Revelation chapter 22, Revelation 22, and I'd like to
read verses 14 and 15 as we continue this study. Not long ago, I went to the St. Vincent de Paul, and I didn't
realize when I picked up a couple of Bibles that they were free.
And one of them is about this big with microscopic print on
it. And I have it in my car pocket
there. And I can read three praises
in that and only have read and read 17 in this one. Revelation chapter 22, verse
14 and 15, blessed are they that do his commandments, that they
may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through
the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers,
and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie. Verse 14 is the effects in here. Verse 15 is what we deal with
out here. Now, keep your finger there and
turn with me way over to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy
chapter 11. Deuteronomy chapter 11, the Lord
shares with Israel some of the things, the contrast between
Egypt and the land where they're going. There is a contrast here
physically, but there is much more a contrast spiritually. There is a contrast between Egypt
spiritually, and a contrast between where they're going, Israel,
spiritually. And it's brought out here in
a physical sense. The book of Deuteronomy, chapter
11, verse 10, For the land, whether thou goest in to possess it,
is not as the land of Egypt." Now there's some differences.
And particularly when the Lord saves His people and brings them
out of Egypt, there's such a difference between Egypt and where He puts
us. spiritually. Now we may live
in the same house, be in the same state, same country, have
the same neighbors, but there's going to be a difference spiritually
when God saves his people. whether thou goest to possess.
It is not like, not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye are
come out, where thou sowest thy seed, and waterest it with thy
foot as a garden of herbs." Now whether it's talking about using
that word foot, whether you're carrying the water in a bucket,
or whether you're using a footwheel, it makes no difference. You are
responsible to get the watering done. That's what happened in
Egypt, and that's where we are if we're in Egypt. We're responsible
for getting the watering done, and the work is never done. Those
plants continue to need water, and we're carrying water in a
bucket, or we're using a water wheel continuously, and what
that's telling us is, in religion, we work our fool heads off and
never get the job completed. We're still carrying water, and
we never get it done. Now in the next verse it says,
But the land where ye go to possess it is the land of hills and valleys,
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. Now, it's much easier
to get the crops irrigated with rain from heaven. Now, we have
nothing we can do to produce it. We pray about it. We pray
for rain. We pray not to rain. I'm sure
there's a whole bunch of people on the eastern seaboard who are
saying, God, would you just push that out just a little bit? And
it went right where he wanted it. He's the controller over
those storms. But it came out of heaven. It was rain from heaven. Now
we may set up our sprinkler system and we may have our drip system
in our gardens, but we still are going to do it. But God,
when he sends the rain, it's from him. And that's what he's
talking about. It's either works or grace. That's all there ever is. Doesn't
matter where you are, what country you're in, what religion you're
affiliated with, it's either going to be works or grace. And grace is the only one that
has any effect with God because it's a gift of His. Now it goes
on to tell us, a land, verse 12, a land which the Lord thy
God careth for you, the eyes of the Lord thy God are always
upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end of
the year. That's kind of like saying I am the first and the
last. From January 1st to December 31st, I'm with you, got my eyes
on you. So here he gives us an illustration. We're either going to work, work,
work, and never get the job done, or we'll trust him and he'll
send the rain. In the land of Egypt, it's foot. In that land I place you, it's
water from heaven. All right, now going back over
to the book of Revelation, I must ask myself this question when
we deal with verse 14. I must ask myself this question
because I've traveled this far through the Bible. All of a sudden,
is God going to tell us that I'm going to have to keep His
commandments, keep a commandment in order to see the heaven, to
see the city, to see the Lord? Because it tells us in that verse
of Scripture, these, blessed are they that do His commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life, and the tree of
life is Christ. have right to come to Christ,
and may enter in through the gates into the city, may be brought
into that assembly of the saints that worship God, worship the
Lord, bow down before Him, have the right to do this. Now, am
I going to travel from Genesis to here and have to deal with
keeping His commandments? Well, that's a key for me. I
want to find out what that means. I want to find out what that
means, what it is to keep His commandments. Do we have access
to Christ? And are we brought into the church,
His church, by grace or by works? That's the question I have to
ask myself. And we find that we're not going to find anything
different here. We're just going to have to, we're going to look
at this and we'll find out God has some commandments for His
people. but he has the answer for the commandments. All right. Now, drop over to the book of
Ecclesiastes for two verses, would you? Ecclesiastes. Book of Ecclesiastes. Again,
Solomon was used to be a secretary. And in Ecclesiastes chapter seven
and verse 13, he left this. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 13. If we take the stand that keeping
the commandments make us acceptable to enter in, we do not believe
in grace. Works are works, and grace is
grace, and the two will not meet. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 13. Consider
the work of God. For who can make that straight
which he hath made crooked? Who can make something straight
that's been made crooked? Only God can do that. All right,
and in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse 17, Chapter 8, verse 17, Then I beheld
all the work of God, that a man cannot find out of the work that
is done under the sun, because though a man labored to seek
it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea, farther, though a wise
man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it. Without the grace of God, we're
just stuck. We're going to be running our
water wheel. We're going to be carrying our water in a bucket
and we'll not be having the rain of heaven pour out on us, the
grace of God. So here in the book of Ecclesiastes,
Solomon says there are some things that are just impossible if God
doesn't take care of. All right? If we take the stand,
keeping the commandments, make us acceptable, We're sitting
on works and not on grace. Now the first phrase of this
verse must be in agreement with the last two phrases of this.
And the last two phrases of this verse of scripture say they have
a right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates
of the city. It is often found in scriptures that people are
asking, what must I do? You know, I used to use that
verse of scripture over there in the book of Acts, the Philippian jailer,
Acts chapter 16. It says, he said, what must I
do to be saved? And I would just go ahead and
give the answer to that. He is asking a human question
and Paul did not give him a human answer. Everybody is interested
in what they can do. That's just a core of our human
being nature is what can we do? And the answer is we can't do
anything. Turn over there, if you would,
to the book of Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16 and verse 28. As we think about this, doing
the commandment of the Lord, we're going to see that the commandment
of the Lord is precious in the eyes of the Lord, but it's something
we cannot accomplish. We depend upon the Lord to take
care of that. In Acts chapter 16, we find that
Paul and Barnabas are down here in Philippi, and later a letter
is written to them, and they're in prison, and they're singing
and praising God with their hands in the stalks after they've been
beaten, and the Lord sends an earthquake and opens everything
up and opens the doors up and opens the stalks up, and this
This soldier, the centurion comes in and he is about to commit
suicide over this whole issue. And in Acts chapter 16 verse
28, The keeper of the prison, Paul
says, Paul cried unto him with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself
no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and
sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and
Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do
to be saved? Well, no longer do I answer that
question like I used to. They said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And they spake unto him
the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house."
They had a preaching service going on here. It wasn't just
a simple answer to this human question that they're dealing
with. The human question, what must I do? What must I do? Well, the answer is, we cannot
do anything. We cannot do anything to get
this grace. That's the very definition of
grace. It's a gift that God gives. In
the book of John chapter 3, Nicodemus shared this with us. Going back
to the book of John chapter 3, Nicodemus said, how in the world
can I be born again? And then he asked this question. At least he's honest about it.
He says, can I enter my mother's womb the second time? And he
realizes the impossibility of that situation. But he asks that
question of the Lord. The Lord said, you must be born
again. And his concept of this is really tweaked, because he's
looking at it from a human standpoint. He's looking at it from a fleshly
standpoint. He's looking at it this level.
The Lord Jesus is sharing us from heaven's level. He's looking
at it from this level. And he said there in John chapter
3 and verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. This
is a birth that comes from above, and it's a spiritual birth, and
he had to be shown that this thought about that he had come
to the conclusion of was in error. There's only one way that this
is ever going to be accomplished, and that is the Lord doing it.
Now turn with me just a little further in the book of John,
John chapter 6. John chapter 6, the Lord Jesus
deals with this question in depth about keeping the commandment
of the Lord. What is it to keep the commandment
of the Lord? What is it to do the work of
God? We, by nature, if we get disbugged
a little bit, what can I do? What can I do? If we just get
a little touch, what can I do? What can I do? The Philippians,
what can I do? What must I do to be saved? What
can I do? And here in the book of John,
chapter 6, the Lord Jesus is dealing with a great group of
people a lot of people and there's over 5,000 because he's fed that
many and he's dealing with this question that comes up John chapter
6 verse 25 John chapter 6 and verse 25 And when they had found him on
the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest
thou hither? And Jesus answered them, and
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because
you saw the miracles, but because you did eat the loaves, and were
filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that
meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Then said
they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works
of God? The Philippian jailer put it
just a little bit different. Nicodemus put it a little bit
different, but it's all the same question. What can I do? What's up to me? How am I going
to get this done? What shall we do that we might
do the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God. You want to know what it is?
This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
sent. That's the work of God. That's
the commandment of God. That's the only way we'll have
right to the tree of life and have right to the gates of the
city is believe on Him that He has sent. Now this is an impossibility. Jump way ahead in verse 63 of
that chapter. It is the Spirit that quickeneth.
It's the Spirit that gives life. It's the Spirit that gives us
belief. The Spirit, it is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh
profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you
that believe not. Now between that last verse we
read over here, verse 29 and verse 63, the Lord Jesus shares
with this whole group of people what it is to have belief in
the Lord Jesus. What it is to do the work of
God. This is the revelation that God gave to people about the
Lord Jesus Christ. He enumerates it. He lists it
and says, how do you fall to this pattern? Well, three times
they say in there, I don't think I agree with that.
Three times they say that because they do not believe. Now, if
you believe, you will not be saying, I don't believe that.
You will agree with what the Lord has to say about himself
and about his mission. You will agree with what the
gospel has to say. You will agree that the commandment
of the Lord is to believe on the message about Christ. That
is it. And if you do, if you've been
given the grace to do that, you will agree with what he has to
say about himself. And if you, like these others
down through here, and three times comments are made by these
people, I don't think I agree with that. And lastly, they say,
that's a hard saying. And they turned around, and it
says, many of his disciples walked with him no more. Now, they were
disciples in name only. They were disciples because they
got bread. That's all. They were followers
for a season. But when they saw what it was
for them to believe on the Lord Jesus, then they found out, no,
I don't agree with that. And they went somewhere else.
Well, the Lord told them. A bunch of unbelievers. All right,
let's just go down here. John, verse 29, verse 29 of this. Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. If you say you know the Father,
then his command is, believe on him whom he sent. Believe
on me, that's what it is. The rest of the chapter is dedicated
to describing this statement. Coming to verse 63, the flesh
profiteth nothing. Verse 35, do you believe? Is it part of your makeup now?
Do you hold fast to this? Do you have this as part of your
being every day? This is what it is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us there in verse 35,
I am the bread of life. Do you believe that? That's what
he's asking them. I am the bread of life. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. This is what he's describing
by that statement. Tell us the works of God. What
can I do? And he said, this is the work of God that you believe
on him that he hath sent. And this is what you have to
believe. Now, it's not something you have
to think about. I'll never forget asking a principal one time about,
you taught school. Yes, I did. Did you enjoy your
teaching assignment? Pregnant pause. I says, you've
told too much already. You didn't enjoy it. Now, if
you have to stop and think about whether these things are really
true or not, is Jesus Christ the bread of life? Yes, he is
to every blood-bought child of God. He is their bread. He is their spiritual food. What he has accomplished is for
their benefit, and they trust him with it. He has ground the
grain, and he has made the bread, and he is that. And he is delightful. He goes on to tell us there in
verse 37, all that the father giveth me shall come unto me.
The Lord's people are eternally chosen. Do you believe that?
That's what he's asking his crowd. You've asked me what the works
are. I've told you what the works of God are. Now, how do you match
up? All that the Father, the Lord's
people are eternally chosen in Him. He is the elect stone. As he tells us, all that the
Father giveth me shall come unto me, and him that cometh unto
me I will in no wise cast out. Well, I can just see some of
those in the crowd saying, hmm, this has gone from bad to worse
already. We asked the question, and now He's answering us, and
He is answering us with authority, not as one of the scribes. In
verse 39, it tells us here, And this is the Father's will which
He hath sent me, that all which He hath given me I should lose
nothing, Raise it up again the last day. Do you believe that
He alone keeps His own? How much do you have to do to
make God keep you? He said nothing. Your keeping and being kept is
not kept up to you, because if it was... Now, one of those statements
Nancy shared with me as she's reading Pink's book, right at
the introduction, is God influenced by our works. Absolutely not, because He is
immovable and unchangeable, and from eternity He has loved His
people, and He has not influenced one whit. His position does not
change because of His people's positive or negative. He loves
them with an everlasting love from eternity to eternity. And
He will not be changed by us. And we contribute nothing to
Him. But my goodness, we depend on
Him, don't we? There it says in verse 40, verse
40, do you believe this? And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on Him
may have everlasting life, and I'll raise Him up at the last
day. He alone has everlasting life, and He alone has the ability
to raise us up in the last day and make us presentable. Do you
believe this? Boy, oh boy, they're beginning
to back off a little bit now. We asked the question, what will
we do? What shall we do that we might
do the works of God? And he said, this is the work
of God that you believe on him whom he has sent, and this is
the list. And this is only a partial list,
but it was enough for all of them to back off, except his
12 disciples, 11. He kept one of them there because
it was God's purpose. Judas, betray him. He's going
to drag him along till the end. But everybody else left. Can
you imagine a church split like that? Really 11 are left. 5,000 men
leave. Goes on to tell us here, verse
45. Verse 45, it says, it is written
in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. All our
spiritual education is in God, and the graduation exercise,
we're brought to Christ. He teaches every one of his children. We don't dig it up. He teaches
us. Now, God, in a miraculous way,
and I wish I understood this better, and I never will, but
God has absolutely decreed that we must hear the gospel. It's a decree. God's decree.
We must hear the gospel. And He uses that in a miraculous
way. He doesn't produce the new birth
because of it, but it's necessary before He gives the new birth
that we hear the gospel. It is there. And as it tells
us there in verse 45, everyone therefore that hath heard and
hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. If you say I love the
Father and He's all important to me and we've not come to Him,
we've not trusted His Son, we've not come. He's not brought us. We have not done the commandment
of God. The commandment of God is to
believe on the Son whom He has given. And here's the criteria. How do you hold to Him? What
do you say about Him? What do you think about Him?
Is it scriptural point by point? Or are you just believing something
someone else fed you? Well, here it is, line by line. Verse by verse, this is the change
that God will make in human beings. They will no longer be asking,
what must I do to be saved? They will be saying, He is all
my salvation and He is all my hope. He's taken care of it. Verse 47, Verily I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Everlasting
life is in the hands of the Lord Jesus. It's out of our hands,
thank God. My goodness, thank God. It's
out of my hands. It's in His hands. He takes care
of that wonderful, wonderful provision for us. Well, all of
you that work hard enough and get enough done, then you'll
have everlasting life. That's the way it's taught. The
Lord Jesus said, eternal life is in my control. I deal with
that. Verse 51. I am the living bread,
which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread which I give is
my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Lord
Jesus shares with us in this verse of scripture that the believe
there must be a spiritual union with the Lord. Now, three times
today, Nancy fixed me a meal. And you know what? That one time,
those sauerkraut and those frankfurters, I have union with them. That's what we do when we eat.
We have union with this food. WE HAVE ACTED UPON THE FOOD IT
HAS BECOME. WE ARE IN UNION WITH IT. AND
THAT'S WHAT THE LORD JESUS SAID HERE. HE'S NOT ASKING ANYBODY
TO GO THROUGH SOME CEREMONY AND CONVERT SOME BREAD AND SOME WINE
TO HIS BODY AND TO HIS FLESH. HE'S SAYING YOU MUST HAVE A UNION
WITH ME. You must be grafted into me.
You must have taken of me. This is what he's saying about
eating his flesh and drinking his blood. You must have a union
with me. He must be precious to you. He
must be your life, spiritually speaking. He must answer for
you to the Father. He must have taken your sins
to the grave. We must have this kind of union
with him. He says in verse 53, verse 53
there, Verily I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whosoever
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. And he that eateth my
flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
and the living father. Now I don't understand all I
know about what he's saying about here, but I know this, those
who do it dwelleth in me and I in him. I have something here
that I didn't have before. I don't understand all there
is to know about eating his flesh. I'm learning about this union. But it is a union that he has
made. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father,
so he that eateth me even, he shall live by me. This is the
bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead, but he that eateth this bread shall live forever.
Verse 52. The Jews therefore strove among
themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? I don't
believe what he's saying." And once you say, I don't believe
what he's saying, you're saying, I haven't done the works of God.
I haven't done his commandment. I haven't followed his commandment,
his commandment. His commandment is to, what's
it say? This is the work of God that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. Verse 41, the Jews then murmured
at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from
heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? You know what happened? They
don't have any miracle in their life yet. They're just looking
at him as a physical being. We know his parents, we know
his brothers and sisters, we know he came from Nazareth, we
know he's been tramping around through the community, but there's
no miracle in it yet. And those on the other side,
where shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. 5,000 people. Now, down here in verse
66, I really appreciate that when we're going through this.
John 6, 6, 6. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. I've had people tell
me they were saved, but they just didn't go along. I'm telling
you today, these people did not have Christ. They went away and
unless God Almighty worked on them a work of grace, they are
in the pit right now. They're on the left-hand side
right now. They had their works. Their works,
but they didn't have the work of God. This work is God said,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has
sent. And when that is worked, when
that is done, then you have the right to the tree of life and
you have the right to enter into the gates of the city. when this
work is accomplished. As we travel down through here,
they didn't believe. They said, it's not so. I don't
go along with that. And you hear that today. If this
is brought up, this chapter is brought up, and it is brought
up to the point, here's what he said, and here's the points
that you're going to agree with if you've had this. And they
say, I don't believe it. Then that is the mark that they
have never, ever heard the message. This is serious. This is life
or death. This is the commandment of the
Lord Jesus. And then it tells us in verse
64, but there are some of you that believe not. Believe that
the Lord is God. They did not believe that Jesus
was God. Some of you believe not. Verse
64, verse 65, and he said, Therefore I say unto you that no man can
come to me. Oh, this is the clincher. If
you could ever get to here. Oh, my goodness. If God has ever
brought you to here. If God has opened your heart
and ever brought you here, I could not have come. Now, that's something
God has to show us because we're like these people. What can we
do? We would really like to be a
blessing to you, Lord. And that's generally the way
people are. We're going to be a blessing
to you. I really appreciate what Brother David Pledger, someone
said, they moved clear down there to Houston and they got Brother
Pledger in his office and said, Brother Pledger, we've come here
to help you out. And he says, I don't want out. I don't want out. Oh, I'm going
to be such a blessing to you. Oh my goodness. Jesus Christ
better be a blessing to us. That's it. Now, if that's happened,
no man has to teach us to love each other. God does that. That's right in the book. I don't
have to teach you to love one another. If you can't love one
another, it's sure enough right here. You don't know. You do. All right. And then it says there,
therefore I said to you, no man can come to me except it were
given of him of my father. Verse 66, they left. That's serious business. They
left. And then the Lord asked his disciples.
those things. Ask the disciples, will you also
go away? Now a belief in Christ, when
that belief is rocked by the Holy Spirit in the soul, will
be followed with all the blessed effects and fruits of doing Christ's
commandments. If God has wrought a work in
our heart, given us the new birth, then what follows is the fruit
of that, and that is being able to keep the commandment of God,
believe Christ. If He's wrought a work, then
we're able to say, I have belief given to me in Christ, and I
agree with all this. This is so precious to me. It's
eternal. It's eternally precious. All
this life, and all the Word of God. All the Word of God is precious
to God's people because this is what it is. He changes to
say, this is good. I know what I'd have been if
I hadn't have been here. If He had not brought me here,
I know what I'd be. But this is good. Oh, He has
everlasting life. Good. I know what I am. I'd just
ritter it away. I would take my investments and
I'd throw them in the I take care of everything beginning
to end. And when I cause my people to
believe me, then they believe me and I give them all of these
things. I had a couple of verses here.
1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Would you turn there with me?
1 John chapter 3 verse 23. Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life. Might have the right to approach
Christ. Come before Him with gladness, approach His throne
at peace and with great joy. Come before this One who is God
Almighty. 1 John chapter 3. Would you turn there with me?
1 John chapter 3 verses 23 and 24. It says, and this is His
commandment. that we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave
His commandment. And he that keepeth His commandments
dwelleth in Him, and He in Him. And hereby we know that He abideth
in us by the Spirit which He hath given us." What's this? Commandment. This is His commandment.
Believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. And what will be
the effects of that? Oh, he says he's got eternal
life. Okay. He says we'll only come when
he drops. Oh, I agree with that wholeheartedly. I know I was stuck in the mud.
On and on, that list. Everywhere the Lord Jesus talks
about His characteristics and attributes on the behalf of His
people, God's people say, yea and amen. Yea and amen. Oh yes,
that's it. I believed. Now you want to know
if you believed or not? That's how you check it out.
Do I believe Him? Do I trust Him? Is He my bread? Is He my water? Is He my hope
and my peace? Is He my election? Is He my all
and in all? That's what the whole Bible talks
about. Is He everything? When I stand before Him, what
will I say to Him? What will I plead? Well, there's
a whole bunch of people that say, I did a whole bunch of good
works. Depart from me you workers of iniquity and the rest of them
said I did nothing I'm thankful that you came down and picked
me out of the pit And he says welcome to the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world What a change he makes
in his people and I'd like to also read mark chapter 12. Would
you read there with me mark chapter 12? This is the same word for
commandment and that's mentioned over there. I remember when I
was trying to preach in religion, this was a passage of scripture
that just gave me fits, because I realized I could not get this
done. I would look up the words, every
word that is found in this verse of scripture, and it's also mentioned
several times in the Old Testament. This is what you are required
to do. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. And I look that word up heart
and soul and mind and spirit and realize nobody can get this
job done. Because if I skip one second,
if I mess up one second, if I don't hold true one second, then there's,
I'm lost. Read here, Mark chapter, Mark
chapter 12 verse 30 and verse 31. Verse 29, And Jesus answered
him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy
strength, This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely
this, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other
commandments greater than these. And you walk away and say, who
can do that? Who can do that? Boy, I wouldn't
trust anybody that said they could do that. I wouldn't trust,
they're liars. They're just liars. I remember when school started
this next Tuesday and every first day of class there in the woodshop,
Wink gave me this idea. He used to do this when he was
teaching. He would, you'd ask him, now
is anybody in here, is anybody in here ever, ever told even
a little lie? And they'd start looking around,
looking around. I'd raise my hand. I have, I have. Oh, if
the teacher has, I can raise my hand. Okay. And everybody's
raising their hand, and they'd say, has anybody in here ever,
ever taken something, even insignificant, that didn't belong to you? And
they'd look around, and I'd say, I have. Oh, if the teacher has,
I guess I can raise my hand. So they all raised their hand.
I says, now listen here. You are in a class full of liars
and thieves. Don't put your tools down. Someone's
going to take it from you. That's the way we are. We're
liars and thieves. Thank God for His everlasting,
eternal grace, and that He comes on His people in a way to cause
them to believe. And when they do, there's no
argument with what He has to say about Himself. You're the
Son of God? Oh, right. Been looking for this. He says, there is, he is John
1, 1. In the beginning was the word,
the word was with God, the word was God. Everyone in the church
just says, hallelujah. Been looking for this, been looking
for this. Found all kinds of gods, but
they just couldn't stand the test. And what they had to say
to me is, tread water, paddle water, paddle water, paddle water,
more water, more water, paddle, paddle, paddle, carry, carry,
carry. And the Lord Jesus comes along
and says, I'm gonna send the rain. Sit down, I'm gonna send
the rain. Big difference. Blessed are they
that do his commandments, that they have right to the tree of
life, and may enter in through the gates of the city, and outside,
outside. All those guys that went away,
you know what his comment on them was? All those guys that
walked away, this is his comment. For without are dogs, and sorcerers,
and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loveth
and maketh a lie. That's the guys that left. There they are. They've identified
themselves. They do not want Christ. They're still in their sin, and
this is the evidence of it.