I love that first scripture. The iniquity of Israel shall
be solved. All right, let's turn now to
Mark chapter 1. I appreciate Brother Stan Anderson's
reading of Matthew 4. He read the entire
account of our Lord's Temptation, at least to me, I happen to hear
that. But we're not going to dwell
somewhat on those particulars of that. to actual temptations at that
time, because Mark 1 does not go into detail, but we won't
either. But let's look at this, Mark
1 9-13. It came to pass in those days
that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee. and was baptized
of John in Jordan, and straightway, immediately coming up out of
the water, John saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit like
a dove descending upon Christ. And there came a voice from heaven
saying, Thou art my beloved Son, and to mine well-pleasing." And
immediately, immediately, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, drived
or led him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness
forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts.
and the angels ministered unto him." We'll stop there. Just after the Lord... Now, this
is significant. Just after the Lord was baptized,
just after the Father bore witness with him, it's after
the Father said, Immediately he was driven into
a wilderness to be tempted. He couldn't catch the significance
of that. All whom God called, whom God
saved, who confessed with Him, who baptized and confessed with
Christ, Shortly thereafter, they go out in the world in the wilderness,
and then they're tempted to sit down and try. But our Lord, now, I want you
to pay very close attention, okay? This is going to be very
comforting to you. Our Lord went through this temptation. And it was for 40 days. It wasn't
just what we read there in Matthew. That wasn't all. That's just
one part of his temptation. He was tempted for 40 days. Luke makes that very clear. He
was tempted for 40 days. It says that there in Wilderness,
40 days tempted of Satan. Our Lord went through this Great
temptation. And what he did, it was two things. He was our substitute. Number
one, our Lord went through this as our substitute. And number
two, as our example. But first, as our Savior. Now this will be a comfort to
you. He did this for us. What we cannot do for our Savior.
God says, be ye holy. I can't be holy. God says, resist this man. Thou
shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. I can't. I can't. Like Paul said in Romans
7, the things that I want to do, that's not what I do. The
things that I want to do, I can't seem to do. I don't know how
to do them. Is it so with you? Well, our Lord could. Our Lord,
as our substitute, could be holy. He was holy. Our Lord could resist
sin. He was doing this as our substitute,
not primarily to show us how to resist sin. No. Although,
he did. We're going to see that later.
Can you understand that? The reason he went through this,
the one, is as my substitute, he faced Satan without sin. And that brought in, said, God,
this is a mystery, God, you did that to me, to all believers.
It's as if, the word justify, here's a good way to remember
justify, just as if I had never sinned. What Christ did, He charged it
to me. And it's just as if I've never
seen it. God holds me blank. Point. All right? Now, this is interesting. Turn
to, quickly, 1 Corinthians 15. I really want to get through
my time blocks. 1 Corinthians 15. Adam and Eve
in the garden. Adam and Eve in the garden fell
to the temptation of faith. Now, this ought to tell men when
it's over, that the perfect man and woman were no match for faith.
Perfect man and woman, created upright, knew no evil, were tempted
and failed. Who are we? We're not perfect. We have this sinful nature. We're
no match whatsoever. But they fell in the garden.
Now, Jesus Christ is called the last Adam. He's called the last
Adam. He's called the second man. The second man. And he faced every
temptation of Satan, yet without sin. Without falling to it. As our substitute. You see, why
is he called the second Adam? Do you know why he's called the
second Adam? You know why he's calling the
second man the last Adam? In Adam, Romans says, all died. We all died in Adam. Well, look at 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 22. As in Adam, all died. Now, it says this in Romans 5
also. In Adam, all died. We all came from one man. Adam. We come from the seed of Adam.
We're sons of Adam. We inherit his evil nature. We're born sinners. Adam was
our representative. You understand? Adam was our
representative. We're all sons of Adam. And we're
born sinners like Adam, all right? Now, look at 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 22. But in Christ shall all be made
alive. Look at verses 45 and following. The first man, Adam, was made
a living soul. Last Adam made a quickening spirit. Verse 47, the first man is of
the earth earthy. He's a human being. So are we. The second man is the work of
heaven. Verse 48, as is the earthy, such
are they also that are earthy. That is, we were born and seen,
just like Adam. As is the heaven-born. The Lord
of God became man. And became a man. Holy, righteous
child. Spirit of the mind, as is the
heavenly, such are they also that are born from above. Read on. As we born the image
of the earth, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. So
Christ, you see, came as the second, as a representative.
Are you with me? I love the ark. Christ became
the second Adam, and all in Him, all who were represented by Him,
He did all that He did for them. Not all man, not all mankind,
but for those whom God put in Christ, of God, I mean, in Christ. All those who were elected, chosen,
put in Him, to say who he sends the Holy Spirit and the Gospel,
opens their eyes, opens their ears, opens their heart, the
other means of Christ, believing, confessing, they're in Christ. And what he did on this earth,
he did today. He's our second act. He's our
representative. And we're hoping, we're just
talking, we're hoping. Not by us. See, we didn't become
sinners by what we did. Did we? We were born sinners. We had that in us. We don't become
holy by what we believe. All right, so Christ did this. He faced Satan as our substitute. Look over Hebrews 2. Hebrews
chapter 2. Now the first Adam failed, and
we do too. We fail miserably. We fall to
every temptation. This is to a degree. The last
Adam did not fail. I said, since that day has come,
he shall not fail in the midst of trouble. I said, he shall
not fail. He faced the tempter without sin. That's our only
hope of man. Because I faced him and I thought,
is God going to hold me guilty? Not if I'm in Christ. Christ
did that to me. You see why that God could be
this way. All right, the last Adam did
not play. He was tempted in all points, it says. Like as we are,
yet without sin. Tempted in all points. What does
that mean? It means all points. Look at
verses 6 and following Hebrews 2. Now, well, let's go on down here
a little bit. Let's go to verse 10. It became
him, or that is, it was needful for Christ, for whom are all
things, by whom are all things, and bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
That's talking about Christ, became our perfect Savior. A perfect representative, a perfect
captain who's been there, and we can trust, and we can call
upon him in time of need, and be confident, and listen to the
storms. You see, he's a perfect captain.
He's been there. He's faced every storm. Perfect
Catholic. Look on down at verse 14. For as much as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part in the same. He took a body. that through
death he destroyed the power of death, that is the devil,
and to deliver them, that is us, who through fear of death,
afraid of death, all our lifetime subject to this fear of death. We don't need to fear death anymore.
Why? Because the National Enquirer says somebody rose from the grave? No! God came down here, who cannot
lie, who lived thirty-three and a half years, and died, and rose
again, and said, I've been there. There's nothing to fear. Trust me, you'll never die. He
didn't live it, but believe within me. Come back down. Leave us out of it. Now that's
what he said at the funeral of the Rene. There is a dead man lying there
in a casket, and he says to his sisters, he that believeth in
them, they shall never die. Well, that was believed in him
when he was dead. What about the heavens? And nobody
will. None of those who have left us
to trust Christ are dead. They didn't go to the land of
the heavens. They left the land of the heavens to go to the land
of the living. The land of the living is where
God, who is light, is. This is Godless land. So we leave
the land of the dead, corruptible, to go to the land of bliss. See that? It says, the fear of
death. He delivers us from that because
He's been there and back. Now, verse 3 on, verse 16, Hebrews
2. He didn't take on Him the nature
of angels. He took on the seed of Abraham. That is, a man. And in all things, therefore,
in all things it behooves Him, necessary, that He be made like
unto His presence, that He might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God. This whole book of Hebrews
is about a high priest. This is what it's all about.
The high priest, the tabernacle. God, and this reason his name
is called Jesus throughout. The man, the high priest, Jesus. Our high priest, looking at us,
Jesus, our high priest. That's what the order of the
milk is. Well, but he's our high priest in things pertaining to
God. Now, this is why he came, verse
17. This is why he came. He didn't come to be an example,
perfect. But he came to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. You see this? The world doesn't
see this. The world just sees Jesus. We
see why he was Jesus. of the suffering of death, but
we now see a much higher demand for the Lord's glory, crowned
with glory and honor, having finished the work of penitence.
He came to make a reconciliation for the sins of the people. He
said, what shall I say? Father, deliver me from this
hour? I'm sorry, I came. I came to
die. He didn't come to show us how
to live. He came to die. He came to be the Lamb of God
to take away the sins of the world. He came to be the Son
of the Spirit to face the temple and be holy, to die the death
that we deserve, and to go to the right hand of God as our
great High Priest and offer up His blood once for all to put
away the sins of the world. That's why He came. That's what
He did and He said. All right? So Christ is first,
our substitute. He went through this temptation
as our substitute. But we can't do it. We can't
do it. Never mind these foolish men
and women who talk about, well, you just tell the devil, he don't
back off. Stomped on a piece of devil last
year. They're fools. Jews, read the
book of Jews for yourself sometimes. They speak evil of dignities,
and they don't know what they're doing. But Christ did.
He faced temper. All right? Now, secondly, though,
I have to say that that needed to be established from the outset,
lest we think that we can actually I know he says resistance doesn't
deal with lethal, but how? We'll see in a minute. All right,
Christ was secondly our example. He was our example. Look at verse
18 here in chapter 2. In that he himself hath suffered
being tempted, he's able to succor, that means help. Sucker, like
that's an old fashioned word where it would be like a mother. Suckering, nurturing, taking
care of, speaking kindly to, wooing. Grandberry back there,
just smiles, thinking about that new born baby. Forget that baby,
woo. Anyway, that's what the word
nurture means, sucker. He's able to succor them, help
them, to nurture them, to get them through, to help them, those
that are tempted. I looked over Chapter 4. We read this, Chapter 4. So Christ is our example. First,
our substitute. Secondly, he's our example. He's
able to help us through by being our example. He's tempted in all points, like
as we are. Look at verse 15. We don't, we
have not, or that is, we don't have a high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. You know why this
whole priesthood thing is wrong? For many reasons. Now the Lord
Christ is a great high priest. We don't have no need whatsoever
for a high priest. And what these so-called priests
are doing It's offering up Mass, but actually offering up the
blood and body of Christ, that's second. And administering the
sacraments, that's what they call it. That's blasphemy. That's
anti-Christ. We have a high priest. One great
high priest. And he did away with all of the
priesthood. That is offering up of sacrifice. By one sacrifice. Or heaven, we suppose. We don't
need those anymore. We don't need a high priest.
We don't need to go into a little confessional booth and confess
our sins to a man who's a sinner. He can't do that, anybody's old. And I tell you, the word of who
we do need to go confess to is somebody that did something to
them. And there's only one. And Paul said to John Timothy,
we have, there's one mediator between God and men, the man
of Christ Jesus, not Mary, not Pope, whatever. It's the man
of Christ Jesus. We confess him. Now, so the priesthood
is done away with. Another thing is priesthood. You notice how they are secluded
up in monasteries and temples and all of that. They're not
allowed to get married. You know those evil things. Women are, you know, I guess
women are evil. They keep them away from them.
Put them up in these temples, you know, away from them so they
get together, men with men. That's what to do with people.
Don't let anybody bully you. Don't let
anybody bully you. They're not holy, they're absolutely wicked. A priest does me no good
if he does not know what I'm going through. It's the same way with these
preachers who come out of seminaries, who've been sheltered all their
lives, you know, come right out of high school, go into college
or seminary, go up and they're sheltered, and they deal with
a bunch of holier-than-thou fellows, and they come out, and they want
to tell me how to lead them. They don't even know what sin
is. They can't do anything with it.
That's the reason our Lord came to this earth. He was tempted
to halt from what socket we are. All points. Did you hear that? All upon, for forty days, he
was tempted of Satan. And whatever temptations Satan
attempts in his son, Vladimir, he was tempted. Does that give you comfort? All
upon us. All upon us. Like as we are. And so he's touched with the
feeling of our firmness. I love the Scripture, we love
the Scripture in Psalm 103, that he remembered our frame. Scripture
says, Because the Father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He remembereth
our claim. That is, he knows what we're
made of. How? Why? How does he know what we're
made of? He was made of us. He became flesh and dwelt among
us, and was tempted in all things. Yes, that's it. But that's it. Now, I can't explain this as
so. Our Lord lived in a body. Look at chapter 5, verse 2. We
read this. It says, He can have compassion
on the ignorant, on them that are out of the way. He himself
was encompassed with infirmity. He limited himself. God limited
himself to a body, didn't He? Why? Because I'm limited to a
body. He lived by faith. Did you read
that? He was made perfect through the sufferings. He lived by faith. So if the son gets to learn to
be obedient, by faith. He never whipped up a needle
for himself. He never did a miracle for himself
or by his name for himself. He did it for others, but not
for himself. That's one of the things that
Satan didn't do with Sam. Command these stones to be made
bread. I can command stones to be made
bread. Can you? Can you command stones to be
made bread? So he didn't either. He was dependent on the Father
to provide bread. Just like me. Right? He lived in a body and
took upon himself and affirmed it, the limitations of the flesh,
sufferings of the flesh. Let's look at this. The sufferings
of the flesh. Now this is comforting. Our Lord
knew what it was to hunger. And more than anybody here, 40 days,
49. He went through that. Why? Because there's some hungry people
out there. Nobody's hungry any more than
you are. Thirst! You hung on that cross
for six hours in the blazing sun after being tortured hideously. You know how it is, you nurses.
You're afflicted with wounds and so forth. Your moisture dries
up. Six hours. I thirst that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. He thirsted. He went through
pain, excruciating pain. He went through weariness. He
walked along waves. They said being weary with his
journey, he sat down and wailed. He's weary. Did you go weary? He worked all day long. How long
have you been working? How hard is it to work? Huh? How hard are you working, Lord
Jesus Christ? He said it's 12 hours in a day. He worked 12
hours a day, six days a week. He said, I must work. Brother
Henry? He worked his fingers, his hands. He knows. He knows what to do. He did it. He went through sorrow. He was a man of sorrow. He was
acquainted with grief. Nobody's done sorrow. Behold
my sorrow. See if there's any man that's
sorrower than I am. You remember that in your... You've been through
deep sorrow? Deep, grievous sorrow. Be more. Loneliness. Loneliness. That is positive
for 33 and a half years. to come to the land of sin. Persecution. Huh? What about depression? Do
you reckon the Lord went through depression? Do you go through
depression? Now understand that he wasn't
depressed not knowing the future, not knowing what would happen,
not in the sense that we've become depressed and unbelieving. Yet
being away from his Father, being in this land of sin, Does this
world depress you? Be more. Whatever we've been through with
these trials. Now, these are trials with the
flesh, not sinful temptations. Sinful temptations, what have
you been through? What do you go through? Be patient. Yeah, you did. Without suffering. He knows our praises. All right? Now, our Lord endured all these
things and more as our substitute and as our example. It says He
did without sin. He did these things without sin,
that is, without murmuring, without complaining, without finding
faults, without bemoaning himself, without loathing me, without
being faithless and unbelieving. I want to endure without murmuring,
complaining. Don't you? I want to endure whatever
I'm called to go through without It's acting like no believer.
That's what murmuring and complaining is. It's acting like you don't
believe God sent that. It's complaining that it's God.
When we as believers murmur and complain, we more than anybody
find the fault with our God. We believe He works all things
after the counsel of His own people, and all things working
together for good are good. If I murder or complain, I didn't
follow God. I don't want to do that. Do you? He did it. He left the same thing. How?
He did this by faith. He did this as a man, Nancy.
He was a man. I can't really understand this,
but I know it's true. He was a man like me, tempered
and all that. I want to know something about
it. Alright, how? Look at Hebrews
4. This is what he tells us to do,
and this is what he did to endure. Verse 16, Hebrews 4, verse 16. He was tempted by, because we
are, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy and find grace that help in times of need. What did he do to endure the
things he endured? What did he do? Now, he's a man. What did he do? He called on
his God to help him. He lived by faith. He was
dependent on his God. He was dependent on his God to
provide grace and help in time of need. Do you know this is
an angel named the ministry? Listen, listen to these examples
of our Lord. The people need something to
eat. He was preaching to them. There's a vast multitude of people,
5,000 men, not counting the women and children. He's preaching
to them. They're all hungry. They've come
a long way. Peter and Nephilim said, well,
we've come too. We don't have any money. They're
hungry. What are we going to do, our
Lord? Call on the Father. Call on the Father. He was at his friend's funeral, Lazarus. He wept, Nancy, he wept. That's
real tears, real sorrow, real loss. He was grieved. Father Heard raised his friend. He was in great anguish over
sin in the garden. He didn't think that he was going
to get through the garden and make it to the cross. He was
sweating blood in anticipation of going to that cross and being
made a sinner. That's a message all about sin.
that he was sweating blood thinking about taking on himself our sin
and being forsaken by his God. He had gone through hell, he
was sweating blood. And he in the dark, as a man,
as a man, a man, can you hear me? A man! God heard me. And God heard me. And said, an
angel of ministry answered me. Can you hear me? All points like that we are. And his help
was my help. Can you hear me? Let us, therefore,
come boldly to the throne of grace. He went to the throne
of grace. That means he prayed. He was
often in prayer. Our Lord prayed often, Yea, without
ceasing. He told us to do the same. We
need help. This is what Christ did as a
man, and He was helped. Do you see that? We talked about
Paul being in prison. They couldn't perform miracles
to the devil, they didn't. Peter being in prison. All in
all, he goes. Jonah, this pill is gonna fail. What'd he do? He cried. What'd he cry? Jonah says, uh,
salvation's up ahead. If I get out of here, you're
gonna have to get me out of here. You get out of there, I'm gonna
get a CV. Did Christ make it through the
garden? Oh yes, He did. Did He endure the cross? All the shame, the grief, the
torture, the pain, the anguish, the sorrow, the hell, did He
endure it? He sure did. How? The same grace for us. We went by the grace to help
in time of need. All right, time of need. What
time is that? What time do we not have to eat? Sorry we didn't sing that, Brother
William, your favorite. Every hour of every day. We need
it every hour of every day. This is why Paul says pray without
ceasing. And we can't get down on our
knees. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to do that. Not really. It says every knee will bow,
but it doesn't tell us when you pray get on your knees. Don't
worry about it, just say, close your eyes, bow your head, because
it's syntax. It is a symbol of humility, you
know, and bowing our head in subjection, and closing our eyes
when you just, you know, the best distraction when you do
that, but don't tell us to do that. You can pray with your
eyes wide open. Do you know this? Count nine hundred. Yes, you
can. Whatever you do, raise the meter.
You don't need to raise it. What are you doing? Climb a pole. You don't climb
poles, do you? Fill the cabinet. Put the windows together. Fix
the VCR. Yes, you can. Prayer is just
the heart going out and going. More depth. We start every day
this way. We begin and end each day, and
everything is between. This is why our Lord said, when
you pray, pray this way. Lead us not into temptation.
Lead us not into temptation. You begin today, that's what
it's for. I'm going after the world full of temptation. Don't
let me fall into it. Don't let me go where I'll be
tempted by it. If I do, keep me from it. Pray without ceasing. That's our only help. We're no
match for Satan. We're no match. We'll greet you,
Jesus, by the fighting. Listen to Psalm 46.1. God is
our refuge, our strength, a very present help in times of trouble. A very present help. Psalm 107. You love that, don't you, Henry?
It says, the children of Israel, they go through the wilderness,
and they sin against God, and they cry to you. And they go
a while, and they sin against God, and they get in all kinds
of trouble, and they cry to you. Four times I said that, John.
No matter what trouble they got into, they'd cry, I didn't hear
it! He said, there's a presence there. Mothers. And everybody else may
not hear that baby crying. Do they? Huh? There can be... This has happened
many times. We had a door open a long time
ago. That nursery was full of babies. And that can all be pride. Each one of you can recognize
your own job pride. Pride. Pride in Him. He's a very present
help. It's just not grace to help. Grace is a gift. Whatever help you need, you just
have to give it to Him. We're going to need grace. For
everything, for whatever we face, we need grace. I was going to
go through Galatians 5.22 on the gifts of the Spirit, but
I don't have time. But I'll tell you this, grace
often comes through means, and those means are men, especially preachers of
God. This is what he said in Hebrews
4. He said when he ascended up on high, this is in Hebrews 4,
he said when God Christ ascended up on high, he gave gifts to
men. He gave some apostles. Alright,
is this grace that you need? Right now, tonight, is this something
you need? That's where you get it. The Apostle
wrote it. The Apostle wrote it. Amen. God used this man to help us. And he gave gifts. Some apostles,
some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers, for the perfecting
of sin. Very quickly, to Hebrews 10,
all right? And I won't quit. I promise you, I won't quit.
But we need this. We need this last little bit
of grace and help. Many folk out there in the world
say this. You've heard it. Maybe you've
said it. I don't need to go to church to worship God. I don't need to go to church
to worship God. I don't need a man to tell me
anything about it. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ needed
an angel to minister to him. Did you hear that? The Lord and Jesus Christ. an
angel came to minister. Think about that. How did he go to church to worship? Where was the Lord ever sent? With the people of God. Now, I'll tell you what, that's
where the lessons are. God has ordained a blessing today.
Number one, we're commanded to ascend together. We're commanded. We'll read this in a moment.
We're commanded, and His commandments are not grievous. I'm really
honest about it. Very seldom do I say, I have
to go to church. David didn't say that. He didn't
say, oh, I have to go to the house of the Lord. He said, I
was glad when they said unto me, let's go to the house of
the Lord. He said, one time of the day, and he couldn't get
there. Psalm 84, he was exiled. He was living in a cave. He wanted
to be there where the people of God were. In Psalm 84, he
said, I'd like to be just a bear in the rooftop, here beside us. Why shouldn't I? Sheep congregate, every clean
animal. There's clean and unclean animals,
and this is the title of God's people and the world. Never know
as I do, but I'm two of every clean animal and seven, I'm seven
of every clean animal, two of unclean. Anyway, clean animals, every
single one of them, are gregarious. They have to flock together.
They want cat and sheep. They all flock together. Everything in them are good to
eat. Clean. Floss together. Sheep, we're calling sheep. Sheep, you don't find none of
them sheep. You're just not going to find
a solitary sheep out there. A wolf, they won't make it. Not
that one. Right? They don't like to be
alone. Sheep don't. They warm each other. They feed
together. They comfort each other. Have
you ever watched two horses grazing together? Horses graze nose to
tail a lot of times. Why? They shoot each other's
flags with their tails. You ever seen a groom one another? Stand there and groom one another?
Scratch each other's backs. So do God's people. Come here, I'll stretch you back
in if you stretch. We go through the same things.
Who better to congregate with than those who've been through
what I've been through? Comfort each other. Look at Hebrews
10, verses 24 and 25. Let us consider one another to
promote unto love and unto good works. This is a good work, people. What we're doing here is good.
God delights in the worship of His people. He sure does. Let's promote one another to
do it. And we do that by being faithful. Verse 25. Not forsaking the assembly
of ourselves together, That's the manner of some of
you. But exhorting one another and so much more as you see the
day of Christ approaching, the day of Christ is coming. We need
one another. We're all prone to quit. We sing
that song, prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Everyone in here is
prone to quit at times. Hm? Prone to quit. The fact that I haven't. Does that
comfort you, just as I told you that? Sure does. I told you this story. You remember,
Brother Don and I were walking up that peaks of Otter Mountain. Brother Don Bell and I, he came.
I took him to the peaks of Otter. Have you heard this story? One
of you? Brother Don Bell, who you may not know, became a preacher.
He'll be here a bit. But he came. here and I want
to take you to see the Peace of Honor. So we drove up there
and now it's 4,000 and some odd feet. And you can either walk
up it, it's a mile and, where is it, a mile and four tenths. A mile and four tenths. You can
walk up it, or you can take the bus. The bus is for old people. I'm now taking the bus. Anyway,
this is a few years ago. He was, I said, let's walk out
here. It's not too bad. Let's walk
a little. So we did. We took off walking. And you know, we might as well.
We walked. We were talking, having a good
time. It all started out like that. Let's go. It's going to
be great. Somebody told me the view from
up there is tremendous. Let's go. I said, let's go. The
beach is right here. We walked a little ways, and
he would slow down, and I would slow down. The trail was getting
higher. Let's see. There's a sign. I
said, John, there's a sign. You can't be much further. came to the first sign, that
first sign says you've come four tenths of a mile, you have a
mile and a half to go. Donny said, let's go get the
bus. He said, no, Don, we've come this far, this is all we
wasted, don't quit now, let's go, we can do it. So we, we,
okay, we walked on. About, oh, you know, Two tenths
of a mile, this is up hill. Two tenths of a, like this, you
know. Two tenths of a mile to St. Louis. And this is what went
on all the way up the hill. I'm going to quit, and he's right
there. He's going to quit and I'm going
to quit. See, we're exhorting one another.
It can't be much further. Come on up. We got to pick up. And it was worth the time. Have you
seen it? Take the bus. But it was worth the time, Margaret.
We forgot about the time. We wore clothes blacked out. We forgot all about it. Wow. Like kids. He said, let
me in. I said, let me in. That's exactly what this race
we're running here, this human race we're running here. Looking
under the Hebrew swear, looking under Jesus. He's our goal. Press
for the mark of the pride of the high cause of God in Christ
Jesus. And let's not persist. Come on. I want to quit. Quit
now. We're almost there. And I hear the view is worth
the climb. Don't quit now. Don't stop now. If one of our brethren is there
now to come back to us, they say, what pain? What suffering? What sin? Seventy years passed. Chief congregate. Now, this is
where Christ is promised to be. This is where Christ is promised
to be. This is where the lessons are. You wouldn't know any of
these lessons if you didn't know. You might not know
where your health is. And, you know, let me tell you
this story. The disciples, our Lord said, after he arose from
the grave, our Lord told his disciples, you go to Jerusalem. Now when he arose, When he was
going back, the angel said that he was so kind to my family. They were all together at the
time. But, when the Lord When the Lord
arose, He was going to come back and appear to the Israelites
and give them all of His last words of help. He's going back
to glory forever. And they're going to be on this
earth for years. And He said, now you go to Jerusalem. All of you. And you get together. All of you, you get together,
you wait for me, and I'm going to come talk to you. And everybody was there, but
Thomas. But Thomas. Can you imagine? Now, and our Lord appeared to
them. He appeared to all of them, and
they were just ecstatic. And he gave all those wonderful
instructions to them, constantly. He didn't hear them. He missed them. And they were all full of faith
and, let's go! John, you read it, didn't you?
Let's go! Our Lord's alive. We believe Him now. Thomas wasn't
there. Imagine the doubts. Imagine what
Thomas was going through. He was by himself. He's alone. I don't need you to care about
me. He's full of doubts. He's full
of fears. I don't know what's going to
become of me and what the Lord wants me to do. And I had it
all over my mind. Loaded. And they came to him
and said, Lord has risen. He said, I don't believe this.
If I see the nail print, I'm losing it. I'm losing my sight. So you see what I'm saying?
What the Lord is telling us. This is your help. God is our
refuge and our strength. Very present help in times of
need. He uses me. You call on Him. It's right here. There's no other
answer anywhere else. Anywhere else. And he uses men,
he uses names to write the divination. I'm the cook here. That's all
I am. I'm just a cook. I'm just a cook. And if you come, there's 5-4
of me already. Or you can eat bologna at home.
What does that say? Huh? You can heat up. All right, I hope that's been
a help. Thank you. Our Father, thank you for your
Word. Thank you for coming to this
Earth as flesh and blood, as our substitute and our example.
Thank you for doing what you did for us, giving us help. We might call on the Father boldly. Now boldly is my own grace. Now
sons, spirit of adoption, they expect to be heard. Now we thank
you. Now, Lord, take this word of
life. Let nothing take it away. Plant it in our hearts. Let us
remember it. Let us chew on it, feed on it
like a cow chews its cud. a few days until we meet together
again and get another appointment here for the price and the program at the
end of the day. You're dismissed. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. So, I'm going to go ahead and
do that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know.