Believe in Him, believe in God
Teach me to love the truth of our God O send Thy Spirit, Lord, to me,
that the angels on high may see. Couldn't sing a more profitable, helpful hymn to prepare us to
worship, if indeed you sung it from the heart. Nor could you hear a more profitable
message than the one you're about to hear tonight. This is a message which, if the principles of this
message are put into practice, this message will bless you in
the hearing of God's Word. And that is why we're here, isn't
it? I hope so. To hear God's word. To hear, to learn, and profit
by it from God's word. To hear what God has to say to
us. Now, I gleaned much of this.
I give credit where credit is due. I gleaned much from Mr.
Spurgeon. I read a sermon by him with nearly
the same title as this one. and many things that he stated
could not be stated any better, so I give much of the credit
to him. Now, it is a good thing to be
under the sound of the Word of God. It's a good thing. You can't be saved without it. I don't care what anyone says,
you cannot be saved Without it, Romans 10, 17 says, faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. How shall they hear
without a preacher? We know, Paul said, your election. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
we know your election because the gospel came to you. That
does away with this fatalistic attitude that some have that
you don't have to hear. The word, you don't have to hear
the gospel, but if you're elect, you're going to be saved no matter
what. No, this is the means God uses, the word of God. The word
is God's power. The word of God is God's power.
It's powerful. It's quick, quickening, life-giving. It's the word of life. Christ
said, My words are spirit, they're life. It's quick, it's life-giving,
life-changing. Bring a man, a woman, a young
person back from the dead. Raise them up from being dead
in trespasses and sins. It's all up to the Holy Spirit.
I see some drifting already. It's all up to the Spirit of
God. But it is quick, it is powerful,
it's sharp, it's able. It's able to accomplish what
God sends it for. God sends it for two purposes,
either to save us or to condemn us with it. We're going to be
chargeable for what we've heard or what we had opportunity to
hear or what we did with what we did hear or did not hear. God sends it and it accomplishes
something. Being under the sound of it.
is the only way to feel its power. If we want to be saved, we're
going to have to be under the sound of the Word. If we want
our children to be saved, they're going to have to be under the
sound of the Word. Anybody who is saved is saved by God's power,
which is the preaching of His Word. Now, these are reasons
to avail ourselves of every opportunity of hearing the Word, Reasons
enough. All right, and whatever motive
we may have. Be it wrong or right, you know,
we come sometimes. A great deal of the time we come
with the wrong motive. It will be that as it may, it's
still the power of God and God. Oh, and almost always overrule. Even our. Wicked and hypocritical
motives. Doesn't it? I've urged you time
and time again, time when you don't feel like coming or making
every excuse for yourself not to come, you better come anyway. God generally overrules in those
cases. And whatever the motive is, if you're not under the sound
of the word, you're not going to get anything. Not going to
get anything. And we make slow strides, slow
steps. small steps in the Word of God,
kind of like one step forward and two steps back. And whatever the motive may be,
we still need to be under the sound of it. It's God's power.
It's God's Word. It's what he uses. Yet, there's
a right way to listen to the Word of God. There's a right
way to attend to the Word of God, a way to hear it and be
blessed. Are you interested? The farmer doesn't just merely
sow seed and expect to have a good harvest, does he? The farmer,
when he goes out, he intends to have a good harvest. Does
he just throw the seed out there and then hope for the best? No. He does other things, doesn't
he? He uses other means. He fertilizes, he waters, and
so he cultivates, he pulls weeds, doesn't he? And this is the same
thing with the hearing of the Word of God. The seed is sown
upon the hearing of the Word of God, but there are other things,
there are other ways, other means that we're to use in the hearing
of the Word, the cultivation of it. Does that make sense to
you? All right. Now, the purpose of
this message, as I said, was how to hear the Word of God and
be blessed by it. Now, I know people use those
terms, how to, but I couldn't think of a better way, a better
to give you my purpose for this message. So look here, James
chapter one now, verse 16, and I've already tried this on and
it fits well. Every word of it. James chapter
one. Let's read now, let's read, read
it again, let's read verses 16 through 22. Now, do not air my
beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. Everything we need is going to
have to come down to us, isn't it? It cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of
his own will beget he us. How did he do that? How did he
give birth to us? Peter said the same thing. By
the word of truth, incorruptible seed, which is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you. That's the word of God,
that we're born again. by, born from. He begat us with
the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his
creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, seeing the power and the necessity
of the word and what God does with it, wherefore, my beloved
brethren, let every man be swift to hear." In other words, make
haste to go hear it. Swift to hear. anxious to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath. The wrath of man worketh not
the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the
engrafted word which is able to save your soul. Be ye doers of the word, and
not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Did you hear it? If you don't hear anything else
I said tonight, I hope you heard that. We just read God's word. What a powerful portion it was. Three points. Before hearing,
during the hearing, after the hearing. All right, before the
hearing. before the hearing of God's word. There's preparation needed in
order to hear the word of God. Preparation. And don't let anybody
in here speak rashly as one of the foolish people, like Job
said to his wife. Don't let anybody speak in here
and say, well, the wind bloweth where it lifteth, and if he's
going to bless me, I'll be blessed. Don't you talk like a fool now.
God uses means. God uses means. God blesses means, which he has
ordained. He said, you reap what you sow,
didn't he? He said, you sow to the flesh,
you reap flesh. You sow the spirit, what? You reap spirit. He said,
you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly, didn't he? Is that
what he said? You sow bountifully, you'll what? Reap bountifully. Sounds like
the reward to me, doesn't it? There's nobody in here Everybody
in here knows I'm not talking anything about acceptance with
God. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about benefiting from what we're doing here. All right?
God ordained these things. Unless anybody says something
like that, fatalistic, well, if I'm going to be blessed, I'm
going to be blessed. Well, you leave God's sovereignty
to him. You leave God's sovereignty to
him, and you take all The responsibility he gives you, you take it and
do with it what he said. That makes sense? You leave God's
sovereignty to him. Secret things belong unto the
Lord. The revealed things, the revealed things of our responsibility
belong to us. Let's take our responsibility,
OK? All right? Number one under this point,
before hearing, preparation. Number one. And Spurgeon didn't
say this. Man, this has to be first. To
come before God, to come to hear the word of God, to come to God
in any way, shape, form, or fashion, we must first come in the name
of Christ. We must come by faith in Christ. Look back at chapter
one, that's what he's saying here, or back at the first part
of the chapter. He comes in verse six, he says,
let him ask in faith. We come in the name of Christ.
However you come, we better come in the name of Christ. You better
come in pleading the blood, pleading his righteousness, pleading his
person, his work, pleading his intercession. Come as you are,
but you better come with the blood. As sinful as you may feel,
a filthy sinner, but you better come under the blood, pleading
the blood. You can come as a filthy sinner,
but don't ever approach God without the blood, without the blood
of Christ. Come asking in the name of Christ
to be bled. Ask in faith, he said, nothing
wavering. You see that? Ask in faith, nothing
wavering. Don't come, don't anybody ever
come thinking that we're doing God a service, that God needs
us. But faith is coming as a sinner
unto Christ in need of a blessing. helpless, hopeless sinner, a
needy sinner. That's what faith said. And he
said this, come in faith, nothing wavering. He that wavereth is
like a wave of the sea, driven with wind and tossed. Verse seven,
let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord.
Come with a genuine desire. When the Lord said, we worship
the Father in spirit and truth. We come with a genuine desire,
not a double mind. We come in the name of Christ,
and we come to hear from God, not to go through the motions. We come with a genuine desire
to hear from God. We've got to come with that desire.
Lord, please speak to me. That's why I'm here. That's why
I'm here. Speak to me. Nothing wavering. And not knowing what you want,
not just coming for no reason and praying your prayer out of
duty. You won't get a thing that way. Come with a genuine faith
in Christ and a need for Christ and a need to be blessed. All
right, let's read on. Verses 19 through 21. Read again. My beloved brethren, wherefore
in preparation, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
ready to hear. What that swift mean? Ready to
hear. All right, swift, ready to hear,
hear. Now, it's a small, Paul said,
it's a small matter that I be judged of you. As much about
me you can judge and find fault with. But that's of no matter. That's of no consequence. If
you find fault in me, there's much to find. Find it. Judge me if you like. Dislike
me if you like. There's no consequences, I don't
think, about you disliking me. But if a man preaches the Word
of God, woe is unto the one who sits in judgment of the Word
of God. Be it from an earthen vessel,
it's still the Word of God, isn't it? We come not to judge the
preaching, but to be judged by it. We come not to judge the
word being said. This is what he means by be ready
to hear, be ready to hear. And I don't know why it is preachers
sometimes are the worst about that. I told one of the preacher
brethren, I said, if I had to preach, if everybody was like
some preachers I've preached to before, I'd never preach again.
Never sit there with a. Like you're not going to impress
me, say something I hadn't already heard, you know. I mean, it's. But we come ready to hear. Ready
to hear from God. I said we're to be judged by
the word of God, not sit in judgment of it. We're not little judges. We're being tried, aren't we? We're to be comforted. Yes, we're
to be encouraged. Yes, we're to be strengthened.
Yes, but what a second Timothy three sixteen said. All the word
is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine. Yes,
but what is the rest of it? Reproof, correction, instruction. Reproof, do we need any of that?
Oh my, oh my. Correction we need correcting.
Are we reach full maturity yet or do we need a little correction.
We need a little bit of God's. Correction my. Instruction that
we know everything. Are we ready to hear the scripture
ready to hear. Or to be judged by the word of
God. These are words in the scriptures talk about being sifted tried. were to come as faulty creatures
in need of the dross to be consumed. Right? To be tried in the fire. Now what it says, Terry, that
word is like a fire. It consumes the dross. It's like a fuller's soap. We
need to be washed, don't we? We need to be purified. David,
listen to David's word in Psalm 139. Try me. Know me. Lead me. Teach me. Wash me. Psalm 51. Cleanse me. Purge me. Create in me a clean heart. Renew
a right spirit within. Teach me. Mold me. Make me. Conform me. Sounds like we need
a lot of help. A lot of help. That's the way we're
to come to the Word of God. Be ready to hear. Sift me, try
me, search me, cut me, wound me, judge me. Right? Ready to hear what the
Word of God says. Now listen to me. The worst sort
of hypocrite, the worst sort of hypocrite is a man who says
he believes. Says he believes. Yeah, I believe
that. That's true. That's so. He believes. He knows. Yeah,
I know that. I believe that. I know that. Yet when the Word
of God comes to him, He's offended by it. That's the worst sort
of hypocrite in it. That's like saying, well, that,
you know, everybody else needs that, not me. Now, we are to
be ready to hear. Verse 21 says the same thing. Receive with meekness the word,
as little children. Receive it. All right, back to
verse 19. So we're to be, before hearing, in preparation, we're
to be swift to hear, hear, ready to hear. Look at the second one. Slow to speak. Slow to speak. And many, many
don't hear what is said because, now listen, many don't hear what
is said because we're too busy either talking or thinking or
anxious to tell what we know. You're not guilty of that, surely.
I know that so, because I'm guilty. One man said good learners are
good listeners. Poor learners are merely waiting
for their turn to speak. Good learners are good listeners.
Poor learners are merely waiting for their turn to speak. Have
you ever talked to someone and just knew they're not listening
to me? Have you ever sat there and talked to someone? And talk
to them, look them right in the eye and talk to them and you
say that the light is on, but nobody's home, you know. Have
you? Certainly you have. Well, I do
it four times a week. Hello? But like I said, it's not me
you're listening to. And it's a small matter if you
judge or dislike what I have to say, but if it's coming from
the word of God, we better we better be hearing it. And we. We better. We better get all
thoughts, preconceived note out of our head and teach the Lord.
Well, I already heard that before. Maybe you had. Maybe you had. We're all guilty of this. It
should never be so in the in the hearing of the word of God.
ready and waiting to hear. And this convicts me, it ought to
convict all of us. There's so much said in the Word
of God, particularly the Proverbs, about big talkers. You know,
you've gone through the Proverbs and just seen how much it says
it talks about people that talk a lot. We're all such big talkers, aren't
we? And we don't learn a thing while
we're talking. You know, we don't learn a thing while we're talking. The only way we learn anything
is while we're listening. The only way. Christ said, The
meek shall inherit the earth. You need to learn what that means.
It's not big talk. The meek shall inherit the work
of the earth. Proceed with meekness, the inherited
work. Look at this. This is much needed.
He says, slow to speak. And there's a verse of Scripture.
I didn't write it down, John. Anybody can say it while I'm
quoting it. Say it. It says, God is in the
heavens, thou upon the earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. What is it? Let thy words be
few. Be not hasty with thy mouth.
Be not rash with thy mouth. Be not hasty to utter anything
before the Lord. God is in heaven. We're on the
earth. Let our words be few. What is
it? Please testify. Oh, let's impress that. May the
Lord impress that upon us. Let me have so much to say. I
have so much to say. Slow to speak quick to hear.
Slow to speak. I'm guilty. We're all guilty,
you know. All right, he goes on to say
slow to wrath, slow to wrath. Slow to wrath. Now, the word of God. I think it's Hebrews 4.12 that
says the word of God is quick, it's powerful, sharper than a
two-edged sword, piercing. The word of God cuts. The first
thing the word of God does is cuts. It cuts our legs out from
under us. It cuts us, it wounds us. The
first thing the word of God does is it bruises us, doesn't it?
It plows, it breaks, doesn't it? First thing he does in open
heart surgery, if we want to receive the word of God in the
heart, he's got to do open heart surgery, doesn't he? A great
physician, the first thing he's got to do is what? Cut, expose
us, lay bare, open up the chest, you know, wide, so he can see
in it. And what do you see? Corruption.
That's the first thing the word of God does to us. Cuts, pierces,
discerns. discerning the very thoughts
and intents of the heart, dividing asunder the joints in the marrow,
and so forth. And we're going to see this in
a moment. To receive the grafting of the Word, you've got to be
a cut, a gash in us. And if the Word of God hits us
hard, if it wounds us, if it convicts us, if it offends us,
let it. I need that. Don't you? Smite me, Lord. It'll be a kindness
to me. Whack! Thanks, Lord. I needed that. Right? And don't hate me for telling
you the truth when I come to you with the Word from God, because
ultimately it's not me you're hating. All right? Verse 20, look at
it. It says, The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness
of God, and this is what he's talking about. He's talking about
in reference to the word, hearing the word, isn't it? Isn't that
the context? In reference to hearing the word, slow to wrath.
The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God. A wrathful,
and see if I can make this good, a wrathful or angry or bitter
man or woman, someone who is, has, harbors
who's in the gall of bitterness and the bondage of iniquity. Someone who's offended or hurt
or wrathful or angry or bitter or whatever will never receive
a blessing from God. He won't do it. God's not going
to bless that hard, obstinate person. Forget it. That's the
reason I've said so many times, if we come in here mad at whoever,
or moody or whatever, you know, we're bitter, we're angry or
whatever it is that is, is, it's got us giving us this hard calloused
attitude. Forget it. We better leave that
stuff at home. That's what he's going to tell
us here in a minute. We better leave that at home. We're not going
to hear the word of peace if we're at enmity. Not going to
hear it. We're not going to hear forgiveness from God unless we
forgive others. Is that right? You know what
Christ, how he told us to pray, Terry, isn't it? Forgive us as
we forgive those. We're not going to have it, are
we? Forget it. That's hypocrisy. Why should
we expect God to forgive us if we're not ready to forgive? He
won't do it. He won't do it. We're not going to receive mercy
unless we've showed mercy. Not going to do it. If we come
in here mad and angry and bitter, forget it. He said in one place,
he said, you go your way and first be reconciled to your brother
or your whoever it may be, and then you come and offer your
gift, but not before. Didn't it? Did Christ say that? Don't come in here mad at somebody
because God's mad at you. The wrath of man never works
righteous God. Never, never. A humble and broken
contrite heart, that man will receive the righteousness of
God. See, righteousness comes down from God. The word of forgiveness
and righteousness and so forth. All right, read on now. Now,
here's the last point under this first point. How we come before
in preparation. Verse 21, lay apart, wherefore
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and
receive with meekness the engrafted word. Lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive." Now, I want you
to turn to this scripture, all right? Turn with me to Joshua,
chapter three. Joshua, Judges, right before
the book of Judges, you'll find the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter
three. I want you to turn now and look
at it. Joshua three in coming before a holy God. Is that not
what we're doing tonight? Every time we come. Coming to
worship God, aren't we, John? Huh? We're coming before the
very real presence of God, are we not? Huh? He that cometh to
God. First thing I said, we must believe.
Come by faith in Christ. He that cometh before a holy
God, he said, we're to lay aside all filthiness. Look at Joshua
chapter 3. The Old Testament saints were
exhorted to sanctify themselves. Now look at it with me, people.
And I dealt with this thing of sanctification pretty clearly
the other day. And you know where our sanctification
before God is, all right? Now he's talking about it, setting
ourselves apart, preparing ourselves to come before God to worship
him. This is what he's talking about. He's not talking about
sanctifying or making ourselves holy in order for God to accept
us. You understand that? Is that
clear? Clarify that? All right, let's read on. All
right, verse five, he says, Now unto Joshua said unto the people,
Sanctify yourself. Do you have a marginal reference?
Is there a little letter before sanctify? You have a Cambridge
is lettering I'm in over the margin there are one two three
four five six seven eight nine references where it says we're
to sanctify ourselves. That shocked me Jeanette when
I read that. Look them up sometime you've
got a yellow highlighter and highlighted all those look them
up I looked them all up look them up sometime. What does he
mean? He says, sanctify yourself, for
tomorrow the Lord will do what? You prepare yourselves, you're
coming before the Lord to worship. Get ready. So he said, get ready,
sanctify yourself. And then he told Joshua, who
was a servant of the Lord, now you get the ark ready. You know
what that's saying, don't you? It's saying to the preacher,
now you get the gospel ready. Get the ark ready. The people
are responsible to get themselves ready. Are you with me? The people
are responsible to get themselves ready. The preacher is responsible
to get the word of God ready, the gospel ready. All right,
now turn over to Genesis chapter thirty-five. Let's look at one
of those references. You with me now, Genesis thirty-five. Don't you dare judge what I just
said. I just read the word of God, didn't I? Joshua three-five. Don't sit there and say, I don't
know about this sanctifier. God said it. Now look at Genesis thirty-five,
verse one through three. Look at this. This is glorious.
God said unto Jacob, that old rotten, wretched, rebel sinner
Jacob, no good bum. Arise, go up to Bethel. You know
where Bethel was, don't you? Jacob went back to Bethel. That's
where the Lord first met him. That's where the Lord first spoke
to Jacob, Bethel. And he continually resorted back
to Bethel. Go up to Bethel and dwell there. That's a symbol of the gospel,
where the gospel is preached. and make there an altar unto
God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of
Esau thy brother.' Then Jacob said unto his household," here's
what Jacob said to his household, are you with me? "'To all that were with him,
put away the strange gods that are among you. Be clean, change
your clothes, let's arise, we're going to worship God.' And I'm
going to make an altar there unto God, who answered me. the
day of my distress. Put away your strange gods and
your filthiness and wash your clothes. We're going to go worship
God. Let's get serious. That's what he's saying. That's
what he means by that. Sanctify yourself. Let's get
serious about this thing. Sanctify yourself. Now, what does he talk about
this thing, filthiness, back in our text? Filthiness. He says, lay apart all filthiness. Filthiness. People, how can I say this? If the holy angels who have never
sinned, the holy angels who have never
sinned before God, right? Cherubs and Serbs that are around
his throne day and night, if they cover their faces, If they
cover their feet in modesty and shame, shame-facedness and sobriety,
they've never sinned. If they do it, how should we approach this thing
of worshiping God? Unclean. Filthiness. All sin is filth,
isn't it? All sin is filth. Now, remember, listen to me now.
The first thing I say, the first thing out of my mouth in this
thing of preparation for worship was, I said, you come to God
in Christ's name. You better come under the blood.
Yes. Repentance toward God and faith in Christ. All right. Now,
all sin is filth. It's a stench to God. It's a
filthy garment. It's a filthy garment. God hates
it. He hates it. There's scriptures
that talk like this. Put off the old man. Put on the
new. Hating even the garment spotted
by the flesh. Here's some things to lay aside.
You want to turn over to 1 Peter, you can. 1 Peter 2. Yeah, turn
there. 1 Peter 2. Turn there. Here's some things
to lay aside in coming to worship. Listen to me now. This is good.
This is profitable. This is right. receive the word,
he says, lay apart all filthiness, here's some filthy things, covetousness. We're not going to worship God
if we've got our mind on this world, we're just not, are we?
Like a man said to Spurgeon one time, he said, this man was a
whaler, he was a whale hunter, and somehow or another he talked
to Spurgeon after the message, and subject came up with a message
and he said, Mr. Spurgeon, he said, I didn't hear
a thing you said. I was catching whales. I was hunting for whales
the whole time. And the illustration I'm trying
to make is we got to dismiss the world somehow or another.
We got to ask God to just dismiss this world. Covetous. Lord knows
we do that too much. Too much. I'm coming in here.
We don't want to hear the word of God when we're thinking about
the word of lust. Lust of the flesh. My, my. Lay aside, he
said. Look at 1 Peter 2, verse 1. Lay aside. Peter says the same,
uses the same language. Lay aside all malice. I've already dealt with that.
I've had anger, malice, hatred or bitterness against somebody. Guile, trickery. Don't come as a hypocrite. God, hypocrisy, come in y'all's
smiles and so forth and forth. God, hypocrisy, superfluity,
that's what superfluity is, hypocrisy. Envious, lay aside envious. Envious
of who or whatever, envious. Evil speaking, all of these things. And he said, as newborn babes,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk. of the word that you may
grow thereby. Back to the text again now. As
newborn babes, desirous of the milk, God, I'm here to hear from
you. I want to hear what you have
to say. So dismiss, Lord, help me. And
the only place you can resort, and he's a very present help,
he said, ask and it shall be given you, right? The problem
is we have not, because why? Just a little bit of preparation
in the area of prayer before. How many times do I say that?
How many times do I say that, huh? What if I entered this pulpit
without asking God to bless it? I have. And I've known it, too. He's left me all alone. And I
thought, I've got to get out of here. Well, what if I did that very
often? You'd know it. You'd know it. And we do it far
too often here in the word of God. No. We become desiring the
sincere milk of the word. Lord, I'm ready to hear. Speak,
Lord, thy servant hearing. Whatever you got to say to me,
Lord, wound, heal, cut, bind up, convict, comfort, whatever,
whatever I need, Lord, do it, do it to me. I need it. All right, that's before you're
doing during James one, look at verse twenty one, receive
with meekness. The engrafted were received with
meekness, I've already said much about this receiving the word,
but let me with meekness, this thing of meekness as a little
child, let me say something about this receiving. Receiving is much more than hearing
with a year. In it. Much more than hearing
with the ear. This is a receptacle to sounds,
isn't it? That's not what he's talking
about. He said they have ears, but they didn't hear. And you
know it's so. I mean, many times you've heard,
yeah, I heard that. You didn't hear it. We didn't
hear it. Receiving is much more than assimilating
with the mind. I say, yes, that's so. I understand
that. That's right. I acknowledge that. That's rational. That's reasonable.
I understand that. It's from God's word. It's much
more than that. Much more than that, it must be received down
in the understanding, down in the affection, down in to take
root in the very innermost being, like rain. It's got to be like
rain. The Word of God has got to be like, as Mr. Sherry was
playing that song, showers of blessings. Oh, that on me they
might fall. Well, it doesn't do any good
if your heart's hard as flint. It'll just run off like water
on a slab of marble or on pavement out here. But if it's plowed,
plowed ground, it'll soak it up, right? Where does plowing
come from? Preparation. Preparation. For preparation of a plowing
of the heart, preparing the soil to receive the engrafted word. Speak, Lord, teach me. Teach
me. Convict me. And how's that come? I've already said it. Prayer.
Prayer. Ezekiel thirty-six, thirty-seven.
Now all through that Ezekiel, he said what he was going to
do then. God said, I will, I will, I will, I will wash him, I'll
clean him, I'll save him, I'll be merciful to, I will, I will,
I will, I will. It all starts with his will,
doesn't it? Starts in the middle and ends with his will. It's
all of his, all of grace. You hear that word of grace?
It's all of grace. From start to finish. But in
verse 37, John, he says this, doesn't he? He says, but. He
says, yes. He said, I will yet be inquired. He said, I want to do this, but
they're going to ask me to do it. Or I'm not going to do it. No,
he said. Ezekiel 36, 37. I will do this.
They're going to ask me for it, though. I will yet be inquired
of to do this thing for them. And if they ask not, they're
not going to have. He said, I don't understand that.
Don't try to. Didn't I say a while ago, leave
the sovereignty of God with him? Yes, if God leads you to ask,
you will ask. But we better be asking. Call, he said, ask, you'll receive.
Knock, it'll be open. Seek, you'll supply. Teach me,
Lord, with thy word. Shake me, break me, speak to
me. I want to hear with the understanding,
not just point A or B, or not just doctrine. I don't want just
to understand the doctrines of grace. I want the grace of God
in me. I want Christ formed in me. I
want Christ revealed in me, not just to me, but in me. Right? I want to be conformed to the
image of Christ. Right? That's another mark of terrible
hypocrisy. It's a terrible, one of the worst
forms of hypocrisy is for a man or woman to say, hey, I love
Christ. I believe Christ. It doesn't
want to be like him. Forget that man, that man's religion's in
vain. You love somebody. You want to be like them. If
you esteem somebody, everything about them to be right and just
and true, everything about you to be wrong, and you want to
be just like that person, everything you see about that person you'll
endeavor to emulate, right? Yes. And he said, with meekness,
receive, receive with meekness. The engrafted word and only those
that don't want to receive the word of those who have been what
John one thirteen have been born of God. Right. That's the work
of the God's Holy Spirit. But like I said, you pray to
the Lord, Lord, help me, break me, teach, prepare me to receive
the engrafted word, receive it with meekness. Look at this again.
You say you already went over this, this is just what I'm talking
about. How did we learn it? With meekness, and the scripture
says, if any man thinketh he knoweth anything. Can you quote the rest of it?
He knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. Now we've learned
some things, haven't we? I know some things, He's not
saying there, if you think you know anything, that you've got
to say, hey, I've never learned a thing here, I don't know anything,
I'm just ignorant, fool, what? You're talking like a, that's
false modesty and humility. You have learned something. God
has taught you something. What he's saying is if any man
thinketh he knows everything to perfection about a thing. And he's got it all, that thing,
all wrapped up. He knows all there is to know
about that. You can't teach him any more than that. He better
start all over again to learn that. Knowledge increases sorrow, Solomon
said. Sorrow over our sad state. Doesn't knowledge increase sorrow?
The more you know, the more you realize how ignorant you've been.
That's what David, when David said, when I came into the house
and I learned some things, he said, oh, I was ignorant. I've
been so ignorant. I thought I knew some things
until I went into the house and learned. He said, I was ready
to hear. I went in and I learned from God and I found out I'm
ignorant. I don't know as much as I think
I know. It also makes knowledge increase the sorrow. It's sorrow
over how much You don't know and how. What
you've done with what you do know. Or what you haven't done with
what you do know. You know, you never know something unless it
becomes practice. Had a man talking to me recently
said, oh, I know that I know what you're going to say is obvious
to me, he he didn't learn, he doesn't know. He might know what
here, but he hadn't put it into practice. You don't know anything
unless it becomes, unless you put it into practice, do you?
Huh? You've not experienced the best teacher, know what they
say? Same thing holds true with the Word of God. We can talk
a big ballgame. We can say what we know. We can,
we can, we can speak with the tongue of men and of angels and
know all prophecies. Isn't that what 1 Corinthians
13 said? Huh? Know the mysteries and the
prophecies and the doctrines and have not what? Love. If the rubber doesn't meet the
road, I don't care how lofty your language, how much we know,
think we know, we might start all over again. We have to learn
the first principles with meekness, with meekness. There's an awful
lot we don't know. Listen to me now. I say we. There's
an awful lot we don't know, and there's an awful lot about the
things we do know that we don't yet know. I haven't been preaching the
gospel long, but a little while anyway. I'm no novice at this
thing, but I tell you, I haven't weighed an ankle deep yet about
the gospel. An awful lot of things. I sat
under a man who preached the gospel for years, too, and I
wouldn't begin to tell you that, man, I can even begin to. Talk to you about the incarnation
of Christ, or sin. Just talk about sin. I don't,
I don't, I hadn't seen sin for all it's worth yet. Christ, with
meekness as little children, eager to learn and teachable.
The engrafted word. Let's look at this. This is a
good, this is real good. He uses a An analogy here received
with meekness the ingrafted word when a graft is made by ever
made it your grafted a fruit tree Henry the first thing when
you graft something when a graft is made the first thing is done
is what. You cut it. You cut you make a big slash.
And in context here. All who receive the word of God
come at us receiving the word of God. the ingrafted word, it
says that we don't have to be cut by the sword of God. Cut
by the word of God. What does the Spirit do? What
does the Holy Spirit do? What did he say in John 16, 9,
10, 11? John, he said, when the Spirit comes, he shall convince
the world, well that's me, of what? Sin. It's the first thing
God's word does to you, convince you of your sin, of righteousness. Next thing he does is convince
you you need a righteous. And you need Christ. That's where
we started this thing out, wasn't it? Repentance and faith toward
and judgment. And we've been judged. The word
of God is judging us. It's judging us. And the prince
of this world is judged. Judge. All our sins are judged
in Christ. And as God's people, the word
of God is judging us. Yes, it is. Judging us. It's,
it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, like I quoted their second Timothy.
It's, it's, it's, uh, reproving us. It's, it's correcting that,
isn't it? And that judgment, reproving. Is it? Reproving, correcting that judgment?
Huh? Judging where we're missing the
mark and saying, you need this? Is that judgment? Sure it is.
Judgment. Reprove. Correct. Rebuke. Is
that not judgment? I judge my daughter. It's judging
us, all right? Not eternally, but judging us
now as children. I judge my daughter and I treat
her accordingly. Judgment, he shall treat his
people with judgment. How many times does it say that
through the scriptures? He shall render judgment unto
his people. Good judgment, good correction. Not punishment, mind
you. Not everlasting punishment. All
right? When the spirit comes, he shall
convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment. All right, a man
that is spirit-filled, then what? If he's filled with the spirit,
then he's a man who is utterly convinced of his sin. He's convinced
of Christ and the judgment and the word of God. He's convinced
of it. All of these, all our precepts are right and true,
just, holy. They judge me. They judge me. I'm found guilty. He goes right
back where he started again, he goes back to Christ. And only
plowed ground, that's what I'm saying, only plowed ground will
receive the word. Only wounded, a wounded branch
will receive a graft, right? Only broken, softened hearts
receive the word of God. Here's another illustration in
this graft. And if the Word of God doesn't cut us, if we don't
see where we need cutting, huh? Then we're not receiving the
meekness in grafted words, little children. We need cut. We need
help. Here's another illustration.
When the graft is made, there's two cuts made, isn't there, Henry?
There's two cuts made. One's made on the tree that you're
going to graft to. and another is made on the branch
that you cut off, right? And that's a beautiful picture
of Christ, isn't it? That he was wounded, his side was wounded,
and we're cut off, or as it were, separated, and the word of God
sanctifies or cuts us and wounds us, and how does he heal us?
How does the word of God heal us? How does the spirit of God
heal us? Putting us in Christ. putting us in the riven side
of Christ and binding us up with the Word of God. And the two
become one. They grow up together. And the
graft, as a result of that graft, the branch receives all of its
nourishment from the vine. Christ in you, it's a two-fold
analogy. Christ in you and you in Christ. We're in Christ, we're grafted
into Christ. And he is put in us. What is
Christ in us? Well, that's right. That's right.
But what is Christ? This is Christ in us. Is it not? Is he not the word? I know it's
a very real sense of the Holy Spirit, but this is this is the
word. This is what he puts within us. Is it not to grow the ingrafted
word that we say that in James one point one the ingrafted word
the incorruptible word. And it all speaks of Christ,
but it's the incorruptible word that he graphs in us. He graphed
in us and it grows up. And it grows up the word grows
up. and brings forth fruit. If it
doesn't, there must not be any graft. All right, lastly, look
at the text again. After. So that's during. Receive
with meekness in grafted word, which is able to save your souls.
And boy, we could sure elaborate a lot on this thing. And after. Verse twenty-two be ye
doers of the word and not hearers only. Deceiving your own self. Doers of the word and not hearers
only. Turn over to Ephesians five,
okay? Just two, I want to have you turn to two verses of scripture.
Ephesians five and John seventeen, alright? And that'll be it. Ephesians
five. These in chapter five, after
the word, the word, after the hearing of the word, he says,
be you doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your
own self. And he goes on to give that illustration.
He says, if any man be a hearer of the word, not a doer, he's
like a man looking at himself in a mirror. And what he said, like a man
looking at himself in a mirror, beholding himself and he goes
his way. All right. You go to a mirror,
picky, you go to a mirror and you look in that mirror. And
you see yourself and you look in there when you see when you
see yourself. What do you see when you see yourself in the
Word of God? Oh, beauty. Comeliness. You see corruption,
don't you? You see spots. You see a leper,
don't you? Know what you see when you see
yourself in the Word of God? You see a leper. All right, what
are you going to do? All right, we go our way. Says that man
goes his way and he forgets what sort of man he was. He forgets
what he saw in the mirror. All right, the word of God now
is like a mirror. That's what James just said,
it's like a mirror, it's a two way mirror. Ever seen, had one of these two
way mirrors, seen one, you can look through one side and not
be seen, huh? And then you look, get on the
other side and you, and you can, and you see yourself. The word
of God is like a two-way mirror. We look at it or in it and we
see Christ. We see Christ all the way through
it. We see Christ, we don't see ourselves. We see our completeness
and we see Christ all the way through the scripture. That's
what we need to see first in the scripture. It's a simultaneous look really.
We also see ourselves, don't we? We see our filth, but we
see Christ's beauty. It's a two-way mirror, isn't
it? But it's also a washbasin. The Word of God is compared to
a mirror, to a mirror. It's also a basin of water. Look
at it, Ephesians 5, look at verse 26. And he says, Christ gave
himself for the church that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water. How? By the Word. So the wash the water, the word
has a cleansing effect that were to use it for. OK, you following
me? It's a cleansing effect, or I
turn over to John 17, where to use the word of God to wash ourselves
with. Right, John 17. John, Chapter
17, look over here and listen to what Christ said in John 17,
verse 17. John seventeen seventeen sanctified
them. Now he had already said verse
nineteen. He says now for their sakes,
I sanctify myself that they might be sanctified through the through
the truth. Verse seventeen. Look at this.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Wash them, clean them. Then what
does he say the truth is? Thy word is truth. Thy word is
truth. Do you remember the story over
in John thirteen where our Lord washed feet? You remember that? And Peter said, washest thou
me? And what did Christ say? He said, if I don't wash you,
you have no part in me. And he said this, he went on
to say, now he that is washed needeth not save to wash his
feet. You know what he said? He said,
you're clean. Your soul is washed in the blood
of the Lamb. Right? You're clean. Every whit. Save your feet. Your feet are not clean. They
stink. Our souls dwell in heaven. See
if I can make this applicable to you. Our souls dwell in heaven. We're seated with Christ in the
heavenlies, right? Our head is in heaven. Our feet
are still on the earth. Feet are the lower parts, right? This base, this body. Is it not? We're on this. The word is a
means of purifying ourselves, keeping ourselves unspotted.
We said there in James chapter one, the last verse, pure religion. keep himself unspotted in the
world? Huh? Is that what James 1? Are you
looking? Is that what James 1, 27 says? How do you do that? You take a good washing. Huh?
It says, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not
sin again. I carry a bar of soap around
with me, is what David was saying. Wash my mouth out with soap. The word has a cleansing effect.
And Christ said this, if you're still in John, he said this over
in John 15 verse 4, he said, now abide in me, abide in me,
he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. He said in verse 7, if you abide
in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and
it shall be done unto you. my work. I've just presented this. I only
begin to say that I understand all that that implies, but it's
so nonetheless that the Word of God is just how we keep ourselves
unspotted from the world. Do we want that? Do we need that?
Well, I do. My feet, I get so dirty and filthy
and stinking, I get down in the mud, I need a good washing Need
to go to the Word. Need to go wash my soul in the
blood of the Lamb daily. But my body needs to be kept
clean. Paul said, I keep my body in
subjection, lest in preaching to others I myself become a castaway. Isn't it? My body needs to be
kept under subjection. How's that? This is it. This is it. And this is the first
the first text I ever preached from John two five. It says,
Whatsoever he saith unto you. You quote the rest of it. Mary,
his mother, said, For he saith unto you. Do it. I don't know what I don't understand. Yeah, you do. I don't understand that that
has a spiritual application. You know exactly what it's saying.
Problem is not understand the problem doing it. In the. Doers of the work. Not here. I want to follow this message
of the message was denied on that next on adversity. Doers
of the work.