Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. Our well, I hope, is not dry. Well, God's well, His fountain
never runs dry. But this is a shallow bucket. up here and try to draw from
it. These scriptures are infinite
in their depths and content, but yet it's a hard, hard matter
to plumb the depths. Matthew chapter 8, look at verse 11 with me. Christ, he had just dealt with a Roman
centurion whose servant was ill, and the man admitted to his unworthiness
that the Lord should come to his home and that he confessed
the Lord's sovereignty in doing whatever he says, that he just
says and it's done. And the Lord marveled at his
faith. And in verse 11, now this was a Roman centurion that the
Lord marveled at his faith. In verse 10, let's look at this.
When Christ heard this man say that, confess his lordship and
the man's own depravity, Christ marveled and said to them that
followed, all these Jews and all, he said, Verily I say unto
you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And I say unto you, he said,
since this subject is brought up, since this Roman came to
me, let me tell you this, he said, that many shall come from
the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob, your Jewish fathers, in the kingdom of heaven. Many,
many shall come and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Now, when you dare to boldly
and dogmatically proclaim the truth of the gospel in its straight
and narrow way, There will always be accusations of bigotry and
uncharitableness. In other words, if you insist
that the shed blood and the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ,
the electing grace of God, the call of God, is the only hope
of anyone's entrance into heaven, whether he be an American, an
African, a Frenchman, an Indian, a Russian, a Chinese, whoever
it may be, if you dare to say boldly that no matter who it
is, no matter where they live, no matter how far away apparently
from the gospel they are, that unless they believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, they will not be saved. If you dare to say that,
well, you'll be thought of as uncharitable or exclusive or
too dogmatic or too narrow. Too narrow, too bigoted. And
I don't mind that. I don't mind people saying that.
I just, I am merely, we just merely are repeating what the
scriptures say. We're just believing what God's
words say. We're just repeating what it is. We didn't say this,
did we? God said it, and so be it. In His infinite wisdom, that's
grace. That's fine. We like it that
way. But I don't want anyone to get
the idea that we're trying to exclude anybody from the kingdom
of heaven, from this gospel of grace. I don't want anybody to
get that idea that we preach an uncharitable or fatalistic
gospel, and we get accused of that, don't we? I don't want
anybody to think that, not at all. Now, this is why I don't
like the term limited atonement, you know, in these five doctrines. that we believe are so certain
that make up the gospel. This word limited atonement,
I don't like that term. I like better particular redemption. I like that much better. Limited
atonement sounds as if the atonement is limited. That is, that it's
not able to do all that it was set out to do. But that's what
the Armenians say that's not what we say they say they say
that the the blood of Christ is limited and that it can't
save unless you let we're not saying that at all what we say
is it's limited in its scope that is in its in its application
we're not saying it is limited in its power if God's had chosen
if God were to choose to save all the world, the blood of Christ
was sufficient to save every man, woman, boy, and girl that
ever lived. But that's not what he intended
with the blood of Christ. No, he applied it to a particular
people. And we don't limit the atonement, not at all. We see
that the application of it is limited to God's people, to God's
chosen people. But we're going to see later,
later on, that God's limits, or what we call his limits, for
lack of a better word, they far exceed our ability to even think
about God's limit. I'll explain that here in a minute. We're very quick to quote this
passage. Many are called, but few are
chosen. We're very quick to quote that,
perhaps too quick to quote that verse of Scripture. Many are
called, many be called, but few are chosen. And sometimes, if you're honest,
sometimes we appear almost to delight in the thought of being
a small number of people, a select chosen few, don't we? Let's be
honest. Almost at times we do now. We
do if we get real hyper-Calvinistic. Many are called, but few are
chosen. It reminds me of you guys when you were young. Did
you ever have a clubhouse? Did you ever build a treehouse?
And did you ever put on the door, no girls allowed? No girl, no
matter what. Not my sister, not my mother.
No girls allowed. Well, I don't want to be guilty
of that in this thing of salvation. My soul. None but the elect allowed. Well, it's true, but I don't
want to delight in the exclusion of anybody from the kingdom of
heaven, do you? I want people to be in, don't you? All the
apostles did. Christ himself wept over Jerusalem,
didn't he? We must realize, though, and
in the context of that scripture, many are called, few be chosen.
Many and few, these words, many and few, are relative to time. That is, in other words, the
number of people who believe the gospel at a particular time
compared to the people that don't believe it. Like in our day,
the number of people, like in this congregation right here,
I believe you believe the gospel. But relative to our day, we're
very few in number, aren't we? Very few. You go down the road
here to some big monstrosity of a church building, so-called
church building, and they'll have a full crowd, baby. But
there's a few in here. And our Lord says, though, here,
look at it back in verse eleven again. He says, I say unto you,
many, many shall come. Many. The number of the saved. How many? Christ says many. Another place says there's the
stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore. Have you ever
picked up a handful of sand? Could you even commence to get
started, to begin to count the grains of sand in your hand? I mean, just a handful. He says,
though, it's like the sands of the seashore. How many people is that? It's
past nine million. A multitude that no man can number,
the Revelation says. Many. Now, listen. Nobody's going to be saved. But
those that believe God, the gospel that Paul preached, the gospel
that we preached, the gospel we spoke of this morning, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, nobody's going to be saved apart from
believing that. Who God is. Nobody is going to
be. They shall all, all God's children,
all His people shall be taught of God. Every one of them. Ain't
nobody going to slip in. There isn't anyone. My daughter
has been catching my grammar. I use that ain't for emphasis,
I need quick. I told you I want to be the best
I can. There isn't anybody, isn't anybody going to slip in to heaven
who doesn't know who God is. No way. No way. They shall all
be taught of God, who he is, in all his character. Not that
they're not going to completely understand his character, but
in principle. They want to understand that
he is holy, that he is just, he will not clear the guilty,
that he is merciful, that he is gracious in Christ. They want
to understand who God is. They are going to know God. They
are going to know who they are, unworthy, hell-deserving, helpless,
hopeless, damned, doomed, dying sinners, dead sinners. They are
all going to understand that. They are all going to look to
Christ for their salvation. Nobody is going to be in heaven
who does not Fully, in their heart and in their head, believe
this to the same as their soul. No one. No one. Nobody. Well, are there many people that
believe this? No, there not, are there? There's
just a few, seemingly. Isaiah said, who has believed
our report? There's not many, is there? Who
has believed our report? And Christ himself said, straight
is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and
few there be that find that way. Few. Few, he said, not many wise
men. That is, there's just going to
be a few wise men at the flesh, a few mighty, a few noble. Well,
who's that? Ask anybody, and they'll tell
you they know something, or they're somebody. Wise, mighty, or they
can do some things. Wise, mighty, and noble. Most
people profess to be all three of those things, don't they?
I said, not many of them, not many. And how so very few people
in our day and age, very few people who seem to really be
sincerely wanting to worship God. People don't, they don't want
to discuss. I remember a fellow I used to
work with. I remember He claimed to be religious. He went to church,
and he did all these things that make you appear to be religious.
He cleaned his life up and all that. Nice fellow. I liked him
very much. Fine fellow. Hard worker and
all that. I remember him sitting down beside me one day, and I
remember him saying something about halfway quoting some scripture. And I caught up on that and started
in on talking about Christ. It was so evident, so obvious
to me that he didn't really want to talk about Christ. He wanted
to discuss a few scriptures, you know, a little prophecy.
You ever run into anybody like that? They want to talk about
a few, some religion. They want to talk about some
of these things, but don't start talking about Christ and salvation
and our standing before God and God's character. And we'll hear
these things. Very few people seem to really
be interested in seeking God. How to know God? Be saved. Know Christ. Win Christ and be
found in Him. Few people are there. Very few
people. And how many people seem to be
dead to God and alive to this world? I mean, just working their
fingers to the bone to accumulate in this whole world. So many,
aren't they? Many. As if this life weren't
going to end, they're just working and working to accumulate for
retirement. When they just got a few years
left after that, maybe. Rarely give God a thought. Many.
Few people worshipping, few people believe, even fewer believe.
Few read the scriptures. Few preachers stand or even preaching
from the Bible, aren't they? Expositionally, you can't find
it. You can't find expositional preaching anywhere, can you?
Very little anyway. There's a little bit. Going through
God's Word, say, listen, this is what God's Word, let's read
this, let's see what God's Word says. Few people pray. Few people really singing, they're
singing. You see these, these albums and
so forth with their pictures plastered all over them. And
I just, we looked at one, didn't we, Jeanette? A songbook or something,
got their pictures all over the, you know. And they're getting
glory to themselves, that's all. They're doing nothing but the
flesh in that, not the glory of God they're seeking. Few people. Yet, the Lord says, many. How's he going to arrange this?
Many. Why? Why does he say this, many?
Well, when you gather together all believers, beginning with
Abel, the first one that died, down to now, That's a mess of
folks. That's a bunch of people. All
the believers from Abel down to now, or to the end of time,
when you get together all the babies that have died, how many
children have died in infancy? How many? Oh, multitude. I'm sure there's as many or more.
I don't know the statistics, but there's a bunch, aren't there? A mass of children have passed
away. In these poverty-stricken countries
and famine and so forth, massive. So how do you know children are
going to be safe? God's Word says so. Yeah, it
does. Second Samuel, where is that?
David said about his little child that died, he said, he'll not
return to me, but I can go to him. That's good enough. And
well, besides that, though, the Lord in Matthew 18, he talked
about little children, except you be converted and become as
a little child. You should know that he entered
the kingdom of heaven. He said, Of such is the kingdom of heaven. And I know he was talking about
being converted and becoming a little child, but it's twofold
there. It's a bifold meaning. He's talking
about little children, too. Yes, he is. Read it. Matthew
18. Little children, of such is the
kingdom of heaven. When all the mentally impaired
people over the years, I believe, I strongly believe, Say, where
do you get a scripture that says that, that mentally retarded
and impaired people are going to be in heaven? Where do you
get a scripture that says that? This right here, God is merciful.
That's good enough, isn't it? Shall not the judge and Eric
do right? Yes, he will. He'll do what's
right. Yes, he will. And, you know, you say, do you
believe in an age of accountability for children? Well, I don't mean
to get off on this, but I believe the Lord knows who's accountable
and who's not. We'll just leave that with Him,
alright? And He'll do what's right. When you gather together
all the people out of every kindred, nation, and tongue under heaven
that have ever lived, you've got a mass of people, ain't you? Everybody that we don't know,
I'm just certain that right now, There are a whole lot more people
that know God than we think. Oh, yes, there are a whole lot
more people. The truth is, God's family is
much, much larger than we think. Yeah, he is. Somebody said, in
the end, Satan is not going to have the victory. He's not going
to have more people in his habitation than God. He's not going to have
the victory. But back to this thing of few.
Large crowds don't tell of God's presence, do they? On the contrary,
down through the years, the way God has done this, the way God
has moved, is in few. Few numbers. Know what? Eight
people. Some say that there were millions
of people, even billions upon the earth then. As many as there
are now, but just eight people in that ark. Eight people. How many children were killed
then? Well, nevertheless, there were just a few people. Gideon
started out with a bunch, and God whittled them down so he'd
get all the glory. Israel, he said, I didn't choose
you because you were greatest or the biggest or many, but because
you were few and small and little, so I'd get all the glory. Christ
and his disciples, how many did that start out with? Twelve.
When he left, how many were in that upper room? A hundred and
twenty. A very small number. in relation. And, you know, we
think we get like Elijah, don't we, at times? I'm the only one. This church, we're the only ones.
I hope we don't pride ourselves in that. I hope we say that with
sorrow. We're the only ones. We're the
only ones around here preaching this gospel. Oh, no. Seven thousand. It's 7,000 churches
somewhere. And how pleasant it is, you people
that work out there in public works, how pleasant it is to
run across somebody every now and then with like precious faith,
isn't it? A fellow came over to study the
other day, day before yesterday. I was telling somebody about
this. And he was a materials salesman for home building supplies. We talked about some supplies
and this and that and the other, and he up out of the blue said,
do you have any literature on limited atonement? I said, why? Well, what'd you say? He said,
limited atonement, I've been studying this thing and limited
atonement as opposed to universal redemption. He started talking
about some people in his family that were primitive Baptist and
so forth. But anyway, we got to talking
and I found out. I talked to him again on the
phone the other day that he he seemed to believe. He seemed
to I couldn't believe it, but he seemed to believe. But it's
pleasant, isn't it, to meet somebody every now and then of like precious
faith, especially if you meet one another somewhere. It's like,
come here, come here quick. You grab ahold of him. Come here
and let's talk. This place is driving me nuts.
You ever get like that? I don't know how many of you
work together, but if you ever see one another. I remember working
on the railroad, Dale Parker, just a solid member, a long standing
member at 13th Street. He and I used to work together.
And every now and then we'd cross paths and that multitude of people,
thousands of people worked on the railroad. And every now and
then, I'd see him, and we'd just, you see lovers on TV, you know,
running to one another. Oh, boy. David said that over
at Psalm 119. They'll be glad when they see
me. We've got something to talk about. We've got somebody to
discuss here. It's a dry and desert land, isn't
it? And you share a drink of water
with one another when you finally see somebody of like precious
faith. But you know, There are very
few. But the many, in the end, is going to more than make up
for the time now. Many. Well, look at it again
there, he says, in verse 11. Look at it. He says, many shall
come. That's the number. A great number of people. This
is where they're going to come from. From the east and the west. That is, from one extreme to
the other. God's bringing his people from
one extreme to the other. First of all, different denominations.
Yeah, I said it. I said it. I believe, well, Whitefield,
you were saying this morning, weren't you, that Whitefield
was an Episcopalian. Is that what you said? He started
the Methodist Church, didn't he, Whitefield? He started the
Methodist Church, Whitefield did. It used to be silent, didn't
it? It used to preach the gospel, Whitefield. Wesley even used
to preach the gospel, believe it or not. Whitefield. Calvin was Presbyterian, wasn't
he? Am I right there? Correct me if I'm wrong. Calvin.
Spurgeon was a Baptist. Luther came from Catholicism,
didn't he? He didn't stay in these false
denominations now. They didn't stay in there. But
someday, there's going to be all one Catholic Church. That's
a good word. That means universal, isn't it? One Catholic Church all together. They all don't believe different
Gospels now, different doctrines. Uh-uh. But they may be here,
scattered here and there, stuck in these places somehow or another.
I personally believe that God will feed His sheep. He won't
leave them without food, and He'll bring them to where the
gospel is. But this is down through the years now in these different
denominations, what I'm talking about. They're going to come
from different countries. Different countries. I've met
some people down in Mexico that I really can't speak their language. I think I can. I try. But I can't. I can't really understand what
they're saying. But I've been down there three times now and
seen their pictures and heard stories about them from Mother
Walter and Mother Milton and all, and I've fallen in love
with some of those people. I mean, we can't talk a lick
to one another, but I love them. I love them. There's going to
be a Jose from Mexico. There's going to be a Pierre
from France. There's going to be a Chang from China. There's
going to be a Joe from Virginia. There's going to be from everywhere.
Yes, they are. Every tribe, nation, kindred,
and tongue under heaven. That's what he said. Africa?
Oh, my. Ken Wymer and Brother Bill, the
Lord's working a mighty work through them. Read those letters
down there. Read from Brother Bill. He got
a new letter from him recently. The Lord's working among those
base people. right now, I say base in rank
and stations. They're going to come from different
ranks and classes and occupations, from servants to masters, and
I put this in the right order because the first shall be last.
Servants to masters, from poor to rich, ignorant, learned, black,
white, young, old, unknown, famous, all types. All types of people. They're going to come from unlikely
places and situations. Daniel was down in Babylon. Saul
was a Pharisee. Peter was a fisherman. Luther
was a devoted papist at one time. Bunyan was a tinkerer. Newton
was a vile slave trader who stands a diesel mechanic. They're going
to come from all over, all stations of life. God's going to bring
them. He's going to get glory in this
thing. You see how He's going to get glory in bringing people
from just every which way to believe the same thing, the same
one of like mind. I mean, like mind together. Different languages. One time,
you know, the world was of one language and God confounded them.
Someday we're all of different languages and He's going to bring
us together again. of one language, heavenly language,
our conversations in the heaven. It is of the same language even
now. We understand. I go down to Mexico,
and I hear them singing, en la cruz, en la cruz, don't pierro
vi la vez, at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the
light. I understand what they're saying. We're singing about the
same Master. So, this should We should never
despair of anybody's salvation. In light of this, we should never
despair of anybody's salvation. Anybody's salvation. Because
God is... Think about where God brought
you from. If you people could have seen this, old dude. And
some of you could say the same thing. If we could just see where
the Lord brought us from, we'd say this is marvelous. This is
the Lord's doings. Ain't no doubt about it. That
guy right there is the Lord's doings, and it's marvelous in
our eyes. We should never despair of anybody's
salvation. Fathers, don't ever despair of a prodigal
son. You're looking at one. He brings them home. Yeah, he
does. Sometimes he brings them home
at all. Mothers, self-willed daughters, don't despair. Don't
despair. Who knows? Husbands of worldly
wives or wives of husbands that don't seem to care, don't despair. Don't despair. God is able to
save to the uttermost and the guttermost, somebody said, them
that come unto God by Christ. He's able. He's able. And the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, can change any heart. If He can change
a self-righteous Pharisee like the Saul of Tarsus, If he can
change a prostitute, now that's from one extreme to the other.
He can save anybody in between, can't he? The Holy Spirit can
change any heart, can woo any heart, convict, convince, break
any heart. Christ's blood can cleanse any
sin, all manner of sin, you see, all manner. And in the end, the
last may indeed prove first. In the end. Well, let's not sorrow
as those who have no hope. We've got a hope, we've got a
sure hope. We have a sure Savior out there. It's not up to men. This is the reason we preach,
you see, that the very thing that they convince or try to
say that we shouldn't be preaching, the very reason why they say
we should not be preaching, because we believe in God's sovereignty,
God's effectual redemption. That's the very reason we do
preach, because this is not in a man's hands. It's in a sovereign
Savior's hands, and He can save whom He will. So we're going
out and saying, He'll save. He will. He'll save. I don't
know who. It might be you. If He decides to, you will be
saved, man. I ain't going to ask you to do
nothing. Nothing. So that's the very reason we
preach. We preach because somebody will be saved. Absolutely. And we sorrow not as those who
had no hope. You know, think about this, though. We long to see our loved ones
and our friends in heaven. You have brothers or husbands
or wives that you love them dearly. A father, a mother, maybe a child. You want to see them saved, don't
you? Oh, yes, you do. You want to
see them saved. Well, when you die, You may get to see him there.
You just might get to see him there. I recall a story of, I
forget his name, but a fellow who was very biophilic. His father
was a preacher, and the father died before the son was ever
converted. But the son finally was converted, and he told somebody,
he said, wait till dad sees me up there. I'm just speaking as
a man. But you may get to see some up
there. If you die before they do, you just might. You just
might. But think about this. If you
don't, you won't even remember them anyway. In heaven, there's no marriage,
no given marriage, no husbands, no wives, no fathers, no mothers,
no children. You won't even... Weep over them
now, but you're not going to weep over them then. You won't
even remember who they are. Oh, you won't. If they're not there.
If they're there, you will. Yeah, you will. You'll know one
another. Like the disciples knew Moses and Elijah on that mountain.
But take hope in that. Well, look at this. The heavenly
posture here. That's how many are going to
be there and where they're coming from. And look at this, verse
11. I took too long to get to this. I say unto you that men
shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down."
They'll sit down. What are they going to be doing
there? Do you remember that message from Revelation 7? Well, look
over there. Look at Revelation 7. Who are these people,
and how did they get here? Look at Revelation 7, verse 11. Now, verse 9, Revelation 7, verse
9, he says, After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which
no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood. Joe, when we first get there,
we're just going to stand in awe. We're just going to stand
in awe. I don't know, we might stand
there about 120 years. I don't know, 200, 300. You know, a day is
a thousand years. But eventually, after amazement and
wonder, like somebody said, I'm going to be amazed to see some
people I didn't expect to be there. He said he's going to
be amazed that some people aren't there that he expected to be
there. That's not so. But he said the
greatest amazement and wonder of all. He said, I'm going to
be there. Like somebody said, if he gets
there, by God's grace, he said he's going to get in, he's going
to say, I made it. If you know yourself, if you
know what you are, the vile, wretched sinner that you are,
that's what you're going to say, aren't you? Glory to God Almighty,
I made it by the blood of the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. who washed me, who gave me entrance
into this place. I'm here. I'm here. Can't believe it, but I believe
it. It's an expression of comfort
and position. They shall sit down when judgment
is passed and eternity begins. Sit down. Sit down. Everybody
be seated. Christ spoke. All right, be seated.
Be seated. Sitting down. Listen to this.
Let's get in this now. Sitting down implies the confidence
of being at home. Being at home. In a place where
you're welcome and wanted. When you sit down. Have you ever
been in a place in somebody's office or whatever and you're
kind of fidgety and kind of nervous, you know? You're not friends
or anything. And you're kind of, I don't know, you're just
pacing around. You don't feel too... People
come over here every now and then. They want to talk to me, perhaps,
people I don't know. And would you have a seat? No,
no, no. I can't. I don't want to sit down. You know what I mean? In a place
you don't... Well, stay a while. No, no, no.
We've got to go. But if you're in a place where
you feel comfortable... Terry came over today. They felt... They came over to spend the day
with us instead of go all the way home. He got in my chair. He felt right at home, comfortable. He was wanted. He felt wanted. And he may have known that's
my chair. He probably didn't care. But there's no condemnation,
Terry. And in Christ, in that day, we're
going to feel at home. No condemnation to them that
are in Christ. We're not going to feel any guilt,
any sin, nothing of the sort. Come in. Sit down. All right. Take a wheel. Sit down. Nothing and no one
to fear. Right at home. We'll see our
names on a chair, as a matter of fact. And sit right down. Why? Because God is pleased with
Christ. Because we're chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world. We're seated in Christ in the
heavenly, the Scripture says. We're seated in Him. He's going
to gird Himself in service, the Scripture says. He seats us and
we feel right at home. Feel right at home. Like I said,
you know, most of us have a favorite easy chair. The believer's resting
place is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is their easy, their abiding
place, their rest, their place of rest. This brings me to my
next thought on this thing of sitting down. It implies rest.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 4 with me. Rest. That is complete cessation
or ceasing from all works, from all toils, from all conflict,
from all pain. Rest. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. But by the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Hebrews chapter 4, Christ said it's finished.
You don't have to do anything. Nothing. Boy, that's good news. Now, that
is good news. We don't have to do anything
to make our God pleased with us. Don't have to do anything
in order for him to accept us. It's done. It's done. That's good news. Come unto me,
Christ said, all ye that labor and are heavy laden in sin and
religion," whatever, and I'll give you rest, sweet rest. Now look at Hebrews chapter 4,
verse 10. He said, he that has entered into his rest, that is
Christ's rest. How do you enter into Christ's
rest? By faith. How do you get this faith? It's
a gift of God, the work of the Holy Spirit. He that has entered
in by God's mercy and by God's grace, by his electing grace,
enters into Christ by saving faith, he's ceased from his own
works. See, they're filthy rags anyway.
He realized they're filthy rags. He ceased from his own works
as God did from his. So, verse 11, let us labor, therefore,
to enter into that rest, that rest. Lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief. What's unbelief? Trying to work
your way to heaven by your own righteousness. But savingly,
let me, I'll hurry. Savingly, positionally, we rest
in Christ from all works. We rest in him for acceptance
with the Father. Rest in him. Somebody said this,
I like this. God gave that first Sabbath.
The Sabbath was always a picture of Christ. It's always been a
picture of Christ. At any rate, the first order
of things was you work and then you rest. You work six days and
then you rest. Now, rest first and then go to work. You rest in Christ. When you
see that you're seated in Christ, resting in Him, there's nothing
for you to do. And then you go to work for Him,
don't you? Not for salvation, though. Listen,
the Bible speaks of the Christian life as walk, run, work, labor,
fight, groan, carry a cross, wear the armor, stand guard,
all these things. It denotes action, things to
be done. Not for salvation, though. Because of salvation. Because
of salvation. That's getting the horse before
the cart there. Because of salvation. Because
of what God has done for us, therefore, we serve Him out of
love. The love of Christ constrains us. Not a hope of eternal life
constrains us. The love of Christ constrains
us. But only when we lay these bodies down and toss their feet
on the living dead. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. He said there in Hebrews 4, there
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God, a final rest.
We rest in Christ, yes. But finally, someday, we're going
to rest. I mean sweet rest. It has not
yet appeared unto us what God has prepared for us. The happiness,
the joy we can't even get into that at all. But I want you to
look at this with me. Look back at the text again.
I want you to look at the company you're going to keep. This is
going to be a blessing to you. Look at the company you're going
to keep. Back in Matthew 8, verse 11. He said, I say unto you,
many shall come from the east and west, and the vast number
shall be the Lord of hosts. And they'll sit down. Ah, they'll
rest in Christ. Resting in Christ. Accepted in the Beloved. They're
going to sit there with Abraham and Isaac. Jacob is a social creature. He likes company. God Himself
said that when He created Adam, it's not good that he should
be alone. Some of you, no matter how humble your dwelling
place is, if you have a companion, it makes it all right. Some of
you people are lonely. You live alone. It's tough. I
know it's tough. I know I don't. I can't enter
into it. It's tough, ladies and gentlemen. It's tough. But you
just remember Christ, okay? You remember Him. He didn't have
a friend. He left His Father. When He left,
when He went to that cross, even His Father forsook Him. But you won't be alone long.
Not for long. moment, twinkling his eye, because
his life's a vapor. Not long. It won't be long. Virgie,
not long. Not long, but you've got a family
here. But the Scripture says here,
we'll sit down with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all believers. You know how blessed a Bible
conference is? If any of you have never been to a Bible conference,
and Rick don't know what they're missing I mean, you don't know
what you're missing. You've got to go to one of these
Bible conferences. Well, you've had them here. You
know how blessed these Bible conferences are, don't you? You
sit there and just hear gospel message after gospel message. Wait till you hear him preach. Wait till you get to this Bible
conference, where the word himself starts in Genesis 1. and preaches 1,000 years on Genesis
1-1, and then goes to Genesis 1-2. Then when he gets to Revelation
22, at the end of that, he'll start all over again. And we
won't even grow tired. Preach it again! Wait till you
hear him speak, who speaks life, who is life. But we're going
to sit down there. Terry and I were talking about
it. I'm going to sit down there with Abraham. Abraham, tell me
about that story. I want to hear about that when
you took Isaac up on that mountain. Now, tell me about that again.
I love that story. Tell me about your own personal
experience. And Isaac? Isaac, you tell me, too. Jacob?
Oh, Jacob. Joseph? Oh, don't you love the
story of Joseph? I love that. We'll hear it from
his own words. Joseph. Noah? Oh, that must have been
to see God's hand like that. Elijah, the Apostles, the Reformers,
Luther, all the Puritans, Whitefield, Romaine, Newton, Bunyan, all
your old friends, I tell you what, I don't know many of the
people that have left this place that were believers, but I knew
a few up there. And boy, I tell you, we're going
to get together around the throne. We're going to get together around
the throne. Like I said before, it's a rare
privilege to find another believer. It's especially a rare privilege
when you find somebody who really has something in common with.
You know what I mean? Some of you have a little more
things in common with. And you really, you can open
up your heart to this person. You can really open up and bare
your soul to this person without fear of condemnation or whatever.
Well, up there, everybody's going to be like that. Everybody is
going to be of like mind and agreement and oneness of heart
in one accord. Everybody. Everybody. Never depart
again. Never depart again. We'll sit there with Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob. But most of all, we're going to see Him. We're
going to actually see Jesus Christ. You're going to see. I mean,
with these eyes. Although worms destroy this body,
yet with these eyes, I'm going to behold the Redeemer, because
I know He's living. And He's in heaven, at the right
hand of God. And all these other people are
sitting around beholding it, and I'm going to see Him, too.
What gives you so much confidence? He said so. The blood of Jesus
Christ, that's my confidence. It's on the doorpost to my soul
by God's grace and God's mercy. We're actually going to sit down
and see him and he's going to say to me, to you, he's going
to say. Welcome home. Welcome home, Nancy Parks. Welcome
home. Welcome home, Terry Kinsley.
I've been waiting on you. You think about that. You think
about that. Worthy is the name. Worthy is
the name. Let's sing a song. Sherry, you
know when I can read my title clear? Tough? Fake it. Play with one hand. We'll try
it. 497. 497. If you can't get it, we'll get it anyway. 497. How do you read your title
clear? When you see your title cleared,
covered in the blood. That's how. When you see your
sins put away on the head of that scapegoat. That's how you
read your title clear. That's how, and that's how God's
going to read our title clear. Washed in the blood, washed us
from our sin. Let's try it. BOOM!