I also want you to turn to Leviticus
chapter 23, John chapter 7, and Leviticus chapter 23. I try not to give you too much
scripture to turn to. I try to quote as much as possible,
and I write down as much as possible throughout the message and just
quote it to you. And I try not to have you turn
to many, but this is necessary that we look at Leviticus 23
along with John 7. And you remember also remember
Isaiah fifty five. As we look at this story. Christ
in that last great day of the feast. All right you remember back in
in verse two of chapter seven John seven verse two look at
it says now the Jews feast of tabernacles was at hand. All right, now turn back to Leviticus
23. It said there the Jews' feast
of Tabernacles was at hand. And you have seen with me what that means, why the Holy
Spirit wrote it that way, the Jews' feast. You know why the
Holy Spirit wrote it down that way don't you? To show us how
religion had degenerated. How it had become a man-centered
thing. And this is what it's supposed
to be. Look at Leviticus 23. Look at verse 30. Let's see, verse 34. This is this feast of the tabernacles
here. Leviticus 23, verse 34. Speak unto the children of Israel,
saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the
feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. Look at verse 35 and 36. On the first day shall be a holy
convocation. You shall do no servile work
therein. Seven days you shall offer an
offering made by fire unto the Lord. On the eighth day, the
last day, shall be a holy convocation unto you, and you shall offer
an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Verse 37. These are
the feasts of the Lord. You see that? Verse
38, beside the Sabbaths of the Lord. Verse 39, the middle part
of verse 39, you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days. Verse 40, the last part of that,
verse 40, you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.
Verse 41, you shall keep it a feast unto the Lord," verse 44, and
Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord. This feast of the tabernacle
was not the Jews. Turn back to John 7 now. John 7. You see, this feast they call
the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles had become just that. It was supposed to have been
unto the Lord. The whole thing was instituted
or ordained by God for God, for the worship of God. And everything
in it, everything in that feast day, every ceremony, every symbol,
every sacrifice, everything in it was a type, a picture, a symbol
of Jesus Christ. Because you can't worship God
apart from Christ. You can't know God. You can't
come to God except through Christ. And what had happened? What had
happened was the Jews had turned this feast, what was supposed
to be the worship of God, into a Well, what they've turned it
into today. A social time. Man-centered religion. All about
man, for man. Very little worship of God. Oh, I know there's all this going
on, and I hear what they're saying about worshiping God, but so
Christ said, this people draw near with their lips. Their heart is far from worship. You see, true worshipers worship
God in spirit and in truth. You cannot worship God apart
from the preaching of the gospel. Anything else, no matter how
it may look, is flesh. Right? The sacrifices. in this feast
of Tabernacle. The sacrifices had become mere
formalities. They did it because they knew
they were supposed to do it, just like many say blood and
say Jesus because it's supposed to. But it was mostly a socializing
time of mixing food and fun, occasional sermons, And it was
an outward show of religion. That's what it was. Look at Isaiah chapter 1, OK? Isaiah chapter 1. Turn over there. It was an outward show of religion.
God wasn't being truly worshipped. Oh, the Jews said God. They read the Scriptures. They
talked about God. Didn't they? Not much said of
God with the mouth. And all the sacrifices went on. These things did go on. But Christ wasn't truly being
worshipped, God wasn't truly being worshipped, and Christ
wasn't being seen in the sacrifices. They weren't even thinking about
Christ. They were just slaughtering lambs. Look at it here in Isaiah
chapter 1. Here's what the Lord said through
Isaiah concerning the state of religion. Isaiah 1 verse 4, a
sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity. A seed of evildoers,
children that are corruptors. They've forsaken the Lord. They've
provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. What did they provoke
Him by? With? Look at verse 9. Well,
he said, except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant.
We would have been just like them. We were right in the midst
of that if He hadn't chosen a people out of that abominable religion. Everybody in here came out of
religion, practically, and were doing just what religion was
doing. Right? Paul did. That's what Paul said. He said, I was guilty, but I
obtained mercy. Look at verse 11 through 15.
He says, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices
unto me? to what purpose is going to church
or singing the hymns or all this talk of Jesus dying and blood
and and so on what purposes. Look at what he says here verse
eleven I'm full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat
of fed beasts. I delight not in the blood of
bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear
before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my
court? Bring no more vain oblation, incenses and abomination, the
new moons and sabbaths, calling of assemblies, I cannot. Away
with its iniquity. Solemn meeting, your new moon,
your appointed feast, my soul hated, there are trouble unto
me, I am weary of them. When you spread forth your hand,
I will hide my eyes. When you make me a prayer, I
won't hear you." Now, wait a minute. God's the one that told him to
do this thing, didn't he? And yet he says, that's all,
it's iniquity. He said, I'm full of it. You're appointed feasts. You
see that? My soul hateth. You're appointed
feasts. Now turn back to John 7 again.
Now this Isaiah 1 is an accurate description of 1997. The Jews' religion couldn't possibly
have degenerated to the point that it has in our day. Couldn't
possibly have contained the blasphemy and the utter Nonsense and ridiculous
circus sideshow that's going on in religion today. It's utterly abominable. It's
abominable to me. Can you imagine what the holy
God thinks of this ridiculous show of flesh going on today? Say, don't shout and don't get
mad, preacher. What do you think Isaiah—how do you think he said
Isaiah 1 to his people? You say, but we're not doing
it. No, maybe not. I don't know. I don't know what
you think of what's going on today, but I'll tell you what's
going on. Ichabod is written over the door of America. What
does Ichabod mean? Go and learn what it means. It
means the glory hath departed. The Jews' religion, men and women
today call it the Judeo-Christian religion. There ain't no such
thing. You see, those sons of Eli gave
birth to a child named Ichabod. The glory had departed. Why?
The art was gone. Do you remember the story of
Eli's sons? His daughter-in-law gave birth
to a child and she called it Ichabod. The glory has departed. Eli's sons, who were supposed
to be priests, the Ark was taken, it was gone, the lamp had gone
out. Oh, that's a picture of the gospel
not being preached in our day. Oh, it was all the ceremonies
and everything going on in religion and all the hand-waving and all
the shouting. Like today, the sideshow, the
clowns in the pulpit, big bands, extravagant choirs, signs, miracles,
wonders, waving of hands and so forth. God ain't in it. God ain't in it. I don't care
what it looks like. Glory is the Spirit of God. Here's
the glory of God. Here's the power of God. This
is what God uses. This is the only thing God uses,
the Holy Spirit. He takes the pure preaching of
the Word of God and absolutely moves on the hearts of men and
women, brings them to repentance and faith and joy and peace and
comfort and nothing else needed. Don't have to have the choir
sing several stanzas so that our hearts will get a little,
we'll get a little chill up our spine. And I don't have to dress in
a robe so that I might look pious to you. What I want to look like is just
an old common ordinary man to you so that you'll see he who's
not like any other man. whom I'm out to preach. Simple, clear preaching of the
gospel has departed in our day and given way to a feast of foolish,
ridiculous, you know what's going on. And if you don't, if you
think it's, if you think it's only on TV, visit somewhere else
next Sunday. Just do it. And it all leaves a bad taste
in my mouth, but not nearly as much so as
it does God Almighty. He says it's a stench in my nostrils. Why? There's no center of Christ
in it. There aren't hearts of sinners
made glad because of There's people shouting and giving glory
because God's given them a new Mercedes or given a house or
because Jesus healed their daughter. But where God is being worshipped
is where a bunch of sinners are worshipping God because of his
mercy and his grace, his sovereign mercy and his grace to them in
forgiving their sins through the unspeakable gift of his Son,
the shade of his blood. And that's the thing that absolutely
It amazes them more than anything else in me. If they want to raise
their hands or shout about something, it's the blood. It's the Christ. It's the one hanging on that
tree that makes them glad and want to sing and worship. It's all, does it do so to you? Does it, when you turn on the
TV, when you see, when you hear people talk, does it leave a
bad taste in your mouth? Huh? Is it hurtful to your ears,
the way you, to hear these preachers talk about your holy God? To
hear men take that name which is above every name and use it
as flippantly as they would Joe Smoe down the road. Jesus, does
that hurt your ears? It hurts my ears. God says make mention that his
name is exalted. But men smear it on their bumper
stickers. Put it on bathroom walls. And every Tom, Dick, and
Harry is making use of it. The cross, which is his greatest
glory, every rock star has got one around it. in their ridiculous ears. Does that make you feel the way
I feel right now in thinking about this stuff? This is what
God said. He said, away with it. Now, look at John 7. Verse thirty-seven,
Now our Lord went up to this feast. He went up there and beheld
all this stuff. He saw what was going on. Our
Lord God went up to this feast in the smack dab in the middle
of Jewish religion and was beholding it all, looking at it. That's
the reason he started out. Stan, he started out, he went
in that temple with a whip, didn't he? He didn't go in that temple
and say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan I came to die
for you. He didn't do that, did he? He
came here with a whip! Clean house! And here, on this last day of
the feast, he is observing what's going on, seeing all that. And the last day, he said in
Leviticus 23, on the eighth day, a holy convocation, a sacrifice
of fire shall be offered. Isaiah 55 says he'll come. He'll come. And this is what
he said. It says he cried. In that last day, that great
day of the feast, he stood and cried. That doesn't mean he wept,
it means he shouted. And I'm not going to do it right
now, because never a man spake like this man, and surely never
a man shouted like he shouted. But he shouted. Stan, he didn't
shout very much, but he shouted here. And he said, if any man
thirst. You see, he saw what all was
going on. All this just dead, dry, formal religion. It had all the required things,
you know. But it was dead. And Christ said,
if any man Thirst, let him come to me, and I'll give you a drink." This has made me thirsty just
thinking about it. Thirst. What is thirst? Now, I was thirsty just now.
I've done all the talking so far. You ever been really thirsty
though? You ever worked real hard and
and just got become hot and and absolutely your mouth, your tongue
cleaved to the roof of your mouth. Your lips were dry. Your mouth
felt like a desert. You absolutely had to have a
drink or you felt like you were going to die. Have you ever been
that thirsty? I have. Many times. And really there's only one thing
that will satisfy that thirst. It ain't Gatorade either. Gatorade. I tried it all. There's only
one thing, Rick, isn't it? There's only one thing. When
we were building the house together, he brought out a huge jug of
that Franklin County, what's the name of that mountain up
there you live on? Williams Mountain spring water, buddy, and it was
gone when the day was over. And I did the same. I brought
good old Rocky Mountain City water. And water. Water is the only thing that
would really satisfy that insatiable, seemingly insatiable thirst. Water. Well, Christ said, look
at this. If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink he
that believeth on me." Verse 38, "...as the scripture hath
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Living water. Oh my, who can preach on this? I wish I could make you thirsty
right now for Christ. I wish I could preach in such
a way that somebody in here says, I've got to have Him. That's
what thirst means. To some young person in here
says, I don't have Him. This world has made me thirsty. Give me Christ or I'm going to
die. But I can't do it. What does thirst mean? What does
it mean to thirst for Christ? Well, it doesn't mean a thing
if you ain't thirsty for Christ. Does that make sense? What does
thirst for Christ mean? It doesn't mean a thing to somebody
that is not thirsty for Christ. Look at Matthew 5 with me. Matthew
chapter 5. What does it mean? And I'll just
tell you. All I'm going to do is preach a sermon. How long
did it tell you words? The Holy Spirit's got to make
us thirsty. Matthew chapter 5. You know what it means, first
of all, to thirst for Christ? Here's what it means. Matthew
chapter 5. Look at verse 6. Matthew 5, verse
6. Blessed, or happy, truly blessed
by God are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled, a belly
full of it." Now, unless anybody who is labored and heavy laden
in religion and tried to make themselves acceptable with God
and tried to work out a righteousness of their own, tried to be religion,
I don't see how anybody could know
what this means. You see, dirt righteousness,
that doesn't mean just want to be a good person. It means to
be accepted by God. A person who knows they're absolutely
a hell-deserving sinner before God, And they've tried to do better, or this and that and
the other, but can't. Fail miserably. And they see
that Christ is their only hope. Christ is their only righteousness. That means a believer. A believer
never stops thirsting for this righteousness. A believer. An old believer, he never stops
thirsting for this right to whom coming. We continually come to
Christ for His righteousness, to be filled. Preaching. I say this word righteousness
all the time. Don't we, Henry? It's always
brought up. What does that mean? Right living?
No, it means acceptance with God. And those who feel themselves
to be sinners, like Paul, the chief of sinners. Like David, my sin is ever before
me. My sin is over my head. As in my loins, David said, a
loathsome disease. It's called sin. Like Paul said,
what I would do, I don't do. What I don't want to do, That's
what I do. I've got this lonesomeness called
sin. Anybody know what that means? You hunger for, but you know,
you desire God. You desire salvation. How are
you going to get it? Righteousness. Impunity. Isaiah 45 says, let the sky pour
down righteousness. Water comes from heaven, doesn't
it? Water comes down, it moisturizes
us. Well, so does righteousness.
It's got to come down. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. Anybody trying
to be religious, trying to get to God, and you feel it's left
you laboring and heavy laden and thirsty and you're not satisfied
that you're good enough, Christ said, come to me. I'll give you
this righteousness. I'll give it to you. That's what it means. Hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Oh, is anybody tired and thirsty,
religion left you striving, keeps you striving, never satisfied?
If your religion doesn't satisfy, I mean really satisfy, better
change religion. Christ said, out of your belly
shall flow rivers of living water. Come to Christ. Christ is all
the religion anybody needs. Listen to me. Jesus Christ is
all the religion anybody he's only three. Next thing look at
John fourteen the first for crying John fourteen. There in in nineteen
ninety seven. Nineteen ninety seven is the
day. Of education. In. I mean that is going to be the
savior of our world We want to educate our children
to save our mother. Mother nature, you know who I'm
talking about? You ain't going to save this
place because God's going to burn it up. I don't care what
they say. Be kind to the environment, but
you ain't going to save her. God's going to burn it flat up. Well, education though, you know,
is a thirst for what? Knowledge. A thirst for knowledge. Are you on the net? You on the net? You're not on
the net? What's wrong with you? Ain't you on the net? Why, you
dumb ignorant. Where you been? Everybody's on
the net. Yeah, everybody getting caught
in the net. Thirst for knowledge. Paul said
that ever learning, ever learning, ever learning and never coming
to what? A knowledge of the truth. The truth. Now listen, religion, and I'm not just talking
about society. The carnal mind is in, but that's
obvious. The carnal mind is dead. The
world, it's obvious the world out there is in darkness. I don't care how enlightened
they say they are. I don't care how smart, how much
education men have. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? We've looked at these things
before, last Wednesday night and the other time. We've utterly
refuted all this so-called wisdom from God's Word. But now I'm
talking about religion now, religion. This is what our Lord was dealing
with, religion. Our Lord didn't address the social
ills of the day, per se, did he? He didn't address Roman policies,
did he? Huh? Oh, no. Religion. Religion. And in religion today,
as you see it, there's lots of foolishness going on, signs,
miracles, wonders, and emotion, and this and that and the other.
That's what most of it is headed, but there's another group that's
headed into increasing their knowledge of facts and history
and exegetical this and that and
the other. Go to this seminary, go to that
school of learning, become a doctor of ministry and a M.D. and a
B.A. and a M.A. and a D.D. and a fiddle
D.D. and a X.Y.Z. and get you all
this and you'll become a really mature Christian. Well, look at John 14. Look at
what our Lord said. John 14, verse 6. He said, Christ said unto Thomas,
He said, I am the way, the truth. The truth. And the truth, a knowledge of
the truth, who is Christ, comes one way. How does it come? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. Well, how shall they believe
in him? Not a professor, a preacher. And an increase of that knowledge
of Christ comes the same way. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. He says, I am the truth. I am
the truth. Those two ladies I talked to
who were Russellites, you know, if they would just go home and
open their Bible and quit reading what their denomination is teaching
them, if they'd just open the Bible and start reading it, they'd
know the truth. The Holy Spirit is the spirit
of truth. He leads and guides into all truth. They say he's not the Father.
Well, Christ said he was. He said, I'm the Philip. Philip
said, show us the Father. Our Lord said, I am the Father. See, if they'd just read John
14, they'd see he is the Father. I am the truth. Well, let's study this. Let's
study that. Let's study him. Yeah, but wait, wait, wait, wait.
Let's get into this. Let's get into that. Let's get
into him. In him are hidden all the treasures
of what? Wisdom and knowledge. If you get outside of him, what
do you got? Foolishness, ignorance. In him
are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That means every other pursuit
is what? Foolishness and ignorance. Right, Henry? Yeah, but we've
got to know what. You've got to know whom. Whom
to know is to have eternal life. Is God going to ask you when
you get before him someday? Now tell me what you knew about
Jewish history. The Jews knew a lot about Jewish
history, didn't they? What think ye of my Son? What
think ye of Christ? That's the question. Oh my, the thirst for knowledge. You want to know God? Jesus Christ
is God. You know how to be saved? Jesus
Christ is on the way. You want to know how to live?
Just shall live by faith. Whatever Christ says, do. Faith in Him. Thirsty? Here's the last thing. Here's
the last thing to thirst. What it is to thirst for Christ. Everybody wants to be happy. There's an insatiable, that means
a, it seems like it cannot be satisfied,
a desire by everyone to be happy. Everything I read now in the
papers and magazines is like this. You want to live a happy,
long, and productive life? You want to live longer, better,
healthier, happier? That's everybody's pursuit, huh? Like it was Rome and Greece of
old. You want to be happy? Happiness? Where does happiness
come from? Things as Solomon. Never been Donald Trump would
look like a pauper. Well, he's probably not good.
Who's a good illustration of a rich man today? I don't know.
What's that fella's name from Texas that ran for president?
Ross Perot. He would be an absolute pauper
before Solomon. I mean, he looked like he didn't
have spare change. There was a queen from down in
the country of Sheba who was rich. A queen of a country. She
came up to see Solomon. She said, Why? I don't have nothing. Look at this. You want to read
sometime what all Solomon had? What he served every day. His
table. His food served up. And his servants. And his palace. His house and
all that. What did he say about it? I said,
vanity, vanity. It's all together. You lump it
all up. Vanity. Do you know if our houses
burn down, what will we have lost? I mean, really. I've been in a place before.
Where was I? I was with somebody one time in a store. A Walmart,
I think it was. I thought, you know, if this
place burned down, what would we be missing? Nothing. Happiness. Happiness. Thirst for happiness. People
think they're going to find it in things. Some people look for
it in religion. Happiness in religion, you know.
But you know, religion generally makes people one of two ways.
Listen to it and I'm about to quit. I promise. Religion generally makes people
one of two ways. It either makes them a ridiculous,
just a ridiculous, crazy, fanatical, smiling all the time, happy,
oh praise the Lord, brotherly, fool! That people think they
look at her or him and it's just, oh, woo-wee! And they think,
don't they have any problems at all? You know, they have bumper
sticker, God's greater than all my problems. Let's wait and see
if their daughter gets cancer and see if they don't jerk that
thing off their bumper. Let's wait and see if something
really bad happens and let's see if they say that about their
God. Let's just wait. Let's just wait
a little while and see what happens. And see that smile come off their
face. Paul wasn't smiling all the time.
Our Lord wasn't smiling all the time. He was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. David, in Psalm 73, he said,
they're not in trouble as other men. Talking about the world,
they're not in trouble. I'm talking about the religious
world. I really believe God withholds trouble from them, giving them
exactly what they want, leaving them in a refuge of lies because
they receive not the love of the truth. God sends them strong
delusion. Well, God's blessed me. I'm not
sick, my child. Everything's OK. God withholds
those things because they don't love the gospel. They don't love
the gospel, so. But the waters of a full cup,
Psalm 73, says the waters of a full cup of anguish. Sorrow
and pain are wrung out on God's people. The best people who have
ever lived this planet, the salt of the earth, have nothing but
trouble all their lives. Died, burned at the stake, and
died of cancer, and this and that and the other. Don't tell
me God wants you to be happy and not sick and all that stuff. That's the doctrine of devils.
There's an article in the paper, in our bulletin this morning. The righteous perish from the
earth. God kills them by various means. Why? Taking them away from the
really evil days that are coming. The blessings of God aren't the
things of this world necessarily. That might be the curse of God.
And I said, now the people are either
one of two ways. Ridiculously happy and the average
man looks at that religious fellow and says, I mean, I can't either
of that. Or, they're miserable all the
time. You know, they're so miserable,
their religion has made them miserable. Physically uncomfortable and
miserable, they can't do anything. And they make everybody around
them miserable, too. You ain't no really good pious
man. That ain't right either, is it? What is right? Where is
happiness? What is religion all about? Where
is true peace and joy? Well, it comes one way. Christ
said, Come unto me. Come unto me. I'll give you rest. Paul, now Paul was down in jail
suffering as no man, as nobody in here suffered like the Apostle
Paul. He was down in jail, he was singing. Let's hear one of these ultra-pious
super-Christians sing when they're in jail on bread and water. Ain't
nobody been there. Now we're not hearing them. Oh,
they can say all they want to driving down the road in their
brand new van. with their bumper sticker about
God greater than their problem. Let's hear him say that when
they're down in jail like the Apostle Paul. About ready to
get their heads cut off. Let's hear him say it then. And
go and they get their heads cut off. Paul said he was standing before
a gripper in chains. I love it. He was standing in
chains before Agrippa and the Queen. You know, she was sitting
there and all the court was around. Here was this little old bald-headed
fella in chains and thin and emaciated and a little Jew. And they said, You can speak
for yourself, Paul. And he said, Well, I'm just happy
to be able to tell you what I'm about to tell you. And he preached
the gospel. And he said, I wish you all were
like me. Except for these chains, he said, I wouldn't wish that
on anybody. It's been a hardship. But like
me, knowing who I know, he said, because I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he's going to keep me. He's
going to keep me, no matter what. No matter what. Paul, like I
said, Paul was hurt. He hurt. He mourned. He weeped.
Our Lord. Our Lord wept. Didn't he? There's a time for laughter.
There's a time for weeping. There's a time for sadness. There's
a time for unspeakable joy. Everything is a season. There's
a time. God's people aren't outwardly putting on a show of happiness
all the time because they hurt. have pain. Very real. Very real
to the flesh. Painful. But there's a joy unspeakable. There's a peace and a contentment.
I'm talking about a happiness in the heart that Christ said
no man can take this away from you. That you can be hurt and bad
and yet walk out there and the trees clap their hands. It's
just the mountains break forth in singing. Does your religion, let me ask
you the argument first, does your religion fill your soul,
fill your heart with rivers of water? Huh? Are there rivers
of water busting out of your belly? If not, something's wrong. Is this your experience? Isn't
this what Christ said? He that cometh to me out of his
Barriers shall flow rivers of living water, not out of your
head, right, Doctrine, but out of your belly, rivers of living
water. Well, I'll tell you how that
comes. I'll tell you what that's all about. I really can't tell
you. You've got to experience it. But upon hearing the gospel,
What is living water? Huh? What's living water? Christ is
the living water. In Him we live. For me to live
is Christ. When you hear the gospel, it's
not this way every time because of the weakness of the flesh,
but there are times when you hear the gospel and you come
in here just as thirsty as you can be. And you hear the gospel. Does it make you want to boast?
Huh? Now, I know it's not so with
some people. I see it. I see it. A bit like the disciples
on the road to Emmaus. After Christ spoke to them and
He was revealed to them, they said, Our hearts are burning.
Don't go. Don't go. Keep speaking. That's what they said. Don't
stop now. Have your heart ever done that? Your soul upon hearing
the gospel? If it hadn't, you haven't come
to Christ. You've never been thirsty. You've
never drunk that fountain. You've never drunk that fountain
filled. There was an old fellow. I told you about old brother
Henry Breedlove. Oh, my. The world doesn't know him, do they,
Mindy? A giant. A little old man preached
for 45 years down in Silicon, Alabama, on the backside of nowhere.
A little country church. Been there all my life. He preached
faithfully the gospel. And he wasn't a great preacher. that he was a faithful one. And
boy, did he love good preaching. I mean, he's like old Fred Wood.
Anybody that preached, he just got beside himself to hear it. He'd rather hear them preach
than preach himself. Now, there's a humble man. But
I remember as a boy, we'd go down there to his Bible conference
and Beryl Griswold and Henry Mahan and M.B. Magruder and on and on would
go down there and preach that little bitty country church.
No air conditioning, be 104 and a shade in a hot Alabama afternoon,
you know. And I remember being about, oh,
all my life, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old sitting down
there. My parents drug me down there and made me sit at 104
degrees and listen to preaching. Oh! But I remember that old man
behind me, and a man that started preaching, he'd be going, ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha. He'd be laughing. And I remember
thinking, I just didn't hear the joke. I remember thinking
that as a boy. I didn't hear that. And he'd
laugh some more. He's laughing. Boy, I was grumbling, you know.
Well, you know where that came from? It comes from Psalm 126. It said, When the Lord turned
again our captivity, we were like them that dreamed, and then
our mouths were filled with laughter. Laughter. happiness, real happiness. I don't know about you, but the
thing that gives me the most happiness, true, true joy and
happiness is this right here. And I get like Lalahu, who said,
My heart is like a bottle of wine that doesn't have a vent.
It just wants to bust. What about you? You're hearing
the gospel. Unless that's in your belly,
you hadn't come to Christ. I'm not saying all the time,
but unless it happens, you hadn't come to Christ. So my advice to you is to say,
Lord, make me thirsty. Make me thirsty. I haven't had
this insatiable thirst. Give it to me. And then fill
me with this living water to make my heart burst like this. All right, Brother Joe, what's
that? 252. 252. Stand and sing a couple of verses.