Isaiah chapter twenty-five, verse six will be our text, dwell more
here. Isaiah twenty-five, verse six,
And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people
A feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat
things full of marrow, of wines on the leaves well refined. A feast of fat things. May the
Lord enable us to serve us up a feast tonight. From the bottom
of my heart, I say with all sincerity that
I love what we're doing here tonight. I really do. There's no place I'd rather be,
except maybe out there in the pew, let somebody else do this. But there's no place I'd rather
be, there's no one I'd rather be with, there's nothing I'd
rather be doing than sitting around this book. sitting at
the feet of Christ and learning of Him. In five days, I've sat
under or been in on eleven messages, and I could take eleven more
in the next five. If somebody told me we were going
to have a meeting tomorrow night down somewhere, I'd say, good,
let's go. I really, I truly enjoy worshiping
God with God's people, sitting around the table. as it were,
feasting on the gospel. And this is truly, this is truly
meat to eat that the world knows not of. Religion won't, you can't
sink your teeth in religion. You get all hookadoo and excited
and so forth and some things, but you can't, this is meat to
chew on. You can chew on this all week,
can't you? Truly meat to eat. And I get the privilege now of
waiting on the table. I get the privilege. I don't
mean that when I say I'd rather be out there. I'm just, the enormity
of this, the burden of it is just, only a fool would want
to do this. But if the Lord speaks it's privilege,
wait on the table here. Serve up some food, and if only
the Lord will make it savory. If only he'll make it savory
and we'll find this to be meat indeed. Beginning with verse
1, just run through these verses briefly, and then get to verse
6. Can you say that? The Lord, the God of the Bible,
the sovereign God, the Ruler, the Creator, the Controller,
the Sovereign One, that's my Lord. That's my God. You can
have this this impotent God that can't save me unless they let
Him. That's not my God. They asked David, Where's your
God, David? He said, My God's in the heaven, and He does whatsoever
He pleases. He doesn't do what I please.
He doesn't do what I let Him do. He does whatsoever He pleases.
That's my God. The Lord is my God. The Lord
is my God, the absolute ruler and creator, and I'll exalt Thee. That's why we're here, not here
to recognize brother so-and-so, or sister so-and-so, or thank
you for playing that beautiful hymn, or isn't that a wonderful
sermon. No, we're here to exalt the Lord,
to worship Him, and praise Him, exalt Him. And also, I'll praise
your name. That's the only name that deserves
to be mentioned around here. Only name. That's the name that's
above every name. And the only name that ever deserves
to be spoken in God's house. His name, because He's done wonderful
things. Yes, His name, isn't it? Wonderful,
and everything He does, because it's His name, everything He
does is wonderful. And anything and everything that comes to
pass, He's the one that does it. All things, everything. This is the Lord's duty, whatever
it may be. Trial or blessing. Trials can be a blessing. Joy
or pain, it's the Lord's doings. It's the Lord, and it's marvelous
in our eyes. Old Brother Scott brought this
out in the message, such a good point. He said, you know, if
we had all wisdom and knowledge like God Almighty, Romans 8,
28 says, all things work together. We know, or we ought to know
it, ought to believe it, that all things work together for
good. to them that love God, who have
called according to His purpose." Now, God's purpose is all wise,
ordered in all things, and sure, God's too wise to make a mistake.
He's too good to do wrong. He's too merciful and gracious.
He's too loving to His children to ever do anything out of anger
or wrath or malice. He just won't do it. Everything
He does to His people is good, it's right, it's for their good,
in spite of them. And Brother Scott said, he said,
if we had the knowledge and the wisdom of God Almighty, if we
knew what He knows, we would put ourselves exactly where He
has put us. He said, if we knew what God
knows and had His wisdom, we would put ourselves through exactly
what He's putting us through. It's the Lord. Everything. He does it. It's the Lord. And someday we're going to look
back and say, boy, that was the best. That was absolutely the
best thing that could have happened to me. I'm sure glad He didn't
let me have my way. Aren't you? And we're going to see that someday
so clearly. I wish we'd see it now so we could rejoice in His
providence. Because you've made, verse 2,
thou hast made a city a heap. Well, I left out the last part
of verse 1, "...thy counsels," this is too important here, "...thy
counsels, God's everlasting covenant of grace, ordered in all things."
And sure, that's the most wonderful thing of all, isn't it? This covenant of grace and mercy
that's in Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. "...thy counsels of old, all we saw this morning." He's
faithful. Great is his faithfulness in
this truth. It's only one. Oh, it's true,
isn't it? It's true. I love this gospel. I love the Word of Truth. I esteem all of His precepts,
all of His gospel precepts and statutes and ordinances and commandments
to be right. Just what I need. Righteousness. To be right. And I hate every
false way. Like we saw there in Psalm 119,
one day I will behold a lying, but thy law do I love. This gospel,
this one true gospel. And I boldly declare with the
Apostle Paul that there is but one. There is but one true gospel,
and it is the gospel of God's sovereign grace to sinners through
the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ and his shed blood
that God might be just and justify. of all them that believe in him,
and every other false gospel I despise. And I say amen to
God's judgments on this land. Verse 2, Thou hast made and will
make of a city a heap, a pile of rubble. He did that to Jerusalem
of old. He'll do it to America. And I'm
going to say someday, so be it. Amen. He's judged the great whore. False religion in her midst.
A defense city, a great strong city or civilization, he made
it a ruin. A palace of strangers to be no
city. It shall never be built unless
the Lord build the house. They labor in vain at building. And this religion of our day
is not going to last. Verse three, Therefore shall
the strong people glorify thee. Someday every knee is going to
bow, even princes, rulers, evil, wicked kings. All people, great
and small, are going to bow before Him. The city of the terrible
nation shall fear thee. Everybody is going to fear the
Lord. They are going to see Him as He is and bow down. And every
tongue is going to confess. They are going to be forced to
confess it whether they want to or not, whether they love
it or not. God's going to say, say it. Like
getting a fellow down, say, say, uncle. Isn't it? Say it. These fellows that say, let Jesus,
make Jesus your Lord, He's going to tell them, God's going to
say, I've already made Him Lord. Now say it. He is Lord. Say it. He's Lord. He's Lord. But He's been a strength. Verse
4, He's been a strength to the poor. A strength. This poor sinner, like David
said, this poor sinner cried unto the Lord, He hurt me. Strong
people He's going to bring down. The proud He knows how to abase,
but the humble, the broken, contrite sinner at His feet, Oh Lord,
I'm nothing at all, just a poor sinner and nothing at all, but
Jesus Christ is my all in all. He'll exalt to the stars. Make
Him a king and priest before God Almighty. strength to the
poor, to the needy in distress." Needy. He's a very present help
in time of need and trouble. He's a refuge from the storm. He's a hiding place. A man, as
the Scripture says, there's a man that will be a hiding place.
A man. And he's a shadow from the heat. Oh, boy. He's cool and sweet
relief from the from the heat of battle, or the heat of this
world, cool and sweet relief. I am respite here in this place
under the gospel, under the shadow of His wings, the shadow of the
cross we sung about. Respite, rest, refuge, shadow
from the heat, from the blast of the terrible ones. or the
terrible one, He is your protection. He said, Peter, Satan hath desired
you, but I am praying for you, buddy. Everything is going to
be alright. He'll bring down the noise of
strangers. Verse 5, I hear a lot of noise going on in religion
today, don't you? Oh, so much noise and confusion. God's not
the author of that. God's not the author of confusion.
God's the author of truth, isn't He? Oh yeah. Thou shalt bring down the noise
of strangers as the heat in a dry place. So much hot air. Even
the heat with the shadow of a cloud. It's like the Israelites of old
who were led by that cloud. This gospel is our cloud. We're
led by the branch of the terrible one shall be brought low. Now
here's our text. And in this mountain, in this mountain, shall the Lord of hosts make
a feast." What mountain is he talking about?
Mount Sinai? Huh? Oh, no. God said back, the
people, when they saw the mountain trembling, smoking, rumbling
with fire, they said, Oh, don't let God speak to us. God said,
don't you touch the mountain either. Don't you come anywhere
close to this place. I'll smite you dead. Don't let
an animal, if a hoof of an animal touched that mountain, God smote
it dead. You can't come to Mount Sinai. You can't come up here
too holy, too just, too righteous. You can't come up here, not in
this mountain. It's a sacrifice, a law being given up here. You can't, the law doesn't invite
you. You can't come up here. At Mount Calvary, what he's saying
is, when he spread those arms wide like one that's swimming,
he's saying, Come unto me! Come on now! You who couldn't
come to God by the law, you can come up to this mountain. You
can come right up to God, where God is, and He'll serve you. He Himself will serve you. Two
thousand years ago on Golgotha's Hill, the Lord God offered up
the body and the blood of His Son as a sacrifice for sin. The wrath and justice of God
consumed the body of the Lord Jesus Christ on that cross upon
the altar for our sins, just like the Old Testament type. And the blood of God's Son, that
sacrifice for sin, that offering on the altar was a sweet-smelling
savor to God. And it is to God's people, too. It's savors of life. Oh, it's
death, yes. Because He died, we live. It's
savors of glory. It's savors of mercy. Grace,
grace, sweet smelling savor to all of God's people, a veritable
feast. Let's look at this. A feast of
fat things and wine on the leaves. Everyone know what this is talking
about? If you'll stay with me, I've got a blessing out of this
and I hope you will too. The gospel, the gospel is a feast
of fat things full of marrow. Fat things. The word fat means
rich. You know what fat is? It's fatty,
rich, and fat, and full. You know, fat, when you're fat,
you're full. Right? Fat things, full, blessed things. The gospel, what God serves up,
this gospel is full of life. Life more abundantly, Christ
says. It's full of things like this,
fat things, full of marrow, the heart and the soul of this gospel.
Marrow is the heart of the bone, the heart of the meat. And this
gospel, this fat thing full of marrow, one of these fat things
is justification. Justification. Now, let's sink
our teeth into this for a minute. Let's find out what it means,
justification. We've all broke that down to
mean, to this simple meaning, just as if I'd never seen Him. Now, you think about that for
a minute. That's more than a doctrine now.
Just as if God looks at you, Terry Kendrick, just as if you
had never seen Him. Oh, Lord, my sin. That's ever
before me, he said. I have sinned against Thee, and
Thee only have I sinned. David, you know, when Nathan
came to him and convicted him of that awful sin that he did,
he said, You've sinned against the Lord. Immediately after that,
he said, But the Lord's put away your sin. Oh, you've sinned against the
Lord. I sure have, but He's put it away. What? He has? Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your sins are pardoned, and you're
free. They're all taken away. All of them. But I might sin
them all. All of them. Past, present, future. All taken away. Just as if you
had never sinned. How? Why? Because I'm sincere? Huh? Because I prayed through?
Because I made my silly decision? No, it's the blood that justifies. Sin's painful. Now, that's meat. And very few people chewing on
this, are there? That's meat. But, buddy, it's
meat to your soul. It'll be meat to your soul. It'll
be a sweet-smelling savor when you stand before that Holy God,
when you realize, when you see that God in all His holiness,
and you realize who you have been, Oh, justification, that blood. You're going to thank God. That's
the reason we're going to thank Him from all eternity, unto Him
who washed us from our sins in His own blood. Blessing of all blessings. David
said in Psalm 32, blessed is the man, blessed is he whose
transgression is what? Forgiven. Whose sin is covered. God doesn't see it. Now, God sees His children's
sin. Like every parent, every parent
has his eye, her eye, looking out of the corner of her or his
eye at their child. You know what's going on. They
think they're getting by with some things, don't you? You kind
of wink at their sins every now and then, don't you? But you
know what's going on, and you deal with them accordingly at
times. But you never punish them. That's another thing that Brother
Scott brought out. He never punishes his people,
he chastens them. We in our time past had fathers
who barely chastened us according to the flesh, according to their
good pleasure, but he for our good, always for our good, never
out of anger, never out of wrath, never out of malice, never hastily,
but always with forethought, divine eternal wisdom and for
a purpose and for our good. He sees our sins, yes, but there's
a sense, John, in which he doesn't see them. We sin daily, don't
we? But he doesn't see them. But the psalm says, Thou, Lord,
seest me. Yeah, he sees you in Christ.
He better. Because if he'd mark iniquity,
one of them, who's going to stand? The Lord loves righteousness.
He couldn't let you stand if your sins weren't paid for. He
wouldn't put up with us. The long-suffering of the Lord
is salvation. He wouldn't put up with us for a minute. Blessed fact. That's a blessed
fact. Fact thing. Fact of justification. That's a fact. That's a blessed
fact thing. Full of marrow. Blessed is the
man whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. David knew something
about imputed righteousness. A non-imputation of sin. That's
an Old Testament doctrine—imputation, non-imputation of sin, imputation
of sin to his Redeemer. Ah, boy, blessed fact. God will
be merciful. It's full of marrow. Now, it's one thing to believe
the facts, the doctrine of justification. That's one thing. But I tell
you, it's full of marrow when you feel your sins forgiven. Doctrine won't touch your heart,
but the feeling of the fact, the belief of it in your heart,
take it down, ingest it in your soul, chew on it and ponder it
and meditate upon it. Me? You mean He chose me? You mean He has forgiven me?
I can understand the forgiven. He's a much better man than I
am. I understand some meek in Christ. I can understand that.
Me? I mean, I sinned. I'm the chief of sinners. Me?
Yes, you. This is a faithful saint. He
came to save such as you. Me? Oh, that's sweet. That's full of marrow. That's
full. And it makes my heart cold, overflowing. Oh, my cup runs over with joy
and gratitude, full. Listen, I believe God saves sinners. And everybody out there believe
the fact of, you tell them, God saves sinners. I believe that.
But it's never, it won't thrill your soul until you find out
God saved you. See if I can illustrate that. There's peace and comfort. You're
children. There's peace and comfort for a child just knowing that
daddy's home. You know, a child, you're chanting,
and your dad's gone, he's the protector over your head. You
love your daddy, don't you? He's a fine one. You ought to.
But when daddy's gone, there's a little bit of instability in
the home. Your mama's, she's mama, but when daddy's home,
I ain't got a thing to worry about. Daddy's home. Now there's
some peace and some comfort in knowing that. Do you still sit
in your daddy's lap, Shannon? Now then you really know daddy's
home, don't you? When daddy puts that big, when
Joe puts that big fat hand, that big paw around you and hugs up
to his little girl. Daddy's home. Daddy loves me. See the difference? There's a blessedness and a peace
and a comfort to know that Christ died for sinners, but I tell
you, it's more blessed to sit in his lap. Sit in his lap. Justification is more than a
doctrine. It's blessed assurance of the favor of God Almighty
upon me. Here's another fat thing. Fat. Weak. It's full. Justification and adoption. Adoption. Scripture says, to
as many as received him, to them gave he the power, the right,
the better ended, the privilege, the blessed privilege to become
the what? Sons of who? God. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called sons I was an enemy. He called me
a son? Jack brought that out, didn't
he? He said, you take an old dirty beggar off the street, and you live in a fine home.
You got a nice family and all, and you got a pretty little girl
or son out there playing in the yard. This old beggar comes along,
old dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking beggar. No good to anybody. You
certainly don't want him on your property, but he comes along.
And he takes your daughter or son and just brutally beats them
and abuses them and misuses them and all that. And you go outside
and say, now come now, come. Come on in the house here and
let's sit down and let's talk about this. Let's reason this
thing out together. Though your sins be as scarred,
though you've killed my son, I'm going to forgive you. But
more than that, sit right here, and I'll bring you down a fresh
suit of clothes, and the wife will fix you up a big dinner
here, and we're going to write out some adoption papers. We're
going to take you into our family, and I'm going to feed you and
take care of you from here on out. Why not? Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. You know we
have children of our own. Those of you who have children
some of them came along you might work you might not have been
expected expected. They say I was a mistake. I agree
with that entirely. But you know you might not have
wanted them. But they came and they're yours
and you're stuck with them you're stuck with Kevin. You can't put
him away. He's yours. You have to love
him, Ed, don't you? But you do love him, don't you?
Because he's your body, your flesh and your blood. You love
him. Now, think about adoption now. Now, you have somebody that's
adopted a child. And I can't understand this. I can't understand this. Can
you, men? But they say they love that child just as much as you
could love one of your own flesh and blood. Take it into their
home, and it is love at first sight. And they love it, and
they sign the adoption papers. They make an everlasting covenant,
ordered by the state in all things and certain. You cannot put that
child away. You have determined. You go out
and you pick this child. You handpick it. You set your
love and affection upon. You bring it into your home.
You sign the papers. You agree. You put your word,
your name on the line. You promise to love that child. And you do love it like your
own son or daughter. It's not yours. It's somebody
else. It's somebody else. Maybe they're
cast out. Babies are cast out. People don't want it. But you
do. That was us, wasn't it? A cast
out. What does he want with me? Like
that child laying in a field. It's just like finding a baby
in a garbage can. Somebody didn't want it. Yet
he passed by me and said, Oh, come here. Live. Spread his skirt on you. Took
you and washed you up. Adopted you. Put you in his family.
Signed an everlasting covenant. Said, I'm going to love you from
here on out. Unloved and unlovely, cast out. Boy, there's something special
about adoption now. It's full of marrow. Full of
marrow. He says, I've loved them freely.
That is, he just had to set his love on us. There was nothing
lovely about it. Loved them freely. There wasn't
anything that would cause him to love us, except he found it
in himself, freely. And he entered into that everlasting
covenant, and he said, They'll be my sons, just like the Lord
Jesus. Now, he's got one son. Oh, my. The apple of his eye. His only
begotten, well-beloved son. He loves him dearly. One son. But he said, I'll love you just
like I love my son. You explain that. Oh, if you
can explain that, you can explain the gospel of God's grace. If
you could enter into that, you could understand something about
this gospel of grace. Behold, what manner of love! I can understand
him, Henry, loving Jesus Christ. He's altogether lovely, but I
can't understand him loving me. I'm altogether unlovely. Yet he says, I love you. Explain that, would you? Tell
you what, let's not try to explain it. Let's just praise him for
it. You know, Old Mephibosheth, we
mentioned him this morning. He said, Who am I? What am I?
A house that you could show such mercy under such a dead dog as
me? I don't see why you didn't kill
me too, like you did the rest of my brothers and all. King
David said, Well, I really didn't do it for your sake. I did it
for Jonathan's sake. For Jonathan's sake. See, I love
you in Jonathan, but I do love you. I love you and Jonathan. I tell you what, Mephibosheth
was, as it were, Mephibosheth was justified by David, wasn't
he? He was declared innocent of all wrongs. He should have
been killed, Henry, but David had mercy on him and he justified
him. He accepted him, didn't he? David said, you go down there
and get Mephibosheth and you bring him up to my house and
he's going to be accepted by me. I'm not going to kill him,
he's going to be accepted by me. Now, old Mephibosheth thought,
that's too good to be true. And he'd have thought, well,
just give me a little... I'll sleep in the doghouse out here.
I don't have to come in the palace. I don't have to come in the royal
court. Here's a little cabin. Let me sit down in here. Let
me sit in the kitchen. Oh, not David. David's merciful and gracious,
full of compassion. He said, No, buddy, come on in
here and sit at the king's table, right beside me. You ain't going
to eat fools, Potter. You're going to eat king's food.
Fat things. Kill the fatted calf. Come in
here and serve it up. You're going to have servants
waiting on you. A feast of fat things, full of marrow. Bring
it in here. All the dainties of the kings,
all the blessings of glory. I just can't believe this. Can't you hear him now? I just
can't believe it. I tell you, if we didn't know
when we get to heaven, if we didn't know even as we've been
known, that's what we'd be saying. I can't believe it. I can't believe
it. I just can't believe it. I can't believe I'm here. There's Moses, there's Abraham,
there's Joseph, there's Daniel. I can't believe I'm here. But they're there the same reason
you're here. Oh, that's fat, isn't it? That's
fat, that's full of marrow. Adoption. And I tell you, I can't
serve up this whole table. King's table. Have you ever seen
some of these lavish spreads in some of these royal palaces
at 13th Street? I couldn't begin to name everything
they had at that table. They had tables lined up. They
have a huge dining hall there, as big as long as this whole
room here. And they had a table almost,
well, about from here to that door back there. And those women, they cook like
you all do, you know. lavish I couldn't begin to mention
all the things that were on that table and one person couldn't
have served it all up. I can't tell you everything that
the king's table. If I go Abraham's servant, that old man, he went
to get a wife for Isaac, you know. I messed this up last time. I called his wife Rachel, didn't
I? It was Rebecca, right? Rebecca? Okay. Rebecca. Abraham's servant
went down there to get a wife for Isaac, and he brought a few
things along with him, some gold bracelets and this and that.
But he said, and he tried to tell about Isaac, Oh Isaac, oh
my Abraham, his father, oh he's great in houses and lands. And
Isaac, oh Isaac, oh he's the most handsome, he's the most
He's the most gracious man, always sweet. You ought to hear him
talk. His blessed voice, his smile,
his smile that melts you. He's just a man. Well, just come
see for yourself. I can't tell you all about it.
You ought to see him yourself. And that's just a preacher of
the gospel. That's the reason the Lord has
a lot of different servants. Right, Rick? A lot of gospel
preachers, you know. It takes 140,000 of them to serve
up the table, and they still don't get the job done. Now look at this, verse 6. It
says, In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make a feast. This is not my feast. It's the
Lord's Feast. It's the Lord's Table. That's
the reason we don't police this table. Do it. We don't instruct the beacons
to go out there and anybody had a vote on them and so forth and
they can't take the table unless we say something. Now wait a
minute. Whose table is it? Huh? Whose table is it? Isn't that... Isn't that subversive, or isn't
that taking the place of the Lord? Isn't that making yourself
the Lord over His table? Lording yourself over His people?
You don't know. I don't know what people's hearts
are. All we say, according to the
Scriptures, is that you be a believer and that you have confessed Him
in baptism, and if you believe Christ, trust Him, you take of
this table. I don't care where you belong.
But the Lord of hosts is the host. He's called the Lord of
hosts. He's the host. He's the host. Revelation 21, 3, we saw that
back downstairs during New Year's Eve. Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
be his people. And it says, God himself shall
be with them, and there, and be their God.
God himself. whom no man can see and leave,
but we're going to see him. Heaven to the believer. We say
this so often. I quote Psalm 73, 25 so often,
don't I? Heaven to the believer is to
be with Christ. That's what it's all about. That's
where we're going. That's why we're going. To be
with Christ. Let me ask you this. And there's
some people you really look forward to being with, going over to
their house. Somebody says, calls you up on the phone, we'd like
to have y'all come over for dinner. There's somebody you really enjoy
being with. You know him, you know you're going to have a good
time, have good fellowship, good food. You know that little woman's
a mighty fine cook, and he loved to eat. And the fellow or whoever
it is, you just enjoy talking with him. You get around to talking
about the gospel. Just places you like to go, people
you like to be with, you enjoy their fellowship, right? I can't
single out any one particular person here. I like going everywhere. Ain't no bad cook in the bunch.
Ain't too many bad fellows in the bunch. I really, you enjoy
being with people. You ever heard that song? You
ever used to sing that song? Come and go with me to my father's
house, to my father's house. You ever sing that? To my father's
house, come and go with me to my father's house, where there's
joy, joy, joy. Unspeakable joy, I'd say. You
talk about enjoying somebody's fellowship. You're not going
to go home. You're going to be home. You
ever been there? You ever done that? Go somewhere and enjoy
yourself so much, you don't want to go home? Huh? And the host
is going, well, I'll have another piece of that pie. Thank God our host is never going
to get tired of us. Huh? And we're never going to
have to go home. We're going to be home. It's a blessed thought, isn't
it? Joy unspeakable and full of glory. Fat things, full of merit. And
wine on the leaves. Feast of fat things and wine
on the leaves, well refined. This is good. This is good. On the leaves. What does that
mean? I wish Nancy was here in there. Nancy, do you hear this?
Wine on the leaves, well refined. Wine on the leaves, what is that?
Well, the leaves, when you make wine, the leaves are the must
or the grapes, the meat of the grape, the hull, the husk, the
pulp, everything. That's the leaves, okay? The
wine is the juice that comes out of that pulp, that body,
after it's crushed. And the leaves is that must or
that mass of pulp and flesh and so forth, and it lays there. Good wine, the juice lies in
the grape for a long time. And the longer it lies there,
the more it soaks up the virtue and the goodness from those grapes. See, the fruit is in those grapes.
And the longer that juice lies in that grape, the more it soaks
up all of its color, all of its virtue, all of its flavor. The longer it lays there, the
richer and the darker it becomes, the darker red it becomes. Good
wine, wine on the leaves, well refined, is wine that's aged
a long time, aged a long And what does that tell you about
the gospel? Well, the gospel is called an
everlasting covenant, isn't it? This gospel, as it were, was
thought of in the council halls of eternity past. It lay in the
mind of God Almighty for millennia. Soaking up, Rick, soaking up
all the wisdom of the Godhead. all the power of God Almighty,
all the glory that God could muster and put in this blessed
covenant, soaking up all the virtues of God Himself, all the
fullness, all the All the glory, all the honor, it lay in the
mind and the heart and the bosom of God Almighty from right on
the leaves, this gospel is, aged a long time, everlasting covenant,
soaking up all the virtue, glory, and strength of God himself,
until finally, one day, he said, It's ready. You know, the gospel of our day
is so much fizzy, blush, wine. Oh, boy. Cheap wine. Thunderbird Gospels. What's the
other couple? You don't know anything about
Thunderbird, do you, Stan? I don't either, but I've heard
something about it. Oh, fizz. Champagne. You know
what champagne is? You know what champagne is? You know all these
fools go out and get silly and drunk on Champagne. That's what
everybody drinks. Champagne is green wine. It's
new wine. Champagne is new wine. That's
what it is. They quirk it up before all the
carbon and everything goes out of it, all the bubbles and everything
go out of it. See, you let real good wine open, breathe, get
all of the carbon out of it, carbon dioxide out of it. and
all the fizz and the bubbles and the nonsense out of it, you
know. But champagne, you cork it up
real quick, get the bubble, get a little frizzle, you know. And
people that believe this gospel today are just like that. They're
all the time popping off, aren't they? Huh? Where's champagne?
Pop the cork. Pop. All fizz, all bubble. Ah, boy. But our gospel, is wine
on the leaves, wine on the leaves, deep, dark, mysterious, no cheap,
weak, clear, cheap stuff, huh? It's kept hidden, deep, dark,
mysterious, kept hidden from the foundation of the world,
but now, like I said, ready to be revealed in these last days.
It's time to serve it. This thing aged a long time,
Henry. It's the best there is. God's wine, the blood of His
Son. Deep, dark, you know the better
wines? Bill Clark's a Frenchman. I wouldn't
offend anybody here about wine at all, but in Scripture, you're
missing a blessing here if you're not singing the gospel in the
end. I wouldn't offend anybody about
wine, but the Lord sure did. At any rate, we've had wine in
the Lord's table. It's the best representation
of his blood. That's the reason we have grape juice. We have
wine. That's what we're looking at here. Wine on the leaves.
Well, we're fine. Bill Clark's a Frenchman. Over
there, they don't have good water. They have to drink something.
Can't make iced tea. Don't have any good water. Can't
make this and that and that. It's either to drink carbonated
water or spring water, which is real expensive, have a bottle
or drink wine. And it's just a French, Italian, that's just
the way of life, you know. There's nothing wrong with it.
Paul said, drink a little wine for your stomach's sake. And
for your self-righteousness' sake, I've said it before. But
Bill, you know, they drank wine with every meal. It's custom. Our Lord came down. In the Middle
Eastern countries, they drank wine. Our Lord drank wine. They
called Him a wino. wisdom justified for children,
justified of God Almighty's child. At any rate, Bill won't drink
cheap wine. He won't drink cheap, white blush,
you know, women's wine. He calls it women's wine. French
wine is expensive. It's old. It's been aged a long
time, and it's red. The older the wine, Better the wine,
good French wine, is red. Rick, there ain't no gospel,
buddy, unless it's as red as it can get, is there? Huh? Deep,
dark, mysterious. Don't tell me about this simple
gospel. Oh, my. It's a mystery that's been kept
hid from the foundation of the world, and we still don't know
all of it. And it's red, deep, dark. red, the blood of Christ. And it's for a thing about this.
And good wine, you don't just do that. Good wine's for sipping,
enjoying, savoring it. Solemn sipping! This gospel's
for savoring it. Now, this ain't to have a party
and get drunk on you or get drunk on Jesus. Oh, my soul! That's
blasphemy. Drunkenness is a sin. That kind
of foolishness is a sin. It's for sipping. Taste it. Wine taster. Gospel taster. That's
what we are. We're all gospel tasters in here.
Taste and see that the Lord is gracious. You can't take it all
down at once, can you? Huh? Too much for you. Sip it.
Sip it. And it's for special people.
It's too costly. You don't break out a $150 bottle
of whatever. Beaujolais, whatever it might
be. You don't break out after just
staying, do you? Oh, no. You wait till
Henry comes over. Somebody special. I'm just kidding. The table ought to be turned
there. Special friends, right? Special occasions, right? You
don't cast it before a swine. You don't pour it in a cat's
dish. Do you? And this gospel ain't
just for anybody. It's for God's people. Special
people. Chosen people. Chosen vessels
under His honor and glory. It's too rare. It's too costly.
He don't throw it around. He don't have a big party with
it. He don't slop it. He don't spill the blood of Christ.
Do you? He don't waste a drop of this, the blood of Christ. He doesn't spill His blood. What would God have done to the
high priest if he walked in there spilling it all over the place?
Can you help it? He smoked him dead, wasn't he?
That's precious substance there. The people's sins are at stake
here. We didn't have a drop of that. I was a little bit concerned
about having enough wine for the Lord's table to go around.
Now what? I believe we've got enough. God Almighty is too wise. He
knows every cup to fill. He hasn't done left over. And there's none like him. Every
drop, and it's not to be spilled. And Christ poured it. Isn't that
a picture of particular redemption? Huh? He poured the blood out
on the mercy. He didn't spill it. He didn't
throw it. He poured it. It had a direct
application. Didn't it have a particular application?
He poured it on the mercy seat. Covered it. Make sure it's covered.
Here's a corner over here that's not covered. Cover that corner. Make sure
it's covered. I blackened my foundation of my house, you know,
to make it waterproof. I did it personally. And it's
waterproof. I'm glad I saw to that. Somebody
else done it, covered up with all that dirt, and I thought,
I wonder if he got that corner over there yet. We'll be worrying about it. Bless
God. The Holy Spirit is the one that
applies the blood of Christ, and He makes sure it's all covered.
Everybody's covered. particular application. And here's
another thing about this wine on the lees, and I'll hurry.
What time did I start? Who cares? Settled, it's settled
of its impurities. Wine on the lees, it's settled.
Does that remind you of a verse of Scripture? Grounded and settled
in the truth. It's known for its clarity. Wine
on the lees, its clarity, though it's deep, dark, red, yet it's
clear. You can see through it. It's
not cloudy. Good wine is not cloudy. You
can see through it. Clarity. This gospel is not cloudy. It
doesn't leave its people in a fog. It opens and clears their understanding.
It's rich. It's costly. It's robust. It's
fragrant. It's got a fine bouquet. Can we handle this? Oh, this
is a feast. It's a feast. Folks, I'm a whole
lot tireder than anybody in here. It's a feast of fat things. Wine on the leaves, well refined. Well refined. You know what it
means to be well refined? Well, let me say this again.
Cheap wines contain additives. They say on the bottle, sulfites. Contains sulfites. That's something
that will hasten the aging process. Something that will quicken.
the aging process, make sure you can drink it quickly. Add
it in you. The modern gospel has too many
aspects in it, too much of a mixture. It's part God, part man, part
works, part grace, part faith, part blood. God's gospel is well
refined, pure, unmixed. All of these things have settled,
been settled pure grace, not of works, lest any man should
boast. No beggarly elements. You don't have to add beggarly
elements to good grapes. The better the grape, the better
the wine. The longer it ages, the better.
You don't have to add anything to it. And the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, oh my, the gospel of Christ and Him crucified,
you don't add anything to it. In this mountain, in Mount Calvary,
the Lord of hosts shall make a feast of fat things. Wine on
the leaves, fat things full of marrow. Wine on the leaves, well
refined. Fat things, rich things, full
of marrow, life more abundant. Wine on the leaves, well refined. And I tell you what about this
wine? David thanked God for it, didn't he? Why? He said it makes
your heart glad. He thanked God for wine that
maketh glad the heart of man. And there's nothing that'll make
you glad like the blood of Christ. Nothing. Nothing. All that thrills
my soul is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the reason
Paul could say, I'm determined. I'm just not really interested
in anything else, you see. Not much, anyway. But Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Be not drunk with wine, Paul
said, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart around the Lord's table." Melody
in your heart to the Lord Himself. All right. Brother Henry is coming.
You men come and serve the table. Serve up the bread.