One of our young people that
can read, I hope you have a Bible in front of you. I wish I had all of the young
people, and I don't know where to begin that age. I guess I
called Brother Terry the other day by mistake. I told him I had a message for
our young people, and he said, well, I'm young at heart. I said,
well, okay, we'll make this age 44 and under. I asked him how
old he was, and he said 44. I said, all right, all young
people 44 and under, or whatever. It'll apply to all of us. But
I wish I had all of our young people sitting right out here
on this front row this morning. I'm not going to ask you to do
it, but I wish I had your ear. I hope God will give it to me.
This message is especially for our young people. Now, the Apostle
Paul was about fifty-some-odd years old when he wrote this
letter. He wrote this letter to a young man named Timothy.
I don't know how old Timothy was. Some speculate he was in
his twenties here, maybe thirty. I suspect thirty, because They
weren't allowed to preach and so forth. They were standing
in the synagogue. There were thirty. But the apostle Paul wrote this
letter out of true concern and a special love for those that
were under his ministry. And Timothy was one. He was a
young man that God had spoken to under Paul's preaching. And
he had a special burden for this young Timothy, and he's riding
Timothy from jail. Now, Paul's the one that's suffering.
He's the one that's in trouble. He's about to get his head cut
off. Very soon after he wrote this letter to Timothy, he got
his head cut off. So this is not just some preacher.
Like one man said, I ain't just preaching now, I'm telling you
the truth. It's not just some preacher up there rambling around,
trying to make an emotional appeal or whatever, trying to get somebody,
quote, saved. This is Apostle Paul. who's facing
death and telling the young man that he loves and cares for telling
him I got a special burden for you and concern for you. So let's
get right into it. May God give me a young Timothy
or I don't know what the feminine equivalent to Timothy is. We'll
call her Susan. I don't know. Timothy or Susan,
Sally, a young person. He says in verse 1, Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, a messenger of Christ, by the will of God,
God chose Paul, God providentially placed Paul in the position that
he was, and God placed me. God brought me here to this church,
to you people, beyond a shadow of a doubt. He brought me here
by the will of God. And it's all according to the
promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. He's talking about the
gospel. The gospel is the promise of life in Christ. And a preacher, a messenger of
the gospel, he has one job, one job, one duty, one concern. That is to preach the gospel.
He has one concern, not only for himself, but for everybody
that hears him. That they may win Christ and
be found in him. That they might know Christ.
and be found in him. And that's my old Paul's desire
for Timothy. And that's this Paul. God providentially
gave me the name. That's this Paul's desire for
you. I may call some names this morning. It's not any reflection on your
spiritual condition at all. I just want to get your ear.
But it's this Paul's desire for you, Wendy, Kevin, the young
people, everybody, Nancy, Everybody, it's my desire that you know
Christ. I'm not just preaching. There's other things to do, easier
things to do than just preaching. We've got a true heartfelt desire
that you know Christ, who is the promise of life. He is life. Verse 2, he writes it, he addresses
it to Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Not just because of his
age, but because he was a spiritual father and leader and guide and
teacher of Timothy, and so is every pastor to a people. A father
figure, if I may use that, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son. And I've said this before, it's
one thing to love to preach, but it's another thing entirely
to love those to whom you preach. I think you can tell. I think
you can tell the difference. God is my witness. I love and want the best for you people,
the best which is to know Christ. To Timothy, my dearly beloved
son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord. Whether you know it or not, these
are the things you need. You don't need a job, you don't
need a career, all those things. Yeah, you do. You need to get
a job and get married and this and that and the other. concerned
with, but these are the things you need more than anything because
this life is passing away. It doesn't seem like it to a
young person. You feel like you've got all your life ahead of you.
My best friend died when he was 15 years old. I pulled his body
out of the basement. He'd asphyxiated. I personally
went and found him dead and pulled him out of the basement and tried
to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Fifteen years old. My oldest
brother, Idol, a hero, 21 years old. See, it happens. It happens. This life is fleeting.
We need grace. The grace of God, the gift of
God, which is Christ. Christ is the grace of God. Mercy. Young people need mercy, too,
because we're sinners, too. I don't know anything about this
age of accountability. I don't know when it is. God
knows, because God knows every heart. He's not. There's no certain age. Well,
I'll put this thing off till I'm 20, like they did in the
old times. That's no assurance. That's no assurance. You don't
know that the age is 20. I don't know if there is an age.
God knows every heart. He knows every constitution.
He knows every person. He knows who he's dealing with,
and he'll deal justly. He'll deal rightly. Right? Grace, mercy, you need the mercy
of God. And peace, where does this come?
It comes from God. God's got to grant it. And it
comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our peace, who is the
grace of God, who is the mercy of God. Look at verse 3. I thank
God, whom I serve. And I do. I do. I do serve him. His glory, his
gospel, his son, his people, not my own interest, but the
glory of God. God remove me. if I'm in this
thing for my own interest and not in it for your good." He
said, I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure
conscience. I have a pure conscience about
this thing. I'm not just trying to count
ahead this morning. I'm not just trying to get you
saved. Truly have a concern for your soul. I thank God whom I serve from
my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing," verse
3, "'without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and
day.'" I'm praying for you. I'm praying for you. Here's an
older fellow in the congregation up in Ashland. When the Lord
started dealing with me when I was about twenty-one years
old, I started coming to church before then. Well, I grew up
there, left home when I was about seventeen. soon as I graduated,
and went out and went wild. Well, I came back. The Lord brought
me back through various circumstances. And about 19 or 20, I started
coming back to church, all the wrong reasons. My parents made
me. I went back and moved back home, and they made me come to
church. I didn't like it. I despised
it. I despised them, thought they were cruel. Made me come to church. Well,
about 21 years old or so, I was sitting there listening. Well,
I wouldn't. By God's grace, I was listening
that morning. But all the mornings up until then, I wasn't listening.
I wanted to be somewhere else but there. Anywhere but there,
but church. And you know where I was the
Saturday night before? Well, that morning, God got my ear. I don't know when it was exactly,
but I just know it was when I was twenty-one years old or so. I started listening. How? Why? Why? Well, Brother Gerald King, this
older man in the church, he said, later on, after I made a profession
of faith, was baptized and was coming regularly. Started out
on the back road. Ended up on the front. Interested. Ears wide open, eyes wide open
by then. Interested. Tell me more about
this uncool stuff. It's cool to me now. Brother
Gerald came up to me one day with tears in his eyes, and he
said, Brother Paul, he said, the Lord answered my prayer. He said, I've been praying for
you for years. And Timothy, there are some people
praying for you this morning. Forgive my tears, I can't help
it. You've got a mother and a dad,
and some people in this church are praying for you. I'm praying
for you. Calling names. Calling names
before the throne of God. Praying for you. Verse 4, "...greatly
desiring to see thee." being mindful of thy tears, I may be
filled with joy." Now, Paul saw Timothy for the last time, and
who knows? Who knows? How am I not seeing you again? Why not? If this world gets a hold of
you, I won't. If this world in all of its lusts and temptations
and desires And it all gets a hold of you like it may have a grip
on you now. You're going to be gone, lickety-split,
and we'll not see you again. And Paul was hoping to see Timothy
again before he died. He knew he was going to die. And I preach as a dying man to
dying men, or dying young people. Young people die. Greatly desiring
to see thee. See what? That you might be saved. Greatly desiring. Parents have
many desires for their children. We desire early. We desire success. Now, we want our children to
be successful in life. We want them to be happy. We
want them to be happily married, have children, grandchildren
we can play with, grandchildren, show them off. All of these things
of this life. Happiness. But above all, if
you yourself, parent, are a child of God Almighty, You want one
thing, chiefly and supremely for your child, that they might
know the Christ you know. Shannon, that's what your mom
and daddy want for you more than anything else. Right, Joe? Right. That they might be saved, but
Paul said, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel,
for my people, my children, for Timothy, to be saved. I know
it's old-fashioned religious jargon. You've heard it time
and again, but you must be saved. Verse 5, when I call to remembrance,
Paul says, when I think about the unfeigned faith that is in
thee, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother
Eunice, Paul recalled with fond memories the parent and the grandparents
of Timothy. There's some people in here,
some parents of children in here that know Christ, and I recall
a fond memory. Wouldn't it be something, Joe
Parker? You know Christ. I believe you do. I really believe
you do. You give every evidence of knowing
him. Your eyes light up when I mention his name. And I believe
God's given that interest to your son. And Steve, wouldn't
it be something if Joseph, Aaron, if all three of you, twenty years
from now, arm in arm, sitting right there on that pew. Whew!
Goodness gracious. What a gift of God Almighty.
You don't realize, Mindy, we've got both sides of our family
know and love Christ. It's the greatest gift on this
earth. A family. A family. Because you don't know what trouble
is. Some of you do, who have unbelieving in-laws or whatever,
or parents even. You don't know what trouble is
until you have family troubles and bickerings and quarrels and
everything. But Joe, God save you, Steve, Sammy, their children,
Shannon's children, gracious sake, you're the most blessed
man on the face of the earth. You'll be just crying out to
God all the time. Thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you. Right? Thank Him right now. They're
sitting right here, right? Thank you. Paul said, I call
with fond remembrance the faith of your grandmother and your
mother. Now he says, Timothy. Verse six, look at it, Timothy.
Look at it. Verse six, I want to put you
in remembrance about something. I want you to think about something.
I'm trying to stir you up, Timothy. Whatever it takes, Nancy. I want
to do it. I want God to do it, whatever
it takes. Oh boy, God give us some young
men and some women that are interested in God more than the world and
themselves, who have their heads on straight, who have their affections
set right on things above, who are looking for the truth, not
just a good time. They're looking for good things,
things that differ. Try things that differ, Paul
said to Timothy later. who listen to their conscience,
God's Word within, who have a vision. The Scripture talks about young
men with vision. Where are the young men in our
assembly? Thirteenth Street has six young elders. I was the second.
Six young men. All of them in their thirties.
Well, Ron Traber is in his forties, and Bob is too. In a multitude of young men,
too, that class, that Bible class in there with 40 or 50 young
couples, 30s and 20s, young people interested with a vision, with
their eyes open, looking to the future, looking to Christ, interested,
want to know something about this. See the desperate need
of these things. God grant our assembly right
here some young people like that. with a vision, an eye to the
future, a burden for the Word of God, for themselves. Goodness
gracious, not just a burden for the world, but a love for Christ,
a love for His gospel, His righteousness, a love for their parents, a love for God's people, not
a shame to be seen with them. Well, he says, I want to put
you in a room. I want to stir you up. I'm trying
to stir some young Timothy this morning, or Susan. Shannon. Young person. And like I say,
when I call your name, it's not any reflection on your spiritual
condition. I haven't got anybody in mind here at all. I don't
want you... Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Yeah, I do want you to take this personally. I do. I do. I'm trying to stir up a young
somebody out of a world to sleep. This applies to you and me too,
Rick. We're very young men. out of a worldly sleep, and call
to remembrance the things you've been hearing already this morning. Think about it. Who God is. Who
you are. Who you are. Who Christ is. The reality of all this. Three
broad facts. You can't deny them. God is.
God's word exists. Jesus Christ was here. What are
you going to do with it? and our man in, but what are
you going to do with these things? You need to think about it. You
need to stir up your remembrance. Who God is? Who Christ is? See
your desperate need of Him. The state of things around us.
I said this last week, and I didn't mean to scare anybody. I thought
about it later on. I thought, man, you might have scared them
to death. I'm talking about you guys, John and Paul. I'm talking
about getting your draft cards ready. I didn't mean to scare
you, but who knows, John? Right? You're prime candidate,
buddy, to go overseas if they call. If that's the end of this
thing, you best be knowing Christ. Right? Well, look at verse 7. He says,
in verse 6, I want to put you in remembrance and stir up the
gift of God. What is the gift of God? gracious
things, repentance. It's the goodness of God that
leads you to find out what you are. It's the goodness of God
that points you to Christ to show you're in need of him. It's
the goodness of God to turn your neck that's twisted every which
way in this world, turn it straight, put it on straight, your head
straight. to look straight ahead in front of you, have your eyes
open, your ears open. It's a gift of God, and it's the grace of
God to make a young person who's just wild about this world and
everything in it, stop, sit down, and calmly think about things
in it. Very few. Very few who just stop and calmly
consider what's going on, what they're doing. Right? Very few. Very rare for a young
person to be interested in these things. So very rare. And he's saying, wake up, Timothy,
wake up, stir you up. The gift of God is Christ, his
gospel, his salvation. Look at verse seven. Now, God
has not given us a spirit of fear. You don't need to be afraid.
Of what? Of your peers. This is something
that young people really have problems with, I know. in this
thing of religion, your friends, they don't have any interest
for this. The friends of your husband or your wife or your
classmates, they don't have any interest in it. It's old-fashioned.
It's uncool. It's stupid in every other modern-day
term that can be used. They don't want it. You go to
church. Now, wait a minute, Tim. Don't
be afraid of these peers. Don't let them influence you.
Don't be afraid. God is real. Jesus Christ is a real person.
He walked this earth, and the testimony, the scriptures say
He died, and He rose out of that grave, and He seated right in
the gut, and you, I am in, we're in His hands. He's a real person. And death is real, and a judgment
to be faced. And as I said, I don't know what
the age is. It's real. Don't be afraid because
your friends don't think it's cool. You know, they're going to go
to hell. Every last one of them, if they
don't know Christ, same as we are, if we don't know Christ.
I ain't going with them. Just because they think it's
not cool. Tell them my misery loves company.
Goodness gracious, I don't want to keep them company. Let them think it's uncool. Your drinking buddies or whoever
it may be, let them think it. Don't go to hell with them. Say, man, you're sounding old-fashioned.
Gracious, if I God get a hold of us. That's
what I needed when I was a young man, a sledgehammer between the
eyes. Wake up! Wake up! Don't follow the bunch,
the crowd. Follow Christ. Come to Christ. Be not therefore ashamed of the
testimony of our Lord. Verse 8, that's the gospel. Don't
be ashamed of the gospel. How could anybody be ashamed
of this gospel? It makes me wonder about myself,
doesn't it? Terry, the good news, the gift of God, the unworthy,
unmerited favor of God, the gift of God, the gospel, the good
news of life, salvation. How could I be ashamed of that?
Young person, how could you be ashamed of that which is going
to save your life? Well, I know a lot of things. But God has not given us a spirit
of fear. Look at it. Don't be ashamed
of me. Don't be ashamed of the preacher
either. Don't be ashamed of the preacher. I am shameful. Yeah,
I'm ashamed of myself. But don't be ashamed of me. I'm
trying to tell you. I know I'm trying to. Yeah, I'm trying to chomp one
up for the preacher marching my belt. I just want you to know
Christ. Don't be ashamed of me, either.
The gospel. Be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. Turn with me to one verse. I'll
try to hurry. I don't want to keep it too long.
Look over Hebrews chapter 11 with me. All you young people.
You got a Bible? Look over Hebrews chapter 11. He said, don't be
afraid of that. Be a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. And you are going to. You're
going to be afflicted, you're going to be persecuted, you're
going to be taught a lot of things if you follow that which is good.
But over here, verse 24 of Hebrews 11, it says, by faith. What is
faith? Faith is a gift of God. God did
it in this young man Moses. It says, by faith, when Moses
was come to years. What years? Certain age? No. God's year. When God decided
that Moses was going to hear his voice, when God called, the
day of his power, when he was come to years, when he grew up
a little bit, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. It comes
a time, there is a choice to be made. I know what is laying
out there. Salvation is not in our hands.
Is it genetic? It's not in our hands. It's in
the hands of the Lord. When does somebody say? When
God speaks to that person. When God chooses. But there is
a choice to be made. We cannot bear the responsibility
of our choices and decisions and so forth. You've got decisions
to make. Yeah, you do. What did Moses
choose? To suffer affliction with the
people of God. This is what I want. Joe, that's what I choose this
morning. I choose to be here. My mom and dad didn't make me
come to church this morning. There wasn't a time when they
did. And I did everything, tried every excuse I could find to
get out of it. But now, you think about this,
now I come willingly. There's a lady in the church
at Asheville who had Cindy Thornberry. You know Cecil, I talked about
one day, faithful Cecil, you listen to about his wife. She
had surgery on when? Was it Friday? Was it on a Friday?
She had major surgery. Colon surgery. She's had terrible
problems. And major, major surgery on Friday. Sunday morning she was in church.
Sunday night she was in church. Why? She had to have it. She had to. She wanted to be.
Everybody, nobody, everybody would have excused her for not
being there. Everybody would have, surely she's not going
to be there. You don't have to come. I told that to Mindy the
other night on Wednesday night. I said, honey, I know you're
tired. She was dragging around the house and this and that.
I said, you don't have to come. I'll excuse you. You don't have to
come. She said, but I want to. And mama and daddy didn't make
me come this morning. Thank God though somebody else
did. God made me. He gave me the desire though
and the choice. And now, Shannon, I want to be here. You want to
be here? Yeah, I want to be here. No place
I'd rather be. I don't want to be down in Joe's
bar. I want to be down in Joe's church. Hearing the gospel, hearing about
this old-fashioned stuff a long time ago, I chose, I chose, yeah
I did. I chose because he chose me. Well, listen, go on here, first
line. He said, don't be ashamed. Be
a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. It's all according to the power
of God who has saved us. God's got to save us and call
us with a holy calling. God's got to call you. How does
he do it? Me, right here. Could be right
now. God is speaking through this
vessel. You believe that? Yeah, that's
how he does it. I'm not taking this on myself.
I'm not saying that I'm God. Let him speak. Let him speak
as oracles of God. I'm speaking as the Word of God
to you this morning. Believe Christ. Drop this world. Repent. Come to Christ. Or die. Why will you die, the Scripture
says? Why? Why will you perish for a morsel
of bread? Why for a drink in the night?
Why? That's what we're going to be
asking ourselves throughout eternity. Why? If God had killed me at 18, that's
what I'd be asking right now. Why didn't I listen to the gospel? Why didn't I listen to my mama
and daddy? Now listen. God doesn't use emotional appeals
like this. I can't help it, though. He doesn't
use emotional appeals. No matter of emotion, no matter
of tears, if I crawl back there on my hands and even beg, that
ain't going to do it. It wouldn't do it to me. I saw
preachers cry and all that, and forgive me, I got to wear my
emotions on my sleeve. Only the Gospel will do it. But
you've heard the Gospel time and again. You grew up here.
You've heard this gospel. And like I said, I don't know
your state. I'm just pointing at everybody. I don't know your
state. I don't know. God does. I think you do. God has to save us, call us with
a holy calling. How does he do it? Through conscience.
You've got a conscience. Your conscience may right now
be pricking you. Listen to it. Listen to it. The Word of God
right now is talking to you. Listen to it. Providence calls. Kid, your classmate's
dying around you, this and that and the other. Listen to Providence.
Listen. Right, Nancy? Listen. This is
how God talks. God doesn't speak. He's not going
to come to you in the night and say, now listen, boy, you best straighten
up. That's not how He does it. He
does it right here, right here, right now. And you're sitting
here right now, listening. Listening. He does it with a
holy calling. This is a holy thing. This ain't
uncool. This is holy. With a holy calling. Not according to our words. I
don't care if you're a preacher's dollop son, son of a son of a
son of a preacher. I was. I'd have gone to hell
at 18 or 20 years old, the same as anybody else. I was a preacher's
boy. They say they're the worst. It's
true. I'm a deacon's daughter or son. It doesn't make a bit of difference. You can't get into heaven on
mama and daddy's coattails. You can't do it. You're not going
to do it. You must believe Christ for yourself.
You must come to Christ. You must repent of your sins.
They can't offer sacrifices for you. I hope you're not saying right
now in your mind and heart, look, preacher, get off my case. Oh that God would get on your
case and never let you go that he's got your case in his briefcase
in his bosom. And I'm talking to you young
people. Andrew, Jennifer, you're going to have to know Christ
someday. Yes you are. Hannah, Sarah, Jennifer, Stephen. Catherine, I mean. God knows your name, Catherine.
If I forget it, he knows it. This thing is given in Christ
before the world began. You better hope your name's in
it. This is what he's talking about when he says, work out
your salvation with fear and tremor. I'd be finding out if
my name was written down. It's a book with some names on
it. I'm pretty interested. You interested in your name being
there? Oh, buddy, that's the reason I'm here every time. Tell
me my name again. What is that again to say to
you? Sir! That's me. It's there, still there. My name's
still there. Well, he says, it's now appeared
to us, verse 10, is now made manifest by the appearing of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Christ, right now, has appeared. I hear this morning, Christ is right now, he preaches
this morning. He's appeared, Christ who abolished
death, brought life and immortality to life through the gospel, goodness
gracious, eternal life. Humanly speaking, this is the
reason they're not interested, because you have no idea. I don't
have any idea until God gave me some eyes and ears and a mind
to think about eternity. We can't. All we got in our brain
is this right here, this flag. We can't see past that. Like
animals, you know, animals. All my cats are interested in
is the next bowl of food. And that's us. That's animal
children, or young, all people, old people, animals. Globbling
around, all interested in the next meal, next new suit of clothes,
next new house, new job, raise, money, whatever it's all interested
in. But you're not an animal. You're creating the image of
God. God gave you a brain, a heart, and a soul. Something's going
to happen to it. And it's appeared right now that
God has brought to life and immortality light through the God of the
light. Has the light come on in your eyes a little bit this
morning? A little bit? I hope so. Well, look, look, I'll quit. He says, I'm appointed a preacher.
I'm appointed. I didn't I did not take this
thing on myself. All right, buddy, the situation
is unbelievable to me. I just can't stress to you how
unbelievable this is to me that I, Paul, am standing here preaching
and not you, Paul, on the back road, a young man out there. It's unbelievable to me. If God
lets you live long enough, you're going to look back and say, it's
unbelievable. Here I am 35 years old. This is the last thing I
ever thought I would be, a preacher. When I was out there just digging
all I could in the world, I was going to be a rock star or whatever.
You know, I played a pretty mean guitar when I was about 15. Had
a little band. I was going to be a rock star
or something. I had, for a long time, I had in mind to buy me
a Harley-Davidson Sportster and ride across Country Joe. Me and
my buddy. As soon as we graduated from
high school, we had our money saved up. Gonna buy both of us sports
jerseys. Be just like Bronson. Remember the show, Then Came
Bronson? I was gonna buy me a Harley.
And my buddy got married on me. Had to. Got married. He's since been married five
times. Doesn't know Christ. He got married. Got put in jail, too, for heroin. That was God's providence stopping
me. I was going to ride across it.
What was I going to do? Just ride. Ride a little more. Now I'm a preacher. If you'd have told me that when
I was 18, I'd have threw a bottle at you. But here I am. Goodness gracious
sake, for the grace of God. Oh man, oh man. God grant it
that ten years down the road that, oh wow, maybe there's a
preacher in here. What if Kevin, goodness gracious
Kevin, what if ten years from now, now you're standing back
here preaching the gospel. Goodness gracious wouldn't it,
wouldn't that be the greatest thing I ever watched? And Wendy
sitting there just, just delighted in what you had to say. Look at verse 13, or verse 12.
Now listen, I suffer a lot of things. I'm suffering from, you're
putting up with me this morning. Suffering these things. Paul
suffered many things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed.
I'm not ashamed. Why? Because I know somebody.
I ain't just preaching. I know somebody. There's somebody. Jesus Christ. And I know that
He lives. And that in Him we live and move
and have our very being. And you must know Him. Yes, you
must. You must come to Him by faith.
You must. He's real. You must. I know. I'm persuaded. How? By
this gospel. I heard another man preaching.
That man heard a man. That man heard a man. That man
heard a man. That man heard a man. Preach this, just like this,
about Christ, that He's able. about this able and willing Savior
who's our righteousness, who shed His blood to forgive our
sins. Because our souls are worthy
of death and shedding of blood. And somebody had to do it, you
or me. And Christ, I see Christ did it. And though He's able
now to keep that which I've committed. And I have committed my soul
to Him for safekeeping. There's a commitment to make
unto Him against that day. And there is a coming of day.
There is. The workings of that day may be over there right now
in Iraq, in Baghdad. The day, the day! That day, what
day? That day! Can't even describe
it. No man's seen it, but it's coming.
Now look at verse 13, and I'll quit. That good, whole and fast, whole and fast, the form of sound
words which you've heard of me in faith and in love, which is
in Christ Jesus. I've got nothing to gain. by you being saved? I really don't. The Deacons won't
give me a raise. It won't be in the paper. Those
Sunday school boards won't hear about it. We got so many saved. That's what goes on today. I
got nothing to gain by you being saved. Oh, but you do. He's got everything
to gain and everything to lose. Everything. So hold on to it,
would you? That good thing, verse 13, that
good thing. I gave you a good thing. That's
what Solomon said. It's good. I give you good counsel. Good thing. What thing? What
good thing? The one thing needed for Christ. The one good thing. I give you
good news, good gospel, good advice, good counsel, good way.
Something good to look into, worth looking into, worth considering. Hold it fast. Keep it. I know if you do, it'll be by
the Holy Ghost. I know if you do, it'll be by the Holy Ghost.
Keep it. Now listen to me, young people, all people, all people,
young and old. Like I said, this applies. Is
there a young Timothy in there? Are you a young Timothy, Henry?
Yeah, I am. This is to me. Keep that you've
heard this morning. Don't go out of here just as
soon as this thing's over and turn your radio on and let Madonna
or Guns and Roses or Paul Abdul or whoever it may, just wipe
everything out that you've heard. Or the carriers of this world,
that's what Christ is talking about in that parable, the fowls
of the air come and pick it away. Don't do it. I dare you. Dr. Barnard used to do this.
I dare you. I double dare you. So get it home in your closet
and ask God to reveal Himself to you. Do it! How dare you? I've got nothing to apologize
for this morning. I poured my heart out from God's
Word. Now, you are responsible for
everything I've said this morning. I was responsible to tell it,
right? If I didn't tell you, your blood's
on my hands. I've told you. I've told you. God give us a tenet. Folks, older
folks, wouldn't it be great? It's just so rare in a young
man, especially a small assembly. We don't have very many young
people. God grant it that my daughter grow up loving the gospel. Sitting right here, later on
with her daughter, your daughter, Jim, sitting right here with
her daughter, saying, honey, you listen. God grant that. He does. He does. He does. He blesses. Earlene, he blesses
the faithful forcing of children to hear the gospel. He blesses.
He ain't done. We had four children, three boys
and one girl. Three out of four love the gospel. If one out of
four loves the gospel, you're blessed. They're blessed. It's
rare. But he does it. He might do all
of them. Oh boy, wouldn't that be something. He doesn't have to. He doesn't need me. He doesn't
need you. He doesn't need anybody. But he does it by grace. If you
ask him, he'll do it for you. You have his word on it. He'll
do it for you. You see your need, you ask God
to show you your need. If you don't even see your need
enough, ask him to show it to you. Ask him to point you to
Christ, show you Christ, let you believe Christ, say to your
soul that I'm your salvation. He'll do it. And you'll be sitting right here
later on rejoicing in the same gospel that we're rejoicing in,
and looking at other young people and saying, why don't they see
it? Oh, I wish they'd see it. I wish they'd see it. we're staying with me and uh... record it's missing uh...
uh... uh... uh... uh... praising thy name, giving thanks that you saw fit
to meet with us this morning. Lord, take thy word and apply it to our hearts make it a factual. Let us not leave this place and
be quick to forget the things we have heard. But let's be mindful of them
and enable us to come to the knowledge of thy blessed son, Jesus Christ. We ask for His glory and His
namesake. Amen.