The second breath is Chapter
Four. Every one of us has troubles
with skin, flesh. We need all the help that we
can get. And these times that we have
together, this Wednesday night service is invaluable to our
spiritual well-being. I know it is for mine, and I
know it is even more so for you. out there in the world all day
long amongst unbelievers. And this is vital. I believe
tonight's message will be a real help to you. The fellowship we
have here around the word is indispensable, invaluable. Contact
with one another, just rubbing shoulders with those of like
faith is a help. It really is. And whatever means
you can use during the week to help you do all the personal
study, reading. Cassette tapes. I often have
mixed emotions about cassette tapes, but I sure enjoy them
when I need them. I was listening to two messages
This week, going and coming from Roanoke, had to go to Roanoke,
listen to one on the way up, one on the way back. And one
of them was my pastor, and he was preaching from this very
text. And it was such a blessing to
me. And he preached it 12 years ago. I think I may have been there,
down in Alabama. But it was such a blessing, I
thought it would be to you. 2 Corinthians 4, this ministry
is what Paul is writing about, our ministry. Verse 1, therefore
seeing we have this ministry, this ministry, all of us, we
have this ministry, this one man ministry. This is not a one-man ministry. This is not my ministry. We have this ministry. You know,
this was the first, one of the first messages I felt
led to bring to you when I came here, 13 years ago, next month. This is what I wanted to impress
upon you then, It's not my ministry, it's our ministry. Some of you
have been here longer than I have. Parks, Chisholm, Mansions, Rossin,
Hudson, a bunch of you. It's not my ministry. It was
yours before I got here. Right? You have just as much
of a role in this and a need for
this as you have children. You need this. This is our ministry. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 12.
1 Corinthians 12. Look back a few pages. We're
in this thing together. 1 Corinthians 12. This is what
Paul was writing to the church of Corinth about. Verses 4 through
7. He said there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Holy Spirit. The difference is administrations.
at where it is ministered. But the same Lord, there are
diversities of operation, but the same God, which worketh all
in all. Manifestation of the Spirit is
given to every man, and promiseth withal. Verse 12, As the body
is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. And now hath God set the members
of every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him. Verse
25, that there should be no schism or division in the body, but
that the members should have the same care one for another. And then you remember chapter
13, don't you? We just studied that recently.
That's the greatest gift of all. The greatest thing that we can
minister to one another. Verse 13, love one another. So
we have this ministry. Back to the text. And our goal,
our aim, our focus, what this is all about, what this church
is all about, what we're doing here, what I want to do every
time I stand up, what you come here to do, is to glorify God through the
preaching of the gospel of Christ. That's what this is all about.
The glory of God. We're not... Now you understand
when I say that our chief aim is not to win souls. That's not the chief aim of the
church. The chief aim of the preacher and the church is to
glorify God. Will anybody believe you or not?
If what you're out to do is win souls and get people, then you
will do whatever it takes to get them. But now, if your chief
aim is to just glorify God, to give Him all the glory, and that's
what God uses to win souls. If you glorify Him, this is what
preaching's all about. Whether anybody believes it or
not, the prophets By today's modern church standards,
they were failures. They were failures. They stood
up and preached the message, and very few people heard them
or listened to them, and heeded what they said, and they hated
them, and eventually killed the prophet. But they weren't out
to mend friends and influence people, to chop up numbers, to
make a big organization. to see how many people, and we're
trying to see how many people they can get in, but we're trying
to give God all the glory they can give. But the fact is, this
is how God, this is how God brings His sheep in, just by declaring
Himself, declaring the truth. When God is honored and glorified,
Christ did not believe that. I'll drop it. I'll drop it. It's not up to us to drop it.
We have this ministry, and that's our aim, our goal, is to preach
the gospel and care for one another in this fellowship. And if you
look at it, verse one, it says, We faint not, we quit not, as
we have received mercy. Some of you got together this
week, some of you ladies, and were remarking what a blessed
fellowship this is. How merciful the Lord has been
to us in delivering us from this present, Scripture says, present
evil generation. Religious though it may be, our
mercy to the Lord and men and delivering us from all this hubbub
and commotion of religion, and like the demoniac who was healed,
has clothed us and sat us down to hear the gospel clothed in
our right minds. The mind that Christ calls said
in 1 Corinthians 2. How merciful the Lord has been
to us, delivering us from darkness, ignorance, and putting us here,
where the truth is proclaimed. Sunday after Wednesday, Sunday
after Wednesday. What mercy. So, he says, we plan
to conquer. We're not going to quit. Though
our numbers be small, through all the world, 12 men in the upper room, and the
Lord was about to leave. My, my. And they were up to his head,
and they were discouraged. But he said, I pray for you that
your faith fail not. We're not going to quit. We're
not going to quit. You know, all of us feel like
quitting. at times, don't feel like throwing in the towel, feel
like a danger. Psalm 73, you remember what David
said? He said, I pledge my hands in
faith. He said, the whole world is prospering and having a big
old time, and they're not in trouble like I am. They don't
seem to have the problems that I struggle with. All these super
high religious people have such a victory over sin. And David
said, I've played with it all that long. David writes this
all through the psalm. This is the language of the man
after God's own heart. He said, my sins My loins are
filled with a loathsome disease, he said. My sins are more than
I can number. They go over my head daily. My
sin is ever misformated, David said. But these super-Christians,
you know, they're living a victorious life. And this is what David
wrote the whole Psalm 73 about. He said, Is my religion in vain? No, he said, well finally when
I went into the sanctuary, I heard the truth, I heard God's word
read, the truth proclaimed. And God's people are there who
have the same problem that I have. And David said, I've been a fool.
I'm not going to quit. No, this is our life. This is our life. Isn't it? Verse 2. And he says, our ministry
is an honest one. Our ministry is a good one. Our
ministry is a vivid one. Because we have renounced, verse
2, we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Hidden
things of dishonesty. People, I'm not going to spend
any time, much time tonight talking about the hidden things of dishonesty. And religion is full of trickery,
cunning, crappiness, schemes, and like business tactics, soul
winning tactics, doing anything to get people in. That's not
of God. That's not of God. God uses one
thing to bring people in. That's His Holy Spirit. If God's so weak that we have
to bribe people to get in, and trick them, and entertain them
to come in, what do we need Him for anybody? If He's that weak.
He said, I'll bring them, I'll call for the wind. And that's
the picture of the Holy Spirit. I'll call for the north wind
and tell them to bring my people from the north, from the south,
from the east, and from the west. Bring them in. And they do, and
they come. We use whatever means at our
disposal, such as the radio and so forth, the word of mouth,
whatever. But we don't use hidden tactics,
schemes. I know what I'm talking about.
Religion, I've been in, studied this, talked to men who went
through religious seminaries, and they taught you practices
just like Amway. We're not making merchandise
of men's soul. No, we renounce the hidden things
of dishonesty. Read on. Not walking in craftiness. This thing is not about craftiness,
being, using guile. Satan is called crafty. We're
to be open and honest up front. Handling the word of God, that
means withholding part of it, because somebody didn't like
that. Twisted it, make it say what it doesn't say, adding to
it, making it not say what it does say. Look back a few pages. 1 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians
2 verse 17. Second Corinthians 2, verse 17.
Paul says, we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God,
deal deceitfully with it. Either add to it, take it away,
take off the edge, take the edge off of it, explain it away, translate
it away. No, we don't corrupt the Word
of God, but as of sincerity, That is, we're sincerely interested
in the glory of God, sincerely interested in people knowing
the truth, not their money, not counting their heads, so we can
report it to some organization that's going
to best send us more money so we can get more people in, so
we can get more money. No, no, no. As a sincerely interested
in the glory of God primarily, His truth being known, His people
knowing the truth. Read on. As of God, Paul said,
as though God had beseeched you by us in the sight of God. This is who we're trying to please,
not men. Trying to be true to God, His
Word, by not men. Like I said, whether anybody
believes it or not, God's truth must be proclaimed, whether people
like it or not. Bring on. And this is our message. Speak we in Christ or out of
Christ. That's what God demands that
we preach. That's what sinners need to hear.
And woe is unto us. That's woe. That's not all we
do. So go back to the text, chapter
four. So he says, we have, we don't
handle the Word of God deceitfully, read verse two, but by manifestation
of the truth, that is, we're seeking to declare, to make known
the truth. Have you been noticing with me
how much The word God makes of the truth, how insistent the
word of God is on the truth. John, his scripture, his letters
are just all of it, the truth. The truth. And there's only one
truth, and the truth is not a gray area. God's word is black and
white, it's not, it's abstract. God's Word says plainly and clearly
what God is like, what man is like, what salvation is, who
Christ is and what he did and who he did it for. Very plain. And so he says, by manifestation
of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. By speaking the truth, By a man
plainly giving up and declaring the truth, he commends himself
to every man's conscience in the sight of heaven. Not afraid,
in a matter of fact, he insists upon people going home and searching
the scripture to see if these things be so. That's what the
Berean, remember the people of Berea, the church of Berea, says
they were more noble than the other Jews. Because when they
heard the apostle, they didn't just take their word for it.
When they heard the apostles say that, they didn't just say,
oh, well, you're a Reverend Paul, or you're a Reverend Peter, and
we believe that, and you seem like that. No, they got in the
Bible, and they went home and searched the Scripture to see
what they were saying was true. And I wish people would do that.
And we insist upon it, that people get a Bible, And I've seen many
people come here without a Bible and then take issue with what
was said. And I think, if you're not even
looking at the Scripture, how could you take issue? But if
you're looking at it, and then go home and search the Scripture,
don't ask those men, go home and search the Scripture. Simply
say the Psalm. My sister Juanita back there
went to a service one time with some member of her family. They
asked her to go, and she did. And the preacher said a few things,
and Juanita said, where does it say that in the Bible? And the preacher said, well,
it says it somewhere. She said, well, I'd like to see
it. He said, well, OK. Did he ever? He never did show
you that he wasn't. No. We commend ourselves
to every man's conscience and psychology. Yes. Well, I want to go. I want to
get my Bible and see if that can be what you're saying is something. Good.
Please. Good. Would you please? I would
love for people to go home and start searching for scripture. Read on, verse 3. If our gospel
be hid, our gospel. You see how Paul talks about
the truth, the gospel, as opposed to another gospel?
He wrote that in Galatians 1, that be some who come preaching
another gospel, another Jesus, which we have not preached. You
remember that in Galatians 1, Paul said that? And so he says,
to distinguish THE gospel of God's sovereign, electing grace,
God's glory, THE gospel as opposed to this God dishonoring, this
Christ demeaning, this man exalting, man free, free will exalting
so-called gospel going on today. Paul says, OUR gospel. OUR gospel. Romans 1, he called it God's
gospel. He said, if our gospel be hid,
it's not because we're hiding it. We're making it very clear.
We're shouting it out. Our gospel be hid, read on, verse
3. It's hidden in their lodges. If people can read Romans 9 and
not see what was hidden, it's hidden. How could you not read? I mean, how could you read that
and not see clearly what it's saying, that God chose his people?
Ephesians 1. How could you read that, Ephesians
1, and not see very clearly that God chose his people before the
foundations were laid? How could you read Ephesians 2 and 1 and
not see that man is dead and trespasses against him? That
salvation is by grace and not work. How could you read that
and not understand that? How? How can anybody read that
and not understand that? Our Lord said this, I thank Thee,
Father, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the
prudent, but revealed them unto Thee. See, we perceive mercy
happening. Huh? We're no better than anybody
else. We're no smarter than anybody
else. You see your calling wherever you look. Not many wise men of
the flesh, not many mighty, don't even know where to call, but
God has chosen the foolish things, the base things, the weak things,
the uneducated things, the nobodies, the nothings from nowhere, let's
get all of them. Not the wise, not the mighty,
not the noble, not the intellectual, not the educated. This doesn't
go with education. I need, probably think I need
more of it. But that's, no, flesh is not
a glory in His presence. This thing's a revelation, and
this thing's a gift. It's not by words, it's not by
might, not by power, but by my Spirit, the same Lord. Our gospels give, in their
laws, in Reverse 4. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not." Who's he
talking about? Well, you know who he's talking
about, Satan, whom he calls God, small g, of this world. That is, he who this world does
his bidding and follows his leadership and so forth. He says, he hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not. Is that a contradiction
of what I'm quoting? Where Christ said, Thou hast
given me strength? No, because we read in 2 Thessalonians 2.
Didn't we read this last week? How he said that because they
received not the love of the truth, God sends him strong delusion. And who's he turned over to?
God in this world. All right, you
won't hear me, the Lord says in Proverbs 1. I'll turn you
over. God is working. You will be captive
to him. Absolute captive. Well, lest the light burst forth. Now look, Satan is not in the
honky-tonk business. That's not where he does his
cheap work. In the crack houses and the drug on the street corners
and the ghettos and the honky-tonks. Look at verse 4. It says, God
of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ is the image
of God should shine. He doesn't mind people being
religious. He doesn't mind people being moral. Matter of fact,
he loves people being very moral and very self-conscious. He'll withhold liquor from some
fellas' lips so that he'll run around telling everybody how
liquor's never tasted. He'll make some woman just dress
to the whatever, cover every square inch of her body so that
she'll run around telling everybody how high she is and never wore
shorts. I had to say that. So that she'll think she's so
self-righteous that she doesn't even need the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's exactly what Satan wants
people to think. I told you about what
John Bunyan said, and when I was a young believer struggling with
sin, you know, I thought like every young believer when I thought
when the Lord saves you, all your troubles are over. I thought,
then you live the victorious life. Then Satan has no more
temptations for you that you just, well, you just be floating
on cloud nine and everything, just happy in Jesus all the time.
Not so. That's when the troubles begin.
That's when your struggle with your inward self really begins. You didn't have that struggle
before. Listen to John Lennon. He said, Satan, in his craftiness,
will take a person who is trusting in themselves, in their own righteousness,
their goodness, their morality. He'll take a person like that
who thinks they're so good that they have to be saved. And he would withhold from them
temptations and trials and struggles and sins? Maybe you know some people that,
so-called churchgoers and people you work with and all, friends
and all, that are real self-righteous. You know they are, because that's
what they like to talk about. How they're doing for the Lord
and what all they've done for their church. And they don't
talk about him, but they talk about them. But anyway, I bet you noticed
and watched them how they don't seem to have struggles with things. You didn't have a struggle. Is
that true of any of you? You notice that in your family
and friends? I don't think so. A lot of people say that Satan
withholds temptations from a self-righteous person. He's got them under his
belt. They're not looking to Christ. They're trusting themselves,
and they're going to go to hell trusting themselves. They're
going to... Christ himself said, many... Jesus Christ himself said, many
will stand before me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, while
we... and plead with God what all they've
done for God. How ignorant, how blind, how
self-righteous can somebody be? That they're going to stand before
Christ, holy God, and say, well, we did many wonderful works in
the name of Jesus. Aren't you just going to be happy
to have us in your heaven? And he's going to say, get these
self-righteous workers. He called them workers, though,
didn't he? Why? Because they did it with their
own glory. The glory of their denomination,
the glory of their own name, the glory of their profession. So Satan asks, that person's
not where he wants you, still conscious, trusting themselves,
not looking in front. But now, he said, an old fella,
or an old gal, by old, like Tammy, 40, or even older, 50, might
be old, 60, 70, an old gal, young gal, And that person who's trusting
Christ alone, who is trusting God's mercy, God's grace, Christ's
limit as their only hope, Christ's righteousness as their righteousness,
as their acceptance of God, that person that's trusting Him, looking
to Him alone, and Satan will bombard them with temptation. Bombard them with the temptation
of the temptation. So that they think They're too
bad to be saved. Tell me it's so to you. I remember
reading that as a young man, a young believer. I remember,
you know, I was traveling in London, an old believer at the
time. I read that and I didn't quit.
I thought, that's me. That's me. That's the way it
is. The person who's trusting Christ,
Satan knows who does the sinning. Satan knows what does the sinning.
The blood of righteousness is Christ's only. So the person
who's trusting Him, he just has to have it. And Christ
said that he won't. Nothing was said about Jesus.
And that's good for you. It's good for you. There's only
sinners. Christ can't accept sin. Well,
so he said there in verse 4, "...let the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ..." So his grand purpose and intention is to keep
people from hearing the gospel. Of what? The glorious gospel
of Christ, the gospel of God's glory. He'll let you accept Jesus. but not bow to this Lord and
Christ. Verse 5, he says, we preach not
ourselves. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. We preach not ourselves. You know it's so. Now Paul is
primarily speaking of the Apostles. here in these verses. Secondarily,
he's speaking of all preachers of the gospel, and also all of
us who believe and tell others the gospel. All right? But Paul,
you know Paul and the apostles, by God's grace, were not preaching
themselves. They didn't go around like these
These charlatans today, flaunting their name, advertising their
name, putting posters all up, announcing the Holy Ghost revival,
featuring the famous Apostle Paul, known all over the world
for his healing miracles. Come, get your miracle. Crack on that. Paul the Apostle
didn't do that. John didn't do that. Peter didn't
do that. Neither does any true man of God do that. We don't
preach ourselves. We're loathed to even call our
own name. John wouldn't. John the Baptist wouldn't. They
kept coming and asking, who are you? I said, I'm just a voice.
Where'd you come from? What difference does it make?
Where'd you go to school? I didn't. Well, what? Well, what? Behold the lamp,
and I'm preaching thee. I'm here for you to see me. The Lord may have blessed the
preaching that day. Joe would come up to me afterward
and he'd say, I didn't see much of you this morning. I just saw
Christ sitting down. That's good. That's the way it
should be. But preach not ourselves. But
who? Bring on. Not just Jesus. He's got three names, and you
must use them all. Christ, Jesus, the Lord. That's who we preach. We preach
Him in all of His character, in all of His office, properly
through His King. Christ, Jesus, the Lord. And,
verse 5, "...ourselves your servant, for Jesus' sake." We're your
servant, preacher of the gospel. And Paul was certainly a wonderful
example of this. What a servant he was to the
church. My, my. And if you remember, he said
one time, he said, I'm not after yours. I'm not after your money. I'm not after your whatever you
can give me. I said, I'm after you. I want
you to know the truth. I want you to know the truth. Not what I can get out of you.
He said, we're your servants for Christ's sake. Now, there
was one place where Paul said, if we be the servants of men,
we're not the servants of Christ. You remember that? He said, if
I yet seek to please men, I'm not the servant of Christ. You
remember when he said that? Meaning that if a black president
walked in, and he knew that man didn't believe
the truth, and yet he'd give the great sons money. Then let's
take the ledge off of it. Let's not end this man. But think
of what he can do for us. We don't need this massive money.
God doesn't need this money. God owns all the gold, the silver,
and the mines. We don't need a bank, I suggest. That's the time we ought to say
the truth, just as loud and clear as Well, Paul said, if we speak
to these men, we're not the servants of Christ. If we're cutting the
edge off the message because people don't like it, we're not
God's servant. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
a courier king, back in the old days? You remember when those
little fellows walked out and said, here he is, here he is.
Remember those little fellas? They walk out with a crow and
a king and give them a crow with something on it. And they would
go out before the peasants. And that's what we are. We're
beggars and paupers. We don't have anything God needs. Okay, the little courier went
out before all the people and said, here's your key. Why did
he decide to change something that the king said? Because he
knew the folks wouldn't like it. Everyone gets mad at this. The king's going to tax them.
They're not going to like this, right? I'll say it in a way that
will make it more powerful. But the season won't happen if
that man's here. The king would find you the man
who'd go out there and just say what the king said to say. Don't
add to it. Don't twist it. Don't corrupt
it. Don't change it. Don't translate it. Say it. If it said it, you say it. Or
you're not my courier. So Paul said that. But now here he says, we're your
servants. He's talking to the church. He's talking to the believers. He says, we're your servants.
But now, the gospel preacher, if he's a true gospel preacher,
he first works for God. He's not a heroine. He's not a heroine. He works for God. That's who
called him, that's who equipped him, that's who sent him, that's
who opened the door for him. That's who he works for. He must say what his Lord has
told him to say. That's who he's a servant of.
Now, God tells the preacher of the gospel to serve my people.
You serve my people. You feed my people. That's what
Peter said to the elders. The elders, which are among you,
feed the flock. Feed the flock, Peter said. A minister, a preacher of the
gospel is not the Lord himself, he's not some rector, whatever
that means, or, well, I'd love to change a couple of letters
in that. He's not the rector, not the
reverend, not the father doctor, and so and so. He's just a servant. He's just a cook. He's a short
order cook. And I better hurry because it's
going to be short order. He's a cook. He's just a type of cook. That's right. He's not some big
hierarchy. Down in Mexico, when we go to
Mexico, you remember Carmelita. Down in Chiapas, Mexico, Now
this is a good illustration of this. In the mountains of Chiapas,
Mexico, we used to visit a coffee ranch up there, and there was
a church upon that ranch, and the people from the village down
there would come up there to that church on this coffee ranch,
and Brother Milton is the one that used to preach there, and
now Brother Cody and others are traveling over there now. Anyway,
Sister Carmelita, wonderful, wonderful woman, loves the gospel,
and she owns the coffee ranch, her and her husband. And whenever
preachers of the gospel came there, she just, oh, literally
rolled out the red carpet. She loves when we would come
to visit there. And she would literally, I can't
describe to you what all she would do for those who preach
the gospel, just love the preachers of the gospel. It's kind of almost
embarrassing how she treated you so royally. It
really was. But every time, she would hire
two young men as her servants. Two young men asked for a service
and they were dressed in white jackets and little black ties
and white towels over their arms and so forth, black pants. And
buddy, every time you turned around, there they'd be, you
know. You couldn't, you'd wake up in the morning and they'd
have coffee and sweet rolls waiting on you. You couldn't even pour
your own cup. Oh, I see the owner. And if you
just wait on your hand and foot, there were servants of Connolly,
and you have to know, if they didn't, if one of those servants
mistreated one of her guests, ugh, Connolly, she's about this
tall, she's about five, she would have their heads. You mistreat
my guest. But these fellows were hired
by Kamalika. They were servants of Kamalika.
That's who they answered to, Kamalika. But she hired them
to serve her guests. You see? See, that's what this
is saying. A preacher of the gospel. And
you too. You're servants of the Most High
God. And we serve one another. But
it's God. Well, I've got to hurry. He says in verse 6, "...for God, who hath commanded..."
This is the ministry we have, and this is what's happening. "...God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness." In the beginning, remember, God
and the creation The world was without form and void, and God
said, the very first thing God did, the very first thing God
said, let there be light. Remember? Let there be light. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, it says, has shined in our hearts to give
the light and the knowledge and the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. that same God, in the same way,
at some point in time, stated concerning each of us, each of
you, Let there be light and sleep
in hearts and minds and eyes. Deliver him from darkness. Deliver
him from ignorance. Shine the what? The light of
the glory of God. This is the difference. This
is the gospel. It's the knowledge of the glory
of God. The glory of God. And it's in the person of Christ.
the glory of God, and I gotta quit. I was gonna go to this
workshop. Maybe we'll pick it up again
Sunday morning. Moses, you remember, you remember Exodus 33. Moses The glory of God, people, is
not what's being said today. It's not in healing. It's not
in languages. Besides, what they're doing at
Carlton is not the tongues of Scripture. The word tongues in
Scripture is meant like one. And the word unknown is not in
Scripture. Not unknown. 1 Corinthians 14
makes it very clear. There's no language without signification. Acts chapter 2 makes it very
clear that when they spoke in tongues, or languages, everybody
heard them speak in their own language. What? The glory of
God. The glorious words of God. That's
what they said. So these healing, and tongues,
and miracles, and signs, and people we're all taking up with
today say, Glory to Jesus. That's not the glory of God. It may be those delusions Paul's
talking about that say that that's not it. That's not the glory
of God. Listen, listen to this. Moses,
you remember what old Moses saw? This generation has never seen
a sea fire. Moses did. He saw a red sea fire. Moses saw, he struck the rock,
and water came gushing out of the rock, and watered as many
people as lived in the state of Virginia for 40 years. Yes! Two or three million people
were watered with one rock. And it followed them everywhere. Moses saw red come down from
heaven. Every morning they'd wake up
and red would fall out of the sky. Moses saw plague, Moses
saw all that. But in Exodus 33, in Exodus 33
Moses said this, he was talking to the Lord, He was talking to
the Lord and he said, Lord, I've seen your power, I've seen these
things, but show me your glory. Do you remember that? Do you remember
that? He said, show me your glory.
I want to see your essential glory. Your glory. What did God say? He said, I'm
going to make all my goodness pass before you, and I'm going
to proclaim the name of the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show
mercy. In other words, the gospel, that's the goodness of God, of
the person of Christ, that's the name of the Lord, of His
sovereign grace and sovereign mercy. He said, Adam would be
gracious. Now, that's glory. That God would
save any son of Adam. None deserve him. None are worth
saving. That's the problem with this
religious generation. Ain't that man worth saving? He's not. And this is the glory of God,
that he would save one human being. It is glory. But to save
as many as the size of his child? Now, that's glory. That's glory. He's glorious in his graces.
It's a gift. It's a free gift, so you don't
earn it. He gives it totally, completely. He gives it free.
And he said, to whom I will give
mercy. It's my decision to give to. It's sovereign grace. And
he said, and I will show mercy. Now it's glory. It's glory. God gives great glory
to be merciful to a God hating, God despising, God rejecting,
God A creature that doesn't even
want God. For God to be merciful to that
ill-deserving, irreverent, ungrateful wretch. And reveal himself to
him and send his son down to die for the likes of that. Now
that's low. But now God said, I will give
mercy to whom I will show mercy. Sovereign mercy. It's not man's
choice. And this is where God gets the
glory. It's God's choice. He gets the
glory. That's the glory of God. The
gospel of sovereign grace and mercy in Christ. Okay, I hope
that's clear to you. Maybe we'll pick it up Sunday
morning and continue. Stand with me. Our Father, thank
You. Thank You for bringing us here. Thank You for Your truth. Thank You for Your Word. Your
Word is truth. This is the word which our gospels
preach. Thank you for the gospel, the
gospel of God's glory. Thank you for shining in our
hearts, giving light and knowledge of the glory of God in the person
of Christ. Thank you for not leaving us
to ourselves, leaving us to this world, leaving us to darkness.
Thank you for revealing the truth to us. The truth sets us free. free from ignorance, free from
superstition, free from religion. Thank You, Lord, for the truth.
Sanctify us through Thy truth. Thy Word is truth. Now, bring
us back this Lord's Day to worship You again, that we might seek another word
from You. For Your glory and honor, we have been here tonight. In Christ's name, amen. you.