.
It wasn't the one or two, it was the church met together. When Christ rose and ascended
back to glory and gave that great gospel commission, the church
was gathered there. The upper room and all in all,
I could go. This is the blessings of God
right here. Hearing the preached Word. Read
it for yourself. Read it for yourself. Fellowship. Fellowship with those who do
hear it and read it. And through that fellowship with
them, through that friendship with them, through that companionship
with them, conversation will come around to the Word. It won't
ever come around to the Word if we're out there with other
people in the world. It'll all be a bunch of boosh.
As a matter of fact, your conversation will end up just right in the
gut. if you dwell with those that are in it. So it says, through
the knowledge of Him, that comes through the Word, knowledge
of Him that hath called you, us, to glory and virtue. I told you before, Romans 8 says
whom He called, He justified, whom He justified, He glorified.
We've already been glorified people. Yes, we have. You've been glorified in having
the truth. You elect a lady. That's what
he read tonight, 2 John. Elect a lady. I rejoice that
you're walking in the truth. You've already been glorified,
Roberta. Everybody has it. The glory of God has shown upon
you. Yes, it has. It's a kind of glory that dwells
in your heart, a little bit of it, through the preaching of
the gospel, hearing of the gospel, the belief of the truth. You've
already been glorified. He's called us to glory. And
someday we'll be in glory, capital G, and virtue. He's already said
it. He's predestined us to be all
in higher life, just like Jesus Christ. That's what we're predestined. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be, does it? I look at myself in the mirror
of God's Word and I say, I don't look anything like Christ. Or
I sure don't look like Him the way I want to. I hope I bear
some resemblance when I come far ashore. So it does not yet
appear what we shall be, but we shall be just like Him. Whereby, verse 4, by His power,
Verse four, are given unto us exceeding grace and precious
promise by his power. You know, God's word was written
by his power. Verse 21, it says, This prophecy
didn't come in old time by the little man. And you've seen it,
people. You've read it with me. We've
studied it for years now. And it's just it's just marvelous.
This is the most marvelous book In the world, it's only, well,
it's the Word of God. There's no doubt in my mind.
No man could have written that. And we have it by power. This
is the Word of God written by His finger. And though centuries
and millenniums have, of men and enemies have tried to do
away with this, They have literally, at times, burned every copy of
it. But we still have it. It's by His power, you see. God's
determined for His people to have His Word. And so it's kept
by His power. We get it by His power. It's
preserved by His power. It comes to us by His power.
It takes the power of God, the sovereign power of God, to take
an old rebel son of Adam, an old prodigal son, to pick him
up out of the gutter and bring him from afar. He's far off.
A prodigal son is far off in a pig pen. It takes the absolute
sovereign power of God to get him out of the pig pen and bring
him all those miles Bring him home, sit him down, and preach
the gospel to him in his old dark heart. That's the power
of God. Nothing else could do it. All
the crying that mama could do, all the praying, all the warning
of daddy and all, can't do it. It takes the power of God to
bring home the word to a son of Adam. Yes, it does. It takes the power of God to
shut a man's mouth, open his heart, bend his knee, open his
ear, open his mouth. And it says, whereby are given
unto us great and precious promises by His power, are given unto
us exceeding great, exceeding great. They're so great that
I can't comment on them. exceeding great and precious
promises. They're called promises, these
promises that we have, because they're future things, mostly
future things, things that... Now, we have a certain amount
of rest in our soul, but we don't have that complete,
eternal rest that we're going to have. Someday, we're going
to have rest. I mean, never in trouble. Rest. from all our enemies, from all
trustees. Joy. We have joy. Believers do rejoice
in the Lord, and they have joy in the gospel and one another
and some things in this world. But that eternal joy, no more
tears. Peace. We have a certain amount
of peace, we do. In Christ we believe. We have
peace. that are eternal. Holiness? Holiness? I want to be without
sin. I know I'm without sin in Christ. I know that. I know that a new
creature. But I don't want to be done with
sin. I want to be completely, forever. Don't you? Promises, he says, are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises. God's promises are
as good as done. He said, I've spoken and I'll
do it. I've purchased it, I'll bring
it back. They're called promises because we haven't received them
completely yet. But if God promised them, they're
as good as done. Promises. Come unto me, I'll
give you rest. Believe on me, you shall not
perish, but have everlasting life." And what God had promised,
He's able to fulfill. Great and precious, rare promises. That is, they're not given to
everybody. Therefore, that chosen few. Verse four, now look at
it. Verse four, by these, by these
promises, and where are these promises found? Now back to the
word, that by these promises you might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust, partakers of the divine nature. That's
what believers want, don't you? That's what believers want. I'm
so tired of myself and the sin that plagues me. How can we be partakers of the
divine nature? How can we escape the corruptions
in the world through that? It's what you want. Well, he
says, buy these precious promises. You're a partaker of the divine
nature. All right? Number one, we are
holy right now in Christ. We are unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight. We are partakers of the divine
nature right now. The reason that we can't see
it is because we've got this body on us. We're veiled in flesh,
but this new creature It's created in the image of Christ unto good
work. It's in us. That's where all the good desires
come from. All the good desires. Desires
for truth. Desires for holiness. That's
where love for the brethren comes from. Love for the truth. That's
where all the fruit of the Spirit comes from. Goodness, gentleness,
peace. That's where it all comes from. That's not ours by nature.
That's not the old man. That's not in the old man. The
old man is full of wrath, and bitterness, and anger, and envy,
and jealousy, and hatred, and lust. That's the old man. That
just spews out of us. But that new man on the ground
has this new thing. That's it. That's it. So we are
right now, though we don't fully realize it, we are right now
partakers of the divine nature. And we have a safe. We have a safe. Yes, we have. You're right here, right here
tonight. Why? You're trying to escape. Huh? Aren't you? You've escaped,
just for a little while. People the world over try to
escape the world and all its troubles, escape themselves by
taking drugs and material things and, you know, just trying to
escape anything, everything. You come here to escape. Escape
the corruptions in the world through lust. Out there in the
world you hear, that's all you hear, that's all you experience,
You come in here and you experience a little bit of heaven. Four
tastes of glory and honor. Escape. Corruption. So you have
escaped, and you have escaped the judgment of God. Yes, you
have. You're dead, and your life is here with Christ. Amen. You're covered. You're covered. God cannot see your sin. He cannot. You're under the blood. There you are. You're roping
right. You have escaped. But now we need help right now.
We need help. Right now, we need some freedom
from a sin that plagues us. Right now. How? Same way. Same way. Precious promises, the Word, God's Word, God's Word. He wrote in Ephesians 5.26, he
says, the Holy Spirit cleanses us, sanctifies and cleanses us
with the washing of the water by the Word. The Word of God
literally cleanses your conscience. You're out in the world, and
you're just bombarded with everything, and your own sinfulness. You come in here feeling your
guilt and your sin, don't you? You come in here feeling like
a rotten sinner. That's what you are. The old
man is. And when you hear the gospel,
what happens? Life's a slave thing. It's like new life every time.
I got saved today. Right down the road. The Lord
saved me. He really did. I used to listen to a message
from Romans 10. I'm going to preach this Sunday
for you. But by my pastor from Romans 10, the Lord saved me.
He really did. He just washed me. Cleaned me
out. If I hadn't had that tape on,
I might have had, who knows what else. George Strayhorn. Crying
in his tears. And I've just gotten dirty and
right along with him, you know. By His grace, you know, I thought
I need to listen to something. I said, Lord, save me. Wash me. Wash my heels away. Our Lord
said this in John 13. He said, He that is washed, he
that is not, save his feet. Keep your feet washed. Can He do that? The defeat of lower parts. This human humanity that we dwell
in is our lower parts. That new creature is without
sin, but this humanity is without sin. Well, we are. We need our feet. Lower part,
we need to walk by the water of the word. Nancy loves Psalm
19 says this commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the
eyes. Here of the Lord is clean. God's Word is just clean. It'll wash your conscience, it'll
wash your flesh. You know that God's Word is the
greatest restraint to sin. It really is a restraining grace
of God from sin. Really, as if he brings it up.
He brings it to mind, the Word. That's what David said, hide
your word, my heart, that I might not send it in to you. And it washes your
mind? It washes your mind? I am trying to brainwash you
all. One of the, Wesley said that
somebody told him that I brainwash you all. I'm trying to. I really am. Not
me, but this world. You go out there in the world
and you hear so much stuff. In religion, you hear so much
stuff. Man's opinions, man's thoughts. And all this garbage
you see on the TV. It just bombards your mind. The
radio, and the newspaper, and the magazine, and the books,
and all this stuff in your head is just filled with garbage. You come in here and this Word
is clean, and it just washes your mind away. It does. It just, yeah, I want you to
be brainwashed. That's what Paul said, be not
conformed to the world, but rather transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Have your brain washed. I don't want to do it, but I
hope God's Word will. Just wash your mind from the
filthiness of the flesh. Verse 5, he says, beside this,
give all diligence. Give Him all diligence. Bear
with me a few minutes. I don't mean to go too long. I really don't. But cut the songs
down and bear with me. This is all good. It really is.
It really is. I've already eaten it a couple
times, three times. He says, give all diligence.
Give all diligence. Over there in verse 10, he said,
give diligence. When you're diligent about something,
what does that mean? That means you're serious about
it. That means you give it everything you've got. Right? A diligent
worker is somebody who does it wholeheartedly, who does it seriously. They've got their mind on what
they're doing. A diligent worker is somebody who does it with
all their mind. All right, we come here to worship. And I've
said this before. We come here to worship, gentlemen. We come here... That's why we
come here. We don't come here to socialize.
We don't come here. There's time for that. There's
time and place for that. But this is to worship. We come here to hear from God. Hear from God. We come here to
be fed. We come here to have our faith
strengthened. We come here to study God's Word. That's why
we're here. So he says, give all diligence.
Let me tell you how we give diligence. All diligence. Use all diligence. Number one, preparation. Preparation. I can't emphasize this enough.
Preparation. We're coming before the King.
We're coming into God's presence. That's when we come. We're coming
into God's presence. We're not coming to church. We're
coming before God. And God is not modest. We don't rush into God's presence. God's not modest. If you, if I was an employer
and you were my employee and you, say I was interviewing you for
the job and you came and weren't listening
very well, maybe came late or very inattentive I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. Moses says, show me your glory.
Remember that? Moses says, show me your way,
show me your glory. I want you to look at this. Everybody
look at this now. Moses. All right. Look at chapter 34. The Lord
said to Moses, verse 1, You, the two tables of stone, like
unto the first, I will write upon these tables the words that
were in the first tables, which shall break it. Be ready in the
morning. Come up in the morning. That
means early. Do you reckon he slept in? Give all diligence. Abraham took his son Isaac upon
that mountain. The Lord blessed him through
that trial like nobody. He rose up again the day he left. And the day he was supposed to
do it, he rose up again. Oh my, did the Lord bless Abraham?
Did the Lord bless Moses? Did the Lord bless John? John
said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's side. John said, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day. What did he say? Oh my! Oh my! What did he hear? Oh my! I wrote a whole book about it.
He said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day. What does that mean? That doesn't mean he was talking
in tongues and all this. It means he came before the Lord
and said, Lord, help me to worship. Lord, send your Spirit. Lord,
give me your Spirit. I'm flesh. I can't do this without
your Spirit. Preparation. The Lord sent His
Spirit. He gave you a mind, a heart to
hear and see these things. Preparation. God's not mocked.
God's not mocked. He gives us... We reap what we
sow. This is what Paul wrote about.
He sowed the flesh, you'll reap flesh. He sowed the Spirit, you'll
reap the Spirit. Get out of things, what you put into them, you get
what you pay for. Yeah, you do. Yes, you do. Do I look like I enjoy these
messages? It's a lot of preparation. I
know it's my job, and maybe if it wasn't forced on me, I wouldn't
do it like that. Nevertheless, I'd get more out
of this than anybody. Preparation. Prayer. And this thing of preparation,
start early. Start at home. Last night, you
know you're going to get up early at some point. You know how you dress, and your
attitude reflects the way you dress. You dress casually, right?
Feel casual. There's nothing casual about
worship. Put on a coat and tie and go
before I'm telling you, I don't dress like this because I like
to wear a tie. It kills my neck too, man. Because
I'm, for God, a romantic. And I'm a serious romantic. And
I'm not dressed enough to impress you, per se. But if you do act
the way you act, you should own it. You should. If you wear jeans,
you'll feel like going fishing. That's just the way the flesh
is. Prepare. Prayer. Prayer. If you don't
pray for me, you won't get a thing out of this. You won't. If you
don't pray for me, you won't get a thing out of this. Paul said that over and over
again. He said, Brethren, pray for us, that the Word may have
free course. Pray for us. You won't be blessed
if you don't give attention. Give attention. The message, you know, the introduction,
it's like reading a book. Can you skip the first chapter
and go on to the second and understand the book? No way. In the introduction, one time
my father got up to preach and he stood up and said, Peter Piper,
first words out of his mouth, Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers. Peter Piper. He had no attention. Now he said, now listen to my
introduction. For some reason, it gets lost
in the shuffle. It's important you lay the groundwork.
First words. How important are the first words
in this book? It's the beginning. God. Pay attention. Be thankful. God won't bless an ungrateful
person. The person that keeps getting fed over and over and
over and over again and never gets thanks for it, he's not
going to get anything back. My wife cooked me three
meals a day for 30 years and I gave her about four or five
times I might have said thanks. I don't deserve that more. I don't deserve to eat those
things. Huh? The worst thing you can call
somebody is ungrateful. A glass of water. John, forgive me, I
shouldn't have let you carry the water. Thank you. It's the worst thing you can call
somebody. The worst thing, the most rudest thing a person can do
is eat and not give good thanks. You won't be blessed. You won't
do it. I think back of myself as a member
of the church. I've died many times. I didn't
go back and greet my pastor and tell him, thank you for the Word.
Thank you. You know, if you really like something, you will tell
him, thank you. Yes, you would, don't you? If something's really good, I
go on and on about it. I'm, oh, it's so good. It's so
good. Say, I don't know what to say. Say, it's good. Now, I'm telling you the truth,
God won't bless another great person if he won't do it. He
don't deserve it. And like I said, I think back
on my past and I just, God, forgive me. God, forgive me. I know better now, boy, when
the message is over, I don't grieve anybody when I'm at 13th
Street. Phew! Thank you. Oh, I enjoyed that.
Appreciate it. Give all diligence, attention,
be thankful. Give the means, the means. God
has ordained means. You need to hear every message. Every message. Would you be content for him
to skip a meal every now and then, Mary? Or do you want him
to have three square meals a day? If St. Lawrence comes around,
he says, I'm hungry. Ah, you don't miss that. You're
a growing boy, you don't miss that. Everything that goes into
his body is causing him to grow into a man. You don't see it.
After he swallows it, you don't see the results of it, but I
guarantee he's done something. Same with the Word of God. And I guarantee you, the one
you miss is the one you need to have. When somebody tries
to tell you, oh, Thomas, One word, Thomas. We take small baby steps by faith. We take small baby steps, spiritually
speaking, just baby steps. We come in here, we eat this
Word, we feel like I'm learning. In this meal, you take five giant
steps back. You know it's such. You know
it's such. Don't miss a meal, for any reason,
unless you're absolutely forced to. Whether it's sickness, death,
or you work the second Thursday. I've given you good advice. Give
it all. Give it. We're growing. We're learning.
The tapes. I just told you, the Lord saved
me that period of time. It was so good, I just didn't
know it. If I had a table downstairs full
of tapes of Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, how long would they last? 20. You got any more? There's a table down there for
you right now. Pull it over. Use it. Use it. Got a tape roll and pull
it over. Tape. Bulletins. That bulletin,
I hate typing in it. I hate it. Do you like to type? Do you like to type? Cherry,
only one type. Only one in here that types.
Do you like to type? I don't like to type. You can type a bulletin from
now on, girl. How's that? Yeah, good. All who
like to type can type. I don't. Why do I do it? Not
for fun. It takes me hours to write an
article. Hours, I mean hours. I'm not
like Joe Terrell. He can just wing it. Pew, pew. And his son doesn't even have
proofreaders. Some men are gifted like that, not me. If I write an article, I am really
burdened if I have something to tell you. God bless me with this commentary. Commentaries. You have trouble
reading the Word? You have trouble understanding
when you read it. Henry Moynihan has written the
best commentaries on the face of the planet. I know what I'm talking about.
I've got John Gill, Matthew Poole, Matthew Henry, John Calvin, I've
got them all. He's got the best. He's done
all the work for you. Waded through all those chapters.
Jonathan Edmonds, all of them. Made it concise. If you don't
understand something, you open that commentary, you go right
to it, you'll see. It's the best way you can possibly
read Scripture. Read it. If you don't understand
it, what does that mean? How can I? I said, some man tell
me. There's a man that's written a book with that commentary.
And on and on I could go with things like this. We're so easily
distracted in this thing of worship. We're flesh. So somehow or another we're going
to suppress Our foolishness, before and after, in order to
get anything out there. Try to set the pace in the men's
room back there when we go there, you know. I learned this from
my pastor, you know, in October. We're all prone to be jocular
and joke and carry it on, foolishness and all that. This is not the
place for that. We need something bad here. If our minds could just... Like I said, God's
not mocked. If we can't play the fool and cut it off and start
worshiping, God won't, He will not bless that. I'm not being hard, I'm
just, it's all sudden. It's all sudden. I've tried it on. Give all diligence. And in closing, he says, giving
all diligence, add to your faith virtue. Oh my, we need a lot
of that. That means just downright honesty
and integrity, being the best we can. That's what that means.
Knowledge. Knowledge. How well do we know
God's Word? We're all ashamed. We're all
ashamed of it. Add it. Throw it in. Add it to
knowledge temperance. Oh, man. Temperance in everything. Everything. Why don't we need
temperance in everything? From the way we eat to the way
we react to things, our temper. Temperance. Everything needs
to be tempered with what? Temperance. Read on. Patience. It's almost laughable how little
patience I have, we have. Patience. We need it. Godliness. Things of God. I know enough about the things
of this world. I'm tired of it. I want to go on with something
better. Godliness. Brotherly kindness. Brotherly kindness. Boy, I'd
like to know something about that. Love. Charity. If these things be in you, you're
going to bow. Do not be barren or unfruitful. The Lord's looking
for fruit on His big trees. He's looking for fruit on His
big tree. So we need to say, Lord, doesn't
this tree look poor? Well, you don't cut it down.
I need to be done, help me. He that lacketh these things
is lacking, greatly lacking, is blind. They don't understand,
don't see far off, don't see the purpose and the goal and
what we've been predestined to be and what this is all about.
They can't see what this is all about. We don't live for ourselves.
That's forgotten. He's purged from his old sin.
He's forgotten what to say. You have to be purged, nor for
the rather present give diligence to make your calling, even calling,
an election. Sure, if you do the same, you'll never talk again. Now, you want to do the same
thing, and you do do the same. You do everything, everything
I mention, you do. There's not a church anywhere
like this church. Any, let's put it this way, there's
not a church anywhere any more gracious, more serious, more
devoted, generous, all that. There really isn't. But we need
it. We need to add something. We need to be encouraged in Georgia
to do these things more and do more. All right, I hope that's
been a blessing to you. I wasn't scolding you, not at
all. This is what God's Word says.