Places singing that song this
morning for the worship service. It's not hardly the kind of song
that pumps people up. That's what most preachers try
to do, song leaders. I call them smiling preachers. Don't smiling preachers make
you sick? You know the kind I'm talking
about, don't you? Always smiling. Never quit smiling. Because everything's
so good. But everything's not good with
God's people. They've got problems. I wish
they'd confront some of these fellas. I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 11, Matthew 11, and read a few verses here that
will serve as a text, as a springboard for what I want to say. Matthew 11. You can also be turning to the
book of Amos. Try to find that. It might take
you a little bit to find it. I tell you what, look in the
index. Save yourself time. The book
of Amos. A little bit after the book of
Daniel. All right, you got those two
scriptures? Matthew 11. Let's read verses 1 through 5.
Matthew 11. It came to pass when Jesus had
made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed
thence to teach and preach in their cities. Now, when John
had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another? Now John the Baptist had some
problems, didn't he? He's laying down in
prison, and he knows he's about to be
killed, and he was full of doubts and fears. I believe so. He's
just a man. He's not some superman like some
make him out to be, no. A great man, yes, but he's just
a man. A man of like passion. Like Elijah,
remember? Remember Elijah? What a great
man he was, but he became afraid, didn't he, Stan?
Just like any man would be. John had his fears and his doubts. He's laid in prison, he's concerned,
he's worried, and he sends word to the Lord and asking for some
assurance. That's what I was trying to say
a while ago. God's people have trouble, and they need some real
answers, some real help. Here is what the Lord said in
verses 4 and 5, Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show
John again those things which you do hear and see. Go tell
him again the same thing. Let him hear again the same thing. The thing that first caused him
to rejoice and gave him help and trouble and strength will
suffice again. Look at verse 5, "...the blind
receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached
to them." I've entitled this message, The
Poor Man's Gospel. The Poor Man's Gospel. Or you
could call it the poor and needy man's gospel. Now turn over to the book of
Amos chapter 8. Amos chapter 8. I'm convinced
that we're living in the day that Amos prophesied here. In Amos chapter 8. Now you probably
know, many of you know, the verse I'm going to refer to. But here
in Amos chapter 8. Look at verse 11. Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in
the land. Not a famine of bread, or literal
food, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words
of the Lord. And he goes on to say that a
person will have to come to sea and land to try to find it. There's no shortage of bread
in 1997, or at least for most people, certainly not in this
country. Now, I know that there are some
truly needy homeless people, but By
and large now, generally speaking, there's no shortage of bread,
no shortage of water, per se. But there is a worldwide dearth
or famine or lack of this bread, the Word of God. A worldwide
dearth or famine of gospel preaching. Christ-centered preaching. Christ
is the bread. And there's a worldwide famine
or shortage of the preaching of Christ. You know it's so.
And there's a world, he said here, the hearing of the Word.
There's a worldwide dearth, not only of their few fellows who
stand and proclaim or feed with the bread, but there are even
fewer who want to hear it. Our Lord said in Matthew 24.
He said in Matthew 24, verse 38, as in the days of Noah. As the days before the flood,
they were, you remember this, they were eating and drinking. So, our Lord's talking about
the day, immediate days before he returns. As in the days which
were before the flood, they were eating and drinking. Back when
the Lord destroyed the earth by water, there wasn't, it was
great prosperity going on. They were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving to Mary. You don't do those things when
there's real trouble, you know, a depression and so forth. But
that's time of prosperity. And they knew not. It says they
knew not till the flood came and carried them away. And he said that's the way it's
going to be when the Son of Man returns. So that tells me it's going to
be a time of prosperity. A time of prosperity. No shortage
of literal bread or water. Now, Noah is a picture of Christ
there in that story. Noah is a picture of Christ.
His name, Noah's name means rest. His name means comfort, Noah. And the ark that he built That's a picture of Christ, too.
Christ is the ark of salvation. He's the door. He's the ark.
He's that refuge. He's that place in which all
the animals, all that went in, were safe with Noah. That's a
picture of Christ, a picture of salvation in Christ. But Christ says, as in the days
before the flood, that's the way it's going to be right before
he comes. and closes the door. When Christ comes the second
time, he's going to, like Noah, like God, that is, shut the door
of the ark and nobody could go in then. And when Christ comes,
the door of mercy is going to be shut. And then he and his
people who are in him are going to go and dwell forever in glory. Now turn over to Romans chapter
one. Romans chapter one. Romans chapter 1. I have to sort of paint the picture here.
Romans chapter 1 talks about the natural man, the average
man, who is not interested in God,
nor thankful to God. I had a lady in the Bible study
yesterday. bring up the question, say, well,
can't, cannot man, this is not one of our ladies, but a visitor
said, well, cannot, cannot a man reject God? Well, that's not the issue, you
see, that's what everybody does by nature. That's really not the issue.
That's what everyone brings up when you talk about God's sovereignty
inside. Well, can a man reject? People say, I believe, they say,
I believe a man can accept or reject God. Well, I believe half
of that's true. I believe a man can and does
reject God. I believe all men and women by
nature can and do reject God across the board. They're not
interested in God. I don't believe a man can accept
God or receive him, like John said, it be given him from above. That's the issue. But Romans one describes clearly
the natural man describes nineteen ninety-seven describes our generation
might describe somebody in here. The natural man is not really
interested in God nor thankful to God. Verse eighteen says the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men. Someone say wait a minute I'm
not unrighteous I'm not ungodly. Well, the Scripture sure says
we are. The Scripture says there's an unrighteous who hold the truth
in unrighteousness. That's like a man sitting with
a Bible in his lap saying, I'm not unrighteous, I'm not ungodly,
this is not talking to me. You're holding the truth now
in unrighteousness. It's like a woman talking to
my wife on the phone. She said, Mindy, I want you to
tell me now that if you see me or if you
hear me sinning, I want you to tell me about it. She says, you're
doing it now. Think about the presumption of
someone, self-righteousness of someone saying, if you ever see
me sin, I want you to tell me about it. I'm telling you now,
you're guilty of the grossest sin before God, self-righteousness. That's what unrighteousness is,
you know? Unrighteousness. There's only
one righteousness, and that's the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And everything else is unrighteousness. Though you be religious and moral,
we be religious and moral if it's not the righteous, if we're
not trusting Christ only, we're unrighteous. We've got a righteousness,
but God says it's unrighteousness. He calls those people workers
of iniquity. He said harlots will get into
heaven before those people will. You think about the seriousness
of that. Well, in verse 28, it says, Even
as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, or acknowledge
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a mind void of judgment,
a reprimand mind. Psalm 10 says this, a man will
not seek after God. Listen, Psalm 10 verse 4. A man
will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. And a man likes to think about
many things, but God's not one of them. He really is. Except when we get sick. Or somebody
dies. Or we get in trouble. And we
start calling on God. Well, look at Revelation 3. Revelation
3. Turn over there. Revelation chapter
3. And this is especially true in
religion. Especially true in religion.
There's an even greater ignorance of the truth in religion, the
truth of the Word of God, because most everything is going
on in religion but the clear, consistent preaching of the truth,
the Word of God. You'd be surprised how ignorant
religious people are of this Word. You'd be real surprised how ignorant
people are of this word. I've seen women who have been
religious and can't find a book of the Bible, don't know where
it is. I had a young man come to talk
to me, and he said he grew up in religion. His dad and his
grandfather were in the church or something, in the deacons
or something or that. And I handed him my Bible, and
I wanted him to turn to a few verses and read them out loud
to me. He couldn't find the Gospel of John. He couldn't find, first, he couldn't
find anything. He didn't know where anything
was. Well, in religion, look at Revelation
3, verse 17. Because thou sayest, I am rich
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest
not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked." You're poor. He says, I counsel you to buy
gold tried in the fire. That's the faith. Buy the truth
and sell it not. Or find a place where it is Consistently
declared and preached and don't leave for a minute. Don't sell it for anything. You found a pearl of great pride. If you're a poor man. You've been made rich. If you
heard the gospel. And keep hearing the unsearchable. riches of Christ. But because
they say, I have need of nothing. Most people, you know, most people
are very happy in their religion. Most people are very happy and
very content in their lives and in their religion. And I attribute
that to these smiling preachers, too. They've told them so long
that God loves them, everything's all right, that they believe
it. Everything's all right. and how
much God needs them. That's why it's so difficult.
Do you find it hard, like me, a hard matter to get somebody
to come hear the gospel? Do you? Do you find it a hard
matter for somebody to sit or stand and listen to you as you
tell them about the sovereign God and the sovereign Christ
and the successful gospel? Do you find it a hard matter?
You have a hard time finding anybody who wants to hear about,
wants to hear the word of God? I do. I told the lady to ask,
or to invite some ladies to come to the Bible study, and some
of you did, didn't you? I did. And I'm thankful one visitor
did show up, but that's it. That was it. Most people are very happy with
what they have. Right, Jeanette? Haven't you found that to be
so? Most people are very happy, very content with their religion. Most everybody has a life. Most
everybody has a religion. Most everyone has a refuge. Most
everyone has a profession, has a belief, and the scripture says
they've made a covenant with hell and death. It'll not come
to I may. I've got a refuge. And they don't need this gospel. Do they not? They just don't
need this gospel. I wonder, I say, why won't more
people come hear this gospel? They don't need it. They don't
need this gospel. The gospel now. The gospel. Now,
why are you here? They're not here. I'm not preaching
to them. They're not here. But why are
you here? I tell you why I'm here, because
I need this gospel. And I tell you why I won't go
anywhere else than here, or at least somewhere like it, because
this is where the gospel is. The gospel. It's a poor man's
gospel. Most aren't needy, that's what I'm saying. Certainly not
poor. That's part of the problem in
our day, I really believe it is. certainly aren't poor. David, listen to David, the king
of Israel, who was the wealthiest man on earth at the time. There was no kingdom as rich
as David's kingdom, the kingdom of Israel at the time. David
was a man, wealthy, had great and many possessions, yet he
writes five times in the Psalms alone. He says five times, concerning
himself, he said, I am poor and needy. I am poor and needy. What does that mean? There's nobody in here who is
lacking the necessities of this life, as a matter of fact. Everyone
in here, without exception, is rich in this world's good. I mean rich. There's not a person in here
who doesn't live better than even David lived. It's so. David rode in a wagon, or chariot,
or at least as nice as they could make it. He didn't ride in a
Volvo station wagon. It was a wagon wagon. or a horse's back or something,
right? He had a house all right. David
had a nice house. He didn't have screens on the
windows, and it didn't have air conditioning, didn't have a heat
pump. Oh, he had water all right, but
it wasn't hot. I'm telling you, we were rich
and increased with goods. We need to know, we need to realize, That's the problem in our day.
It's the reason men don't need this gospel. All right, what
does poor mean? Look back at Matthew 5. Our Lord
says this in Matthew 5. He tells what it means to be
poor. Matthew 5. Let's dwell here for a few moments.
Matthew 5. The poor, when you think of poor,
when you think of the poor of this country, what do you think
of? You think about somebody poor, who do you think about?
You think about a homeless person in New York City. wherever. You
think about somebody who's without, don't you? A poor person is somebody
who is without the necessities of life. A poor person is somebody
who cannot provide for themselves. Now listen to me now. I've only
been talking fifteen minutes. I've already lost some of you.
Please listen to me. This is poor man's gospel. If
you're poor and needy, this is for you. When you think of a
poor person, it's somebody who's without. They don't have the
necessity. A poor person is somebody who
cannot provide for themselves. The necessity. Somebody who is
a beggar. When you think of a poor person,
you think of a beggar. You think of a poor person in
Scripture, I immediately think of blind Bartimaeus. He's not
only blind, but he's poor. And he's in rags. And he's a
beggar. And he needs help. A poor person
is somebody who needs help. And somebody else is going to
have to give it to him. That he cannot help himself. A poor
person is not somebody who gets help because they're trying to
help themselves. A poor person is somebody who
cannot help himself. They need help. They need somebody. They're going to have to seek
their help from somewhere else. Well, look at Matthew 5. Our
Lord says, the first thing he said in talking about these blessings
of God, the first thing he says is what? Blessed, verse 3, blessed are
the poor in spirit. Our Lord tells us what it means
to be poor. Now, I'm telling you right now,
this is the reason we're not listening to this right now with
enwrapped intention like we ought to. We're not as poor as we need
to be. He said, blessed are the
poor. poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. The kingdom of heaven is the gospel of the kingdom.
The kingdom of heaven. David, like I said, David had
great possessions. And one can have great possessions
like us in here. We have great possessions and
yet be poor in spirit. Poor in spirit. I said a poor
person is somebody to be without. Somebody without. Somebody without,
somebody unable to provide for themselves, a beggar, somebody
seeking help from somebody else. Somebody without. And this is
why the world is not interested in this gospel, because they've
got one that's just fine. The world is not lacking wisdom. It's not lacking these things,
knowledge. But, buddy, I'm telling you,
a poor man in spirit, he's lacking wisdom. He's lacking knowledge.
He doesn't know anything yet as he ought to know. He's not
wisdom, or he doesn't have the wisdom he feels like he ought
to have. Wisdom. Wisdom to know God. If you ask the average person
about God, well, you've talked to them.
They don't know God. And you try to tell them about
the God of Scriptures, they're not interested in knowing the
God. They've got a God. They've got a wisdom of God.
They know God. But the poor man says, I don't
know God. Would you tell me about God?
I'd love to find that same young man that came in to talk to me,
said he was troubled. And he even was crying. And I thought, and I've said
this before, I don't get too excited over things I first see
and hear out of people. I don't, not at all. But he's
crying. He said he was in trouble. And
we turned and began to read Isaiah 53 together. I had him reading.
I said, who's he talking about? He said, I don't know. And, you
know, that whole situation, I felt like I was Philip and he was
Ethiopian eunuch, you know. I thought, maybe this fellow's
lost. Maybe I've really found, or the
Lord has sent to me a true lost person. He ain't here this morning. Not poor and needy, not too much
so, anyway. He didn't know anything. And
I tried to tell him everything I knew. Talked too much, I guess. Well, he's not here this morning. See, a person, I'd like to find
a lost person. I'd like to find somebody out
there in this world who says, I don't know God. I read the
scriptures and I just can't, I don't know. I need wisdom. How can I know God? How can I
know how to be saved? How can I? I need wisdom. And I'll tell
that person, Christ is wisdom. Christ is made unto us wisdom.
That's what I tried to tell that young fellow. We just talked
about Christ for a long time. I tried to point him to Christ. He had a smile on his face. I
see, I see, I see, he kept saying. Well, the way that God I'd like to
find somebody, and this is a poor person is without a righteousness. A poor person says, Lord, I've
tried. I've tried to be the best that
I can, and I've failed miserably. I've failed. I've tried to be
religious. I'd love to find some religious
person who says, my religion doesn't meet my needs. I've tried
to be religious. I've tried to work my way to
God. I've tried and I've failed. Could you tell me where I'd find
some help? I'd tell them, Christ is made
unto us. Righteousness that we need, holiness
that we need, that you don't need to try. That's what I tried
to tell that young fellow. He said, I'm trying to find God.
I said, quit trying. Start trusting. Look to Christ. Salvation is not in us trying.
I said, quit looking to yourself. You can never find anything in
there. Look to Christ, you'll find everything in Him, all and
in all. Somebody without a righteousness,
that's what it means to be poor. I'm without a righteousness.
You know, Jeanette, we stay poor all of our lives just because
we made a profession, we trust Christ. Doesn't mean that we
don't need that righteousness every day and we don't plead
for it every day. To whom coming? We keep coming
to Christ. How? As poor beggars saying,
I'm still trying and I'm still failing, would you still be my
righteousness?" Yes, he is made into a righteousness. It's a
poor man's gospel, you see. It's an old sinner's gospel. Without, to be without strength. That's what Romans 5 said, when
you were without strength. All right, now I've been following
the Lord and serving the Lord for several years now. Man, I'm weaker. I feel weaker
now than I did. What am I going to do? He is
our strength. He's an ever-present help in
time of trouble. When they were without strength,
what's our hope now? Same as our hope was then when
He found us without strength. Christ died for the ungodly.
When we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.
I'm still ungodly. I'm worse than I ever was. I'm
poorer. I'm a poorer. example of a Christian. How about
you? I'm a mighty poor example of a preacher, I'm telling you.
There's not a message I don't preach, I don't mourn over it.
But my strength is that his word won't fail, not my ability to
preach it. And it's not my ability to keep
it. It's not my ability to believe him. It's not my ability to trust
him. Oh, a mighty poor Christian. He's a mighty strong Savior. Poor in spirit, yet the Lord
thinketh on me. I find it hard to think on him
at times, just like the people in Romans 1. God's not in all
my thoughts. I mean, all this. Anybody poor,
got a poor man's gospel here. Christ is the poor man's strength.
He's the poor man's righteousness. Oh, I don't feel all this preaching.
I ain't talking to you. Look at verse 6. Our Lord says,
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled. You know,
I'm about 10 pounds overweight right now. You don't believe it, ask Mindy.
She reminds me of it constantly. Of course, I never say anything
to her about, you know, being a little bit, put a Jeep But I'm about ten pounds over
right now. Why? It's all that bread she's fixing.
It's that woman's fault. If she wouldn't fix that bread,
I wouldn't do it. Buyers chocolate ice cream at
night before bed with peanut butter in it. That's exactly
what it is. Every night. That'll do it. You skip Charles,
we'll put on weight. I got the answer. Eat a big bowl,
this big, of Breyer's chocolate ice cream with peanut, Jif peanut
butter. Just five scoops of it. That'll do it. Well, I'm overweight.
The point I'm trying to make is that I'm not hungry. I don't stay hungry. I don't
get hungry for long if I don't get filled. Or thirsty. Got lots to drink. Got tea, got
orange juice, got lemonade, got whatever you want. We got it. Boy, but this righteousness,
I look within, I try to find out, I'm skinny. Spiritually speaking, call me
slim. I look for something good in me, and there's slim pickings.
How about you, huh? And I find myself all the time
hungering and thirsting for this righteousness. Christ said the Word of God. He said that Christ is the water
of life. He said the water of life will
be like you in a well spring. John, do you have a hard time
sometimes getting a drop? You don't find much of a spring
there. You find a dry creek bed. Well, come on back to the water. The poor man's gospel. Oh, Christ stood and said, if
any man thirsts. Our Lord attended that great
feast. Here you are. Here we sit on
Sunday morning. It's Sunday morning, you know.
Everybody is in church on Sunday morning. And we got our Sunday
best on. And we go through this feast,
all of this that we go through on Sunday morning. And the world's
doing it. And. That's what happened. It's been going on from the beginning.
Men have been trying to be religious, you know, going through the motions
we read there in Isaiah, twenty nine people, lots of people drawn
near with their lips, you know, lots of people singing. Do it
and carry it on. Well, back in our Lord today,
our Lord attended a seven day. Bible So to speak. Seven days long. Could we do
that? Well, he attended a seven-day
meeting. It says at the end of that seven
day, on the eighth day, that's significant, our Lord stood and
he cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me. And I'd love to find somebody
who's been through religion after religion and has left them thirsty. So much religion going on, isn't
it? I look, I listen, I try to find
somebody saying something. You know what I'm talking about,
don't you? I try to find somebody on the TV or on the radio saying
something. Many of you get a little bit
excited when you see something that's got something in it. You
know what I'm saying? Somebody said some good things. There's so much religion going
on, so much in the name of God, so much in the name of Christ,
so many preachers, so many churches, so much ceremony, so many denominations. I'd love to find somebody that
says, I'm so sick of this. I'm just so thirsty. It's just
left a bad taste in my mouth, religion. It's left me empty
and void of anything good. You got anything for me? I'd tell that, now I ain't one
of those smiling preachers, but this is making me happy right
now. I'd tell that person, yeah, I got a poor man's gospel for
you. If you've heard all you can take,
now hear this. Oh, if you've had all the religion
that you can stand, then be seated. Sit still. If you've done all
that the preacher tell you to do, and it hasn't helped you
any, then come here and I'll tell you to just sit still right
there. And let me tell you about him
who's done it all. Over in Isaiah it says, This
is their strength. Listen to this. He said, This
is their strength, that in quietness In being still, they'll find
rest. They'll find help. Preachers today try to give people
something to do. You know, keep them busy serving
the Lord. A true preacher now tells people,
don't do anything. Just sit still. Like when they
tell them to come to Christ, like Brother Scott. He said,
now you come to Christ, but don't get up out of your seat. Don't
move a muscle. Christ ain't down here. He's
seated in heaven. He keeps your body in the pew,
sends your heart to glory. I'd like to find somebody, religions
left them empty and dry and thirsty and need real answers. You know,
there's no real answers in religion. I mean for real problems. Preachers tell them, if a preacher
stood up and told me, smile, God loves you, I'd say, he's
sure got a funny way of showing it. A loved one of mine died
of cancer. I lost my job, and I just had
open-heart surgery. What's this love of God you're
talking about, preacher? Huh? They don't have any real
answers for real problems, for real men and women, real sinners. I tell you what, they really
don't have answers for real sinners, real sinners that have real temptations. Well, Christ does. He said, come
unto me. Call you to labor and a heavy
laden. I'll give you rest. Cast your care upon him. He cares
for you. He doesn't just feel your problem. He says he'll take them on him.
You're seeing. Now I'm talking about seeing.
Poor in spirit. Seeing. Everybody's got a physical
problem. Everybody's got a problem on
this earth. That's not the problem now. That's not the burden that
the poor man feels. The poor man is poor in spirit. He feels himself wretched, vile,
naked, miserable, poor, naked, blind, deaf, dumb, all these
things, spiritually. I don't know nothing. I don't
have nothing. Christ says, I'm all, and in all. Christ says the poor have the
gospel preached unto. And a poor man says, I can't
do what I would. Romans 7, he said, I can't do
the things that I would. What I would do, I don't do. What I do, I don't want to do. Can anybody help me? Christ says,
I'm the only one that will. I can't get rid of the sin that
plagues me. I can't do it. You won't. You won't ever get rid of the
sin that plagues you. You see, Christ leaves the symptoms. puts away the disease. That's
a strange position, isn't it, John? That's the way you figure that
out. Go home and figure that out. That's what he does. He
leaves a symptom. We still bear the symptoms all
the days of our lives. But this great position, he cured
the disease. That's what we really need. We're
going to die of something. We're not going to die of sin,
no. We're going to live forever. The devil and false religion,
you know, might cure all your symptoms, but you're going to
die of that disease. Now, does that make sense? I got this loathsome disease
in my loins, like David said in Psalm 38, loathsome disease
in my loins. Can anybody get rid of this?
Christ says, I can and I do put it away for all that come to
me. I leave the symptoms. You've
got to have them or you'd quit coming. Right? You've got to keep them. You
quit coming to the doctor, the physician. But you're not going
to die from the disease. I can't understand the Bible.
Christ is the Bible. Look over back at Isaiah 29. I'll quit with this, okay? Isaiah
29. I started to just stay right
there the whole time. Go through it. I got such a blessing. Just reading this with you a
moment ago. But, well, to be exact, it was 37 moments ago.
Now let me close with this. Look at it again, all right?
Maybe it'll mean more to you now. And up there in those verses
11 through 13, isn't that a clear indictment against these You
know, they've got a DD, but they don't know what this book is
saying. I get these all the time. I get
these brochures from religious places offering me to further my religious
education. I guess somebody's told them
I'm a dummy. A backwards preacher with no
education. I guess they've heard me on tape say how ignorant I
am, and they send me all this stuff. Well, they've offered
me an M.D., an M.D. men, a doctor of ministry. They
sent me this brochure offering for me to come to school, and
what they said, among other things, they said, come hear new voices. He said, You need to come hear
new voices. And boy, I don't know much, but
I know this. They know less than I do, because
there's only one voice I want to hear, and I don't want to
hear a new one. I want to hear the one that's as old as time
itself. And I know Christ said, My sheep
will hear one boy. My boy. Well, these learned ones,
they deliver on the book, and they can't read it. It's sealed.
They got it closed. They ain't opening it. They're
not reading it. They're reading the Sunday School
Quarterly. And, you know, a paper by Dr. Swashkoff, but they ain't
reading God's Word, the Son of God's Word. Well, look, let's
read. He's opened unto us the Word,
verse 18, and that day your death will hear the words of the Book.
Now, here are the words of the book. John, did you hear these
words when you were reading them? Did you hear what he was saying?
Was he speaking to you? The deaf hear the words of the
book. It was a day when you were deaf,
wasn't it, John? It was a day when you didn't
care anything about God, the Bible, the Scriptures, about
like maybe somebody in here right now. I'd just be glad when you
get this old whiff, preacher. But then there was a day when
you heard it and you said, I can't get enough. You can stop it now.
Don't stop now. You heard the words of the book.
It wasn't just the book. It is words of somebody, someone
speaking to you. Shepherd's voice, what it is,
Jeanette. These words quick. Somebody spoke this, not just
a man wrote it. God said, My sheep are going
to hear My voice, and they're going to hear it and hear it
and keep hearing it. They were deaf at one time. They
were deaf. And they turned to death, saying,
I'm tired of this. Aren't you through yet? Now,
He unstopped their ears. And it was the most glorious
thing they ever heard. The poor man's gospel. And the eyes of
the blind shall see out of obscurity. My dad used to say all the time,
now see here, see now, see now. Do you see, son, do you see?
God says this all the way through the Scriptures. He says, see
now, see now that I am He. Now I see. I see. out of obscurity, a wonderful,
glorious thing. An average person could sit and
listen to the story of Mephibosheth and not have any effect on them.
Or the story of Gomer over there and Hosea. An average person
could listen to that and not have any effect on them. But
boy, a poor man now, he hears that with enrapt attention. He sees wonderful things in that.
Obscure little passages. An obscure little minor prophet. That's what somebody said one
time about it. Preachers call them the minor
prophets. Malachi is a minor prophet. Oh, they shall see out
of darkness the day when we were in darkness. Verse 19, The meek
also shall increase their joy in the Lord. It's the meek, not
the high and the mighty and the noble. It's the meek, it's not
the proud. It's the meek, it's the humble,
it's the broken, it's the contrite. Their joy in the Lord is going
to be increased. And the poor, look at that, verse
19, I'll quit. Poor among men shall rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel. Poor. Go tell John. Go tell John Davis. that the poor have the gospel
preached to. There's a soup kitchen for sinners. There's a soup kitchen for sinners. Serving up soup every Wednesday
and every Sunday. Go get in line if you're poor. If you need it. Sometimes on
Saturday morning. You need it? Oh, I'm hungry and
thirsty. Just go get in line with the
rest of it. Open your mouth. I said, I don't feel it. I don't
feel it. Well, I hope somebody has a little
feeling. Not a feeling. A feeling. Joe, you got a song picked out? 222.