I made an effort to read the
bulletin this morning, particularly the article addressed to our
congregation, as I stated in that article. I'm addressing everyone that
attends here when I say that, our congregation, and in that
I say it, and it's truly my desire this morning that God will speak
to you through the preaching of the word. My desire that every
one of you, every one of you, children included,
hear the shepherd's voice. I ask the Lord to give me a message
this morning of comfort and encouragement to some true I've told you time and again,
I do not prepare messages with any one individual in mind, and
I don't. I don't do that, because invariably that person will not
show up, and it's meant for someone else. But this message, I was
just impressed, thinking about various people that come here,
that attend here, thinking of some of you particularly who may be troubled
and unsure about your own spiritual state. Some people come here
time and again and listen to me preach and receive what I
say, what is said. I believe you receive it like
Paul said in chapter two, as the word of God. Believe Yet
I believe there are some people here kind of mixed up and unsure
about your own state, state of your own heart and soul. I think
there are some people here, I really do, that believe, that believe
what I'm preaching, believe Christ and the gospel. Yet they're afraid
to commit, afraid of fear of presumption. Afraid to be presumptuous,
you know, you don't want to. I remember when I was wrestling
with this thing of baptism. A lot of people wrestle with
this thing of baptism. You know, you heard or you made
a profession years ago under false religion and you discounted
that profession. And later on, the Lord reveals
the gospel to you and you realize that and you denounce the past
and discredit it. And people wrestle with their
baptism. I remember doing the same thing.
for a long time, and I never could get comfortable with the
fact that I never really confessed the Lord that I now or then believed. But, you know, I was afraid of
presumption. I thought one day, you know, I'd hear a message
and I'd say, oh, I believe, I believe, I am saved, I believe. And I said, I'm going to go tell
the preacher I'm going to be baptized. I'm going to confess
Christ, you know. And for some reason I put it
off. And then that night I'd be filled with unbelief. And
I think, well, I'm glad I didn't do it. I don't feel like I'm
saved now. It's not based on your feelings.
Feelings come and feelings go. As John Newton said, feelings
are deceiving. Martin Luther, I think it was.
Feelings are deceiving. Believe me, if I only got up
here and preached when I felt like it, if I had to feel saved every
time I got up and preached, you might get a message and you might
not. But necessity is late upon me.
I believe there are those who fear presumption, afraid to commit
because they don't either feel saved at a particular time or
fear presumption. Well, what if I'm not saved and
what if I do confess? I believe there are some who
rejoice in this gospel and enjoy what you hear. I believe that
some here truly enjoy what you're hearing here, yet you feel like
such a hypocrite and feel so sinful, you don't feel worthy
to be called a member of the church. You don't feel like you're
worthy to be amongst this group of good people. I wish I could have every one
of these people who you think are such good people. stand up
here and tell their testimony, and they'd tell you, I don't
feel worthy to be here, either. I don't feel worthy to be a member
of this church. I don't feel worthy to be the
preacher, people, but I'm here. I believe there's some who rejoice
and enjoy over what you hear and enjoy what you hear, yet
feel like such a hypocrite and feel so sinful you don't feel
worthy to be called a Christian. If you felt worthy to be called
a Christian, you're not a Christian. Only those who feel unworthy
are truly Christ's people. That's the one great condition
he places upon, that you feel your need of him. And to be a
part of these good people, this is an outlaw church, isn't it? Don't feel like these are good
holy people, they are in the sight of God. These are good
people, and I would stand these people up beside any church members
in any part of Franklin County, but that's like comparing rotten
apples with rotten bananas. They aren't as good as anybody
around here. That's not saying much of it, but they are in that
sense, comparing men with men. But I don't want to make you
feel saved, though. I don't want to make anybody
in here feel saved. I don't want to give you a false
profession, a false refuge. I don't want anybody to go out
of here with me making you feel saved. But I do exhort you time
and again to settle this thing between you and God in the privacy
of your closet. That's the reason I say over
and over again, don't come down here to the front. Come to me,
you go to Christ and you do it now. You settle this thing in
your own mind and heart with him. Like Brother Scott's article
last week in the book. Did you read that? It's a good
one now, you better read it. Talking about this thing of the
invitation. Don't confess yourself to me,
confess it to Christ. I can't put away your sin. But
I beseech you to give diligence to make your call in an election.
and to do this, to settle this thing between you and God in
private. But I do want to encourage a weak believer, a weak believer, somebody whom
the gospel has touched their heart, obviously, and you really
don't know what to do next. And if you truly have faith I
believe there are those who have so very little faith, they don't
feel like they have any. I want to do as Paul said here
in chapter 3, verse 2. The last part of verse 2, he
said, to establish you. I want to establish you and comfort
you concerning your faith. That's what Paul sent Timothy.
Do you remember reading the letter Paul sent young Timothy? Because
he loved those people so much, he sent young Timothy down there
to establish them, to comfort them concerning their faith.
Verse 3 is the title of my message, that no man should be moved,
or woman. Whenever the Scripture says man,
it means man and woman, except at the gospel ministry and other
obvious places. but that no man should be moved.
In Colossians 1 verse 23 says that you may be grounded and
settled in the faith and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel. Your only hope, my only hope.
I'm not going anywhere. I'm not moving. And I don't want you to either.
Or I don't want you to go anywhere either. Moved away from the gospel,
the hope of the gospel, but grounded and settled. And I believe there
are several people in here. I looked out at every individual before I got up here, and there
are several in here who are obviously unsure and uncommitted for various
reasons. I don't know. God knows your
heart. People whom I care a great deal for, people who have been
coming here and I already care a great deal for. And very reluctant
to let it be known, really, because, like I said, I don't want anything
to be based upon your relationship with me. I want you to know Christ.
And people I think about and literally call by name before
God Almighty in prayer. I mean that. And I want you to
know and believe and trust Christ. I want you to be a part of God's
family. This church, verse 12, he said,
chapter 3, verse 12, the Lord make you to increase and abound
in love toward one another, toward all men, even as we do toward
you. I want you to be in love with
Christ, number one, and in love with these people, Christ's people,
and in love with us. What I'm trying to say is I don't
want to lose anybody in here. Not one person who I've gotten
to know is under the sound of my voice this morning. I don't
want to lose one of you. Young people, oh, especially
the young people, our dear children. Believe me, parents, I would
weep with you if your children, I do weep with you the fact that
your children don't know Christ, and I want them to know Christ.
The reason I endeavor to deal very plainly with them. I want you to know Christ. This
is going to be a very simple message, very simple. I hope
it will be short. I want to ask you some questions
from God's Word. This is an effort to encourage
someone who is truly seeking. I have to hope and believe that
you're here and you've come here time and again because you're
truly seeking. I really don't have anything
to say for someone who's just attending church on Sunday morning.
Nothing but warnings that play in with religion. But those who
are truly seeking, I want to encourage you. Those that are
truly seeking, I want to establish the weak believer, someone who
I believe has faith in Christ as weak as it may be. I want
to establish that. I want to drive another nail
in that faith. Establish your faith. I want
to comfort you in the faith. I read that to you, and I endeavored
to read it with feeling, as though Paul the Apostle may have felt
it when he was writing it. And I did read it with feeling,
because this is the way I feel. Paul the Apostle was written
by a man of God, and I don't call myself that, and I get tired
of these fellows always alluding to diservant. talking about themselves in prayer. But Paul was a man of God, no
doubt about that, who truly and sincerely was out for God's glory. He was in this thing for God's
glory. Is there any doubt in your mind
that the Apostle Paul was in the ministry for the glory of
God? No doubt. And he was in it for the spiritual
good of the people. He didn't fleece the sheep. He
didn't get rich off the people. He says in verse 3 of chapter
2, our exhortation was not of deceit. Paul was not a deceitful
man. He didn't say one thing and mean
another, did he? Not at all. Nor of uncleanness. Uncleanness, a man with an ulterior
motive of personal fame, using people to further himself. A
man like that ought to be . . . those fellows are scum. scum of the
earth, I tell you. Verse 3, deceit, uncleanness,
an ulterior motive, an oring guile, a liar, a hypocrite, a
smiling devil like I imitated earlier this morning. You've
seen them, you know. You run into these ultra-pious,
smiling hirelings, and God loves you and so do we. They're hirelings,
and God's got nothing but the hottest part of hell for these
fellas. Can you imagine toying with people's
souls for the sake of money? Verse 5, it says, "...neither
at any time used we flattering words." Verse 4 says he wasn't
a man-pleaser. Only men-pleasers use flattering
words. God-pleasers use plain words. The words God uses, and just
as boldly and Brother Terry and I were just talking about this,
a man like Barnard. He didn't use any flattering
words, did he? I was telling him about that.
And I told you, I'll remind you, about that young lady that got
up and sung her little song on a Sunday service. And you've
seen them on TV, you know, these pretty little painted ladies
that get up, you know, with their microphone in their hands and
all day. Oh, how they love Jesus. And they, and the tears are flowing,
and they're looking toward heaven, and they got their hands raised,
and they're singing, and everybody else is doing the same. It's
so sweet. And Meyer got up in the course
of one of the, as a meeting that he, they'd never been there before,
Rick, and he got up after that little girl preached. And he saw everybody, white guy
in their eyes and all that, and evidently the song didn't have
a bit of gospel in it. And he looked down at that little
girl, that young lady, and said, young lady, that wasn't nothing
but the flesh. He wasn't a man flatterer, was
he? And I don't want to be either,
really. You think God was impressed with
that song? Who are we trying to impress,
anyway? That's what he was saying. I appreciate men like that. I
hope you do, too. If you want somebody like that,
hire you one. If you can, got enough money,
you can get you one. I hired him. But Paul said, we're
not a flatterer or covetous. Verse 5, covetousness, we didn't
use a cloak of covetousness. I have to get rich or feed off
the people make merchandise of your soul, as I've said before,
and I just alluded to it. You can't have a very big congregation
by a whole time preaching man's utter depravity and helplessness
and so forth. You can get a crowd by going
to visit and hanging out at the hospital and this and that and
the other. You can get your congregation like that if that's what you're
seeking. He says this, being affectionately
desirous of you. In other words, he loved these
people. Not their body, not scouting heads, really. I don't care if there's twenty
in here or two hundred and twenty. If there's just twenty in here,
I want every one of them to be God's sheep, God's people. If there were 220 in here, we'd
have trouble. If a bunch of them were not God's
sheep, we'd have nothing but a fight on our hands. I'm not
out for church members, and I'm not glad you're here just so
we can have a big crowd this morning so I can report to the
association. Let's say we had 50, a big crowd
this morning, and I baptized five last month. That's deceit. That's what's going on today,
people. That's what's going on today. I meant to bring, I should
have brought up here some things that I received in the mail.
I receive it all the time. Junk mail. Most of it religious
junk. And it had things like this.
It had a card in there that said, it'd say things like this. It
said, one of them, what was one of them? One of them said this. Here's a way, he said, we know
who's moving into your community. In other words, they keep track
by computer or whatever of all the people that move into, new
people that move into the community. And it said this, verbatim, I'll
show it to you. It said, get a jump on your competition. Send in for this software, computer
software, you'll know who's coming in. You get a jump on your competition.
I'm not in competition. We're endeavoring to keep the
unity of the Spirit. I told another fellow who I thought
preached the gospel in this area, I said, if your church was located
right beside mine and more people came to hear you, that'd just
suit me just fine if you were preaching the gospel. I would
do faithfully preach to however many God gave me, but if God
gave you a hundred thousand, I would glorify God. Hopefully. I think there's something wrong
with my preaching. He got them all and I didn't get any, but
nevertheless, I would rejoice that they at least were hearing
the gospel. Right? What difference does it
make? Isn't that the spirit that the
Apostle Paul said? I planted a pious water. God must give it to him. Well,
nothing. Who is Paul? Did Paul die for
you? No, Christ did. Who is Apollos?
Did he live for you? No, Christ did. I would that
you knew Christ," he said. So he wasn't coveting a man who
. . . he was a man who clearly loved the people, not just church
members. And he said, we were willing
to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also
our own souls. You were dear unto it. A man
that would do anything for these people. Verse 9, you remember,
brethren, our labor and travail. Paul was a hardworking man. He
was a hardworking man. He went about the things of the
church and all. He was hard working. The people
recognized this. He said, You remember that, people,
laboring night and day because we would not be chargeable unto
any of you. We preached unto you the gospel,
too. We studied. He said, We studied. And it was
evident that we were in the study. They heard him preach. They read
his letters. Verse 13, it says, For this cause
also we thank God. We thank God. Thank we God without
ceasing that you did receive the word of God. When you did
receive it, the word you heard of us, you heard me preaching.
Another place Paul said, he said, I know I'm rude in speech. I
know that. I can't, for the life of me,
hardly shake when I say right. I can't, I'm trying to say right,
to say it right, but you know, I know I'm rude in speech. I
have a twelfth-grade education. I've never pretended to be anything
but that. I hope. Every now and then I
try to fake it so you won't think I'm a real dummy, an ignorant
fool. But Paul said, I base myself. He said I'm rude in speech. I know that. But thank God when
you heard me preach You received it, not as the word of a man,
but as the word of God himself. And he knew, he knew it has to
be that way. If they received his preaching,
and I feel the same way. If you receive my preaching,
if you get anything out of this old bibler's preaching, it has
to be of the Lord. It has to be. My, my. Now people, well, and he thanked
God for this, that the people received the word of God as it
is in truth, the word of God. which effectually worketh also
in you that believe." Actually, it was working on some people.
That never ceases to amaze me. I actually see the preaching
of the gospel from this place, from this earthen vessel. I see it actually moving some
people, and I think, Glory be to God. Moving people,
touching them, molding them, changing them, maturing them,
grounding and settling them in the faith, the knowledge. When
I say the faith, I mean trusting Christ and believing Him. But
look back at chapter 1. Chapter 1, look back there. Paul
begins back there, verse 2. Chapter 1, Paul writes and says,
We give thanks for you. People, we give thanks to God
always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. And I
say the same thing, how I thank God Almighty for you people,
each and every one of you. I'm not just being religious
now, people. I call every one of your names
in prayer, every one of your names that God gives me the memory
to remember it. Try to visualize right here,
I'm looking at faces. And I believe after this service
is over, you could ask me who was here. And I tell you, everyone
is here. I don't see a sea of faces. I
see faces, people I know and love. And I call your names,
your children in prayer. Your children. Catherine Kinsley,
I call your name in prayer before God Almighty. You're not unimportant
to me. You're as important or more important
than Henry Seward right here, honey. I want you to know Jesus
Christ, Catherine, and I'm not going to be happy until you do,
truly happy about you and others, every one of you, even the nominal
people that just come every night, especially those. This is why
I started it out, that no man be moved, that no woman be moved.
And I thank God for you people. I sincerely love you, and I really
hesitate to use that because I know what these how these guys
use it flippantly. But I esteem you as my family,
people. You know, the other day, you
know, I know this is my home now. I know it is. You know why? Because the other
day, when writing down somebody's phone number that lived in Ashland,
I wrote area code 703. Now, before that, when I'd write
my own number down, I'd write Little things like that that
tell me I'm here. And when somebody says you're
going home for the holidays, no, I'm going to visit my parents. I'm going back to Ashland, but
that's not my home. You going to visit your family?
Well, my earthly family, yes. Who is
my mother and my brethren? And I can say this from the bottom
of my heart, I don't think about, oh, I'd love to see my parents.
I love my parents just as much as you love your parents. But
I don't think like that all the time. I think I'd love to see
Henry Sword. Or I'd love to see Ed Berry. This is my family. Do you miss? Never think about
it for a minute. Never think about it for a minute.
Kentucky. The people, they're my brethren.
And God give me, I believe, a special family here. Verse 3, he says
here in chapter 1, remembering without ceasing your work of
faith and labor of love, the tireless and faithful service
of some of you, you ladies in the classroom. And I know she's
my wife, but boy, I appreciate her work amongst our children. And Deborah? And I'm not going
to call all your names, let me go on. But those who work in
our classrooms, we've got two of the finest teachers in the
world that our children could have. I'm telling you that from
experience. I've been under the sound as
a child, I've been under the sound of some less than good
teacher. And believe me, your children
are getting the best. They're getting love, they're
getting the gospel, they're getting And I remember that and pray
for you and in the classroom to play on the instruments. I
was bragging on what's-her-name the other day, and I'll call
her name. You know, Sherry, don't you? I was bragging on her the
other day about how I wouldn't trade her for Claude Debussy. I wouldn't do it. Playing the instruments, the
work of the Treasury, what a faithful Man, we have in that cleaning
of this building. I sure wouldn't trade her. Cleaning
of this building, the tape ministry, the bulletin work, your care
and everybody's care and support for me in this ministry. It's
obvious to me. It's obvious to me. It's just
as clear as a nose on my face. I started to say as clear as
a nose on some other people's faces. who have much clearer
noses than I have. It's obvious to me that some
of you truly love Christ. It's obvious. You show it in
the gospel and the church and me, but I want everybody in here
to be that way. I want to feel that way and know
that and be convinced of it about everybody. He says, go on, and
patience of hope. Some of you have endured trials
and hardships with evidence, faith, and patience, and I want
everybody to be grow up in Christ in all things, become a mature
believer. I don't want you to remain a
child, a baby. That's what I'm doing here. Verse 4 and 5, knowing, brethren,
your beloved, your election of God. I've dealt with this time
and again, but it's a good passage. I just know some of your God's
people. I don't say that presumptuously at all, but based upon 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1, verses 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and 10 and
so on. I am certain that some people
in here know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, certain of it.
How do you know? Well, it says there in verse 5, our gospel
came. Our brother, Brother Joe, praying a little while ago, did
you hear what he prayed? He said, Thank you, Lord, that
we have the gospel here. That's an indication God has
some sheep. He wouldn't be calling. He wouldn't
be speaking if there were no sheep here. He wouldn't let it
continue. He shut the doors. Our gospel
came, and I'm convinced that it is the gospel. Do you remember
Brother Walter's four-point message from Romans 1? You'll never hear
it better. Distinguishing marks of the gospel. And I don't hesitate to call
the gospel we preach the gospel, the only gospel. And this gospel,
the gospel, came to you. This gospel is here now. It is
the gospel that Paul said to Romans, the gospel of God. It's the gospel and the preaching
that goes on from this place is the gospel that glorifies
God supremely. God gets all the glory in everything
that's going on here. God gets all the glory in everything
that is said from here. God's getting the glory here.
Is that clear to you? I hope more than anything else
about this church here, about this preaching, that if you go
out and hear some other preaching, I hope you'll recognize this
one thing, that there at Central Baptist Church, God's getting
all the glory. I hope that's clear to you. If it's not, I'm not preaching
to you, and I'm going to just do my best to make it clearer
and clearer. To God be the glory, great things
he hath done. We're not bragging on the flesh.
We're not talking about men. We're not begging men to do anything.
We're begging God, by whom all things are, through whom all
things, to whom are all things. We're begging him to do something.
Because if he doesn't do it, I don't want it done. And if he does it, it will be
clear that he did it. It's in the Holy Scripture.
It's the gospel according to this book. I don't get up here
and quote one little scripture and then use this as a prop.
Do I? If I do, you better go someplace
else, believe me. I don't get up here and quote
one little verse of scripture and then start telling you sweet
little things, clever little sayings, emotional, tear-jerking
messages to get you to do something, to get you pumped up. I'm not
a cheerleader, preacher of the Word. And it better be the gospel
I preach and the gospel you hear better be the gospel according
to the scriptures, all the way back to the beginning in Genesis
1. The gospel that God promised
before in his scriptures. Nothing new. I've got nothing
new to say to you. I want to preach a message that's
just as old as God himself. I could get into the covenant
there, couldn't I? and God's predestinating purpose and counsel
and will before the foundation of the world. A gospel according
to Scripture. However God describes a gospel,
that's the gospel that we preach. That is the gospel, the only
gospel. And he said in verse 3, it's a gospel concerning God's
Son. Distinguishing marks of the gospel.
Not the gospel of what you're going to do with Jesus. It's
the gospel concerning what's God's Son going to do with sinners.
And bless God, God's Son has mercy on some of them, has love
some of them, sovereignly saves some of them. Gospel concerning
God's Son. It's not what you can be, what
you can do, what you ought to do, so much as what Jesus Christ
is, who he is, what he has done. Do you understand the difference
of the emphasis? The gospel is the gospel concerning
God's Son, who he is, what he did, what he must do, where he
is now, concerning God's Son. The good news is there's a man
in glory. Oh, it's good news that I can
be there, too. But the bad news is that I can't
get there by doing anything. The good news is, he got there
by his doings, and I'm going to get there by his doings. It's the gospel concerning God's
Son, his person, his work alone. And he said, lastly, the gospel
declaring the Son of God with power. The gospel Concert do it if. Tongue tied here this morning.
The gospel that you must hear, the only gospel there is, the
gospel of God, the gospel promised before in the Scriptures, the
gospel concerning God's Son, is the gospel that declares that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Any man, anywhere,
that ever says, You let Jesus Lord, is a liar. He's not preaching
the gospel. anywhere that says you must do
something with Jesus, you must let God do something. Jesus wants
anything. He's a liar. The gospel that
declares He's the Son of God with power is the only gospel
that will save your soul, and that's the gospel you need to
hear. That means He's the Lord you can go to. He's got power
to save. That doesn't mean that He wants
to save you and can't. I wouldn't go to a peanut Jesus
like that! A Jesus that wants to save me
and can't? What do I need with a Jesus like
that? I need one who's got power to save me! And when I say, Lord,
save me, He'll save me! I'm yelling now, but I can't
help it. Open the windows up. Power declared to be the Son
of God with power. And I urge you to disastain,
to be disassociated, don't put up with anything less than that
gospel, the gospel. It's the only gospel that can
save you, people. Not another gospel, not another
Jesus, but the gospel. And he said, this gospel came
to you. You couldn't come here by accident. You know, you didn't actually
come here of your own free will. Huh? I don't believe that. I don't believe man has a free
will. It's not of him that willeth or him that runneth or driveth
his car. Why did you come to church this
morning? Because you decided to get in your car and drive.
It's not of him that willeth or him that driveth. It's of
God that showeth mercy. God, before the foundation of
the world, said, I've got so-and-so here in my mind, in my heart. They're going to be in Rocky
Mount, Virginia at the Central Baptist Church on Route 40 West
in September. Glad he knows the date. I don't. September 26, 1993. They're going
to be there on the sound of the gospel, and hopefully My prayer,
they're going to hear it. They're going to hear it. He
said, My sheep will hear my voice. They must hear my voice, and
they will, and that's how he gets them to hear it. God's not
trying to do anything. I get so tired of people saying
that. You ever hear people say, God's trying to tell me something? What kind of illustration can
I use? God doesn't try to tell anybody anything. When God says
something, His voice is the sound of many waters. You mean He just
tries it? I'm trying to tell you something,
don't you hear me? When God tells something, they hear it. Unless
He stops the ear. Unless He hardens the heart.
God Almighty, I think God has some people in here this morning.
He just decreed from all eternity to be here at this particular
time. I know everyone is here for that particular purpose,
and thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph in Christ. He makes manifest the savor of
his knowledge in everyone we preach, to the lost, to the saved. The gospel will go forth from
this place as a savor of life, a delight to some people that
are alive. of Christ and death, it will
be the condemnation of some people who sit on the sound of it. And
I don't want that to be about anybody in here. I want you to
believe it. I really do. And I believe some
have, because the gospel came to you, and it says it came in
power, verse 5, it says, and the Holy Ghost and much assurance.
I know literally everyone here has been under the sound of some
powerful preaching. If you were here Sunday morning,
how much flesh is in there, I don't know. But I know for a fact when
the Word of God, when God is blessing a little bit. I don't
know that all of it is. I know much of it is the flesh.
I know that. Nerves, what have you, I know that. But when God
I don't have the Scripture recall. I don't have the ability. Believe
me, I don't have the fleshly ability to do this thing. Because
every now and then God gives it. And some people here, I know
nearly everyone in here that I'm looking at this morning,
has been here under the sound of some powerful preaching, whether
it was me or another man. You've heard other men preach
powerfully from this pulpit as though God was speaking. It was
evident to you. It was evident to you that God,
like Jacob said, surely you went away, God was in this place. Or in other places, you've heard
it in other places. You've heard it on tape. On tape. And for
some, that gospel has power. You've heard it not only in power
and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but it has powerfully
affected you, as if God was speaking to you, as if he called you by
name. And you heard it. You heard it.
There are times when you don't hear anything, and there are
times when you hear it powerfully, and it affects you, it pierces
your heart, it grips your heart, it moves your heart. And that's
the time when it's hard to kick against those pricks. And the Holy Ghost comes in with
the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a great preparer
of hearts. You're not going to hear a thing
I say. I don't care if I scream it to the top of my lungs or
if I'm weeping. This is what Christ said. We've
mourned, we've laughed, and you haven't done—you're not going
to be moved by it unless God the Holy Spirit moves you. And
if you're moved, it's not me. It's the great preparer of hearts,
the great teacher. If you learn anything, it's going
to be from him. The great convictor. If you get
convicted, it's the great convictor, the great witness of Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit comes and
convinces you who God is, convinces you beyond a shadow of a doubt
who God is, who Christ is, what you are, your need of him. Much assurance? That means much
assurance means just you're assured of who God is and you're assured
of who Christ is. You're certain about it. And
you're just sure and certain you're a sinner and you need
Christ. Do you have that much assurance? Do you have that much
assurance that God is God? Do you believe that? Does anybody
in here feel this way? Have you heard and seen right
here, being right here, through the gospel, through the preaching
of God's word, the glory of God, do you believe, do you now believe
in your heart that God is not some sugar daddy up there that
the world talks about who just loves everybody and just can't
do anything? and leaning over the ministers
of heaven and wanting so bad to do this, and men mess up his
plans. Do you believe now, after hearing
this word preached and proclaimed from this pulpit, that God is
God? Do you? Let me see some heads
shake. Do you? All right. God is God. Do you believe that?
He's holy. He's sovereign. He's majestic.
He's powerful and he's merciful. Oh, I hope I've never shortened,
come short of that glory of God, his mercy to sinners. His love, oh, his love, his love,
effectual, eternal, everlasting, his grace, grace of God. Do you
believe God's grace? Do you believe that Jesus Christ,
well, verse 9, look at it. It says that these people at
Thessalonica They themselves showed us what manner, entering
in we had unto you, how you turned to God from idols to serve the
living and true God. Some of you were in religion,
Methodism, what have you. God with no hands, an idol, that's
what it means, an idol. It said over there, I can't immediately
recall the psalm, he talks about They have no hands. They literally
say this, doesn't they? David says this literally in
that psalm. Their God has no hands. He's a God of silver and
gold, had no hands, no feet, no mouth, no nothing. And David
said, they that worship them are like unto them, dead. And you served idols like that
at one time, and you believed the same idol that the world
has believed before. But you have turned from those
idols to worship, to bow before, to believe and trust and look
and call upon the true God, because there is just one, the living
God, not some God you manipulate, some God who manipulates you
in whose hand you are. And you became followers He said
that, verse 6. Followers of this Lord and of
us. I have to believe you're at least
nominally interested in the gospel, or you wouldn't be here this
morning. Are you? Followers of us, interested in
the gospel? Are you? I hope so. Are you truly seeking Christ
and know Christ? Do you sincerely desire to win
Christ and be found in him? Do you? Do you see anything? I talk a
lot about the righteousness of Christ from this pulpit. Why
do I do that? To impress you with my Calvinistic
knowledge? To impress you with my theological
terms? Huh? To sound puritanical? Because certain people Certain
people demand that we preach Calvinistic messages. Why don't
I talk about the righteousness of Jesus Christ all the time?
What do you know? Do you know anything about the
righteousness of Christ? Do you see why he had to come down here
and establish a righteousness? Do you see that God can't have
anything to do with anything we do? It says in Isaiah 64,
6, all our righteousness, that means our church going, our prayers,
our singing, it's filthy rags that God can't accept it, that
it shall be perfect to be accepted. that God is holy and what you
do must be holy to be accepted by him? Perfect in thought, word,
and deed. Do you understand that? I know
I'm talking fast. I haven't got much time. Do you
understand that? Why do I talk about the righteousness
of Christ? Because only through the righteousness of Christ are
we going to be accepted by God. Only through Christ doing what
he did for us can God have anything to do with us. And God recognized that righteousness,
or God imputed that righteousness to you before you were ever born,
or else he could never have paid any attention to you. It's an
everlasting righteousness. It's your covering. It's your
dress code. You know, you ever been to a
wedding? Everybody dresses up at a wedding. You want to be
a bridesmaid? If you're going to be a bridesmaid at one of
these fiascos, One of these weddings, if you want to be a bridesmaid,
you're going to have to have a beautiful dress on that the
bride and the groom provide, the bridegroom provides for the
bridesmaid. If you're going to be in God's
heaven, you're going to have to have a wedding garment on.
You're going to have to have a particular mode of dress on.
You're going to have to look a certain way. How's that? Any
way you want to. You're going to have to sew something
up best you can. Make your own little fig leaves,
it won't cover. You're going to have to have
a perfect seamless robe of righteousness that Jesus Christ by his own
hands worked out for 33 years as a man on this earth. And God
saw it and said, I don't see a flaw anywhere. That's a beautiful
robe you've got on there, my son. And he says, yes, and I
want to cover all my people in it. And God then looks at them
and says, They all look just like you. They look beautiful,
righteous, they're holy. Look at them. They have your
righteousness on them. That's not a theological term.
That's your dress to get into heaven. And blood, I make a lot
of mention of the blood here. Oh, my. You're talking about
making mention of the blood. If you don't know something about
the blood, you ain't going to be able to sing in heaven. If that's
going to be the theme of my 100% of the Psalms is sung in heaven,
under him that washed us from our sins in his own blood. Blood,
blood, blood is the theme of heaven. Brother Terry said it
up here Wednesday night, we'll have to have the blood of Jesus
Christ to plead for us throughout eternity. It's going to be right
there on the mercy seat for everybody to see. Bless God, Terry, not
just God to see, we're going to see it! And we're going to
know that's why I'm in heaven throughout eternity. We're going
to be blessing God, and we're not just going to be blessing
the substance or the theme of it. We're going to be blessing
the one whose blood it was. That's Christ's precious blood.
The blood, the blood, the blood. Make much of the blood here. Make much of the blood. Well,
he says here, Our gospel came to you. and you became followers
of us, followers of the Lord? Do you believe these things? Do
you see? Do you believe God is God? Do you believe at least some
that Christ is You need Christ, you need this
righteousness I'm talking about. Do you see your need of the blood?
I know you don't always feel that need, but it's not based
on your feelings. But let me tell you something,
though, how little that need may be, how little bit of an
interest you may have. I'm not talking about head people. And this is really something
that can't be explained. I'm not talking about in your head.
You know, mentally giving assent to these truths. Yeah, I see
that. It's clear. I see that. I'm talking
about down here. Yeah, he's God. I'm talking about
down here. Believe me, he's God. He's God,
and I'm a sinner in God's hands. Yeah, that's God's Son. God's
Son actually came down here to this earth. He actually came
and He did something that needed to be done for old sinners, and
I'm an old sinner, and I need that. I need what He did. I need Him. I don't know much
about Him. I'd like to know more. From your heart, can you say,
I want to win Christ and be found in Him? I've got hope for you. Those
things aren't natural. Before you came here, before
God did this, you didn't have an interest in these things,
did you? A man could get up and do his blue in the face. I may
be blue right now. He could be up here and do his
blue in the face telling you about the righteousness of God,
and you're not interested. Do you have an interest now?
It's a gift of God. It's the beginnings of faith,
and that's why I'm here. Chapter 3, and I'll close. Chapter
3, verse 2. Paul said he sent young Timothy,
and I hope God sent me to come here to establish you. At least
that's why I'm here this morning, to establish you. I want you
to be grounded, settled. I want you to go away from here,
if not this morning, tonight, Wednesday night. I want you to
go away from here at some point in time. I want you to go away
from here like the Apostle Paul. Knowing whom you have believed
and persuaded that he's able to keep that which you've committed
to him against that day. Establish you. I want you to
be assured and convinced in your mind and your heart, Jesus Christ
is Lord, but not only that, he's my Lord. And not only is he the Savior
of sinners, but here I am as a sinner and he is my Savior. If he did that for me, if I think
good about myself, why can't you? The chief of sinners,
that's what Paul said, I'm the chief. And he said, now this
is worthy of all exaltation. You harlots and you publicans
and you drunks and you bad people out there, listen to me," he
said. You need to hear this. This is about the best news you're
ever going to hear. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save the likes of you. That's why I'm here this morning,
at least, to establish you that Jesus Christ is the Savior of
sinners. Boy, I hope you're like Simeon.
You remember old Simeon? Old Simeon was waiting in the
temple. He was in a good place, wasn't he? He was in the right
place. He was waiting in the temple to see God's salvation.
God had promised him that he would die until he saw his salvation. And that one morning, old Simeon,
here came in this little Jewish maiden with a baby in her arms.
And nobody else saw any glory in it. Nobody, just another Jewish
baby, just another Sunday morning, Saturday morning, just another
service, you know. They went through the motions,
but send me in. He said, now, he saw that baby, and if you've
seen this gospel, and no matter in how infinite form your faith
may be, have you seen it? And Simeon said, oh, I believe
now. I believe now. and comfort you. That's what
I'm trying to do, comfort you this morning. If you can't get
any comfort out of this message, comfort you. Comfort you concerning
your faith, no matter how little it may be. Verse 3, that no man
should be moved by these afflictions. These are troubling times. I
told Brother Terry Worthing, I said, you know, we were out
on a golf course. I'm sorry, I got some bad vices. He goes bowling. Let me let you
in on something. He likes bowling. At any rate,
I go golfing every night. We went out on a golf course,
and I told Brother Terry, I said, Terry, if I didn't believe God
was on the throne, we were talking about political situation and
troubling times and all. religion and just how bad things
are. Things are bad. I mean to tell
you, things are bad, folks. It's not going to surprise me
when the heavens start raining fire just any day now. This thing
is bad. It's just like the days of Noah
or worse. I said, Terry, if I didn't believe God was on the throne
and if he didn't divinely ordain and predestinate all things according
to his counsel and everything is going according to schedule
and plan, if I didn't believe God was on the throne, I'd run
for some kind of political office. I'd be politically active. I'd
get involved in every issue coming and going. I would. I'd be so upset by things, trying
to change them. But I don't worry. And I don't
want you to be worried either, moved by these things. Don't
worry, really. The only thing I want you to
worry about is your own soul. Troubling times and persecution. You know, these people at Thessalonica,
they received persecution from people. And this is what he's
talking about, primarily. They had received persecution
from people. their own family, you know. They,
down in Mexico now, even now, down in Mexico, Catholicism has
such a grip, such a hold on people down there. If you become a so-called
Christian and renounce Catholicism, they'll kick you out of the family.
They won't even give you a coffin to be buried in. They won't even
attend your funeral. I'm serious. You're out your black ball from
every from society from your family, and this is what happened
to the early church also as well. And some of you even today, you're
experiencing because you because you just believe, just because
you now you're you're acknowledging God, you're just thanking God.
What's wrong with that? Why do people see anything wrong
with that? You're just thanking God. You're just worshiping God.
Everybody ought to worship God. You just, you believe in Christ.
You believe in the truth, the gospel. And because you do, your
family, your friends, maybe your co-workers have been mocking
you. And they see the inconsistencies in you. They see the hypocrisies
in you. You know, they say, I thought
you was a Christian. Look at there. You say, I wonder myself
sometimes too, but I'm trying. And they persecute you, mock
you, scoff you, ridicule you, and try to entice you. No, that's
not for you. Like Mendes' brother said of
me when we started dating, he'll change. He won't last. Forget him. Enticing you, but come on back. And like the pilgrim in the Pilgrim's
Promise, the only thing you can do at times is just stick your
fingers in your ear and cry out, life, eternal life. Christ, Christ. Pilgrim said, I, all, some of
these things may be so about me, but I just believe Christ. I believe all this, thank God. And I'm going to go worship.
And you can sit here and go to hell if you want to. And you can listen to that liar
out in the pulpit if you want to. I can go on and hear him.
I'm going to go And verse 10, Paul says, in closing,
he says, night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see
your face. I want to see you here. I want to see you here
tonight. Not just today, I want to see you here tonight. There
are going to be some people not here tonight that were here this
morning. And I'm going to say, where are they? Really? I'm going to say, well, I wish
they were here. I've got a good message. And I think, what are
they doing? I'm going to think, didn't the
gospel have an effect on him this morning? Don't be saying, I had such hope. But I'm not going to call him
up and say, now don't you come back again. If you don't come
back on Saturday and Sunday night, you can't come at all. I'm not
going to do that at all. I'm glad you're here this morning.
But I tell you, I'll be doubling glad if you're here tonight.
I'll think, something's happening here. This is the way it works. People start coming on Sunday
morning, and the Lord arrests their attention for you. They're
there on Sunday night. And you think, what's he doing
here? Literally. What's she doing here? You think,
well, I know why they're here. God's talking to them. And then
before you know it, oh my, Wednesday night. They're there on Wednesday
night of all times, the middle of the week, when anybody can
give an excuse for not being there. There's a million reasons
not to be there on Wednesday night. They're there. I made
an effort to be there. Why? God's speaking. God's creating
in the heart an interest, a desire, a love once there was not. And they say, I believe, and
I want to believe more. I believe. Lord, help my unbelief.
And here's what I say to you all that believe, and you want
some help for your unbelief. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. And we're going to meet tonight
again. We're going to meet tonight. Believe me, it would be a whole
lot easier on me not to meet tonight. It would. It would. I've said everything
I know already this morning, and I'm going to have to repeat
myself tonight. Everything I know I've said. But we're going to
meet tonight, and you know the men are going to meet down there
to study? You men like that, you enjoy that? Rick, do you
enjoy that? I do. I really do. That's good
preparation down there. I wouldn't take anything for
that. I've seen the fruits of that over the years where I came
from. I've seen the fruits of that.
You know, when I see the Lord begin to work on a man, that
takes that form, too. I've seen young men, the Lord
begin to move on. And for a long day, here they
come slipping in the study with all the rest of the men. Come
slipping. I'm sorry to be here, but that's the way they look. And I know I don't belong, but
can I belong, man? What do you think this is? The
country club? The hierarchy? This is just a
bunch of sinners meeting together to read the Word, to pray to
God, asking to bless the Word tonight. We're so thankful you're
here. We're just coming here early
to ask God to bless our worship and speak to us and read the
Word together. Just another little time of help. Need all the help you can get
at this thing of worship. And faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. We're going to meet and study
for the service, and then we're going to come out here in the
auditorium like we always do. And like I said, I'm going to grieve
over some people who aren't here, and I'm going to grieve over
the lack of response of some people this morning. I preach,
just pour my heart out at times. There's times I don't, there's
times I'm unprepared and it's dead as a hammer, and I know
that's Generally, when you see me run out of here as fast as
I can. I made an effort to read the bulletin
this morning, particularly the article addressed to our congregation,
as I stated in that article. I'm addressing everyone that
attends here when I say that.