Book of Revelation chapter 16,
and I'm not going to read this entire chapter. We will eventually
read this entire chapter, but this chapter has to do with the
vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And as we look at
this, we find that these angels, and earlier on in this book,
these angels were identified, these seven angels were identified
as the seven pastors of these seven churches, which are typical
of all gospel churches throughout all ages. and all gospel churches
at one particular time in our age, the gospel era that we're
in, wherever they may be. Gospel churches do not necessarily
last for long, long time, but they're there for a purpose. We have found that there is just
exactly the right number of gospel churches in the world right now.
And when there is a need for one more, God will establish
it. And there is exactly the right
number of pastors right now. And when there is a need, God
will call one. That's the way it is. And God
will have his preaching done in the places where it needs
to be done at the right time. and he's never missed a beat,
and he's never been too late, and he's never been too early.
And as we look through this book of Revelation, as we find that
it is a continuous revelation of Jesus Christ, even in his
wrath, it will praise God. And as we look at this, we'll
see that very thing. These angels, as it tells us
in verse 1 of chapter 16, these angels are commissioned by God.
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven
angels, go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of
God upon the earth. They were divinely commissioned
to do what they are doing. And I can't help but believe
their commission was this. Go preach the gospel and it will
fall out just as I desire and determined it to fall out. You're
not going to have a different message for the last days. Moses's
message was not different than our message. Now, he was used
to bring the law, but the law was the schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ until the seed should come. Now, And the law never
brought anybody to Christ. The preaching of the law brought
no one to repentance. It is the preaching of Christ
that brings us to repentance. It is the love of God that constrains
us. It is the goodness of God that
leads us to repentance. And so all the preaching that
has ever gone on, Noah's preaching was no different than the preaching
should be today. It didn't change over time. Why? Because the need is exactly
the same there as it is today. Man's needs have always been
the same. They are people that are dead
in trespasses and sin and they are unable to rise themselves
or raise themselves out of the condition that they're in and
so we need a great savior and that is the savior the Lord Jesus.
So their commission was to go in the way it says go your ways
I have determined them When he sent them out, there were lines
drawn. This is the way I want you to go. This is where I want
you to go. This is what I want you to say
when you get there. And I will put you where I need
you. And that's the way it has always
been. And as we said, there's just never too many and there's
not too few. And there's never too many churches.
We know that. We'd like to see more. But there's
only one reason that there isn't more, and that's because of God. When he sees the need, when the
time comes, a church will be raised up or a church will die.
And that's just the way it's happened over the centuries.
Now, it says here in verse one, go your ways and pour out the
vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Preaching the gospel
is a double-edged sword. It is a savor of life unto life. Oh, when we have the gospel preached
to us and created life in us, and we were able to once, the
first time in all our life, take a clean breath of life, spiritual
life, to see the Savior in His glory, in His resurrected glory,
to be brought out of a place of blindness, to be brought out
of a place where there is that veil thrown over us, and to have
that taken off and to see for the first time. We have several
illustrations in the Bible about people who were even born blind
and God, the Lord Jesus healed their blindness and to see for
the first time, that's what happens when God gives us his grace in
regeneration. We get to breathe the first breath
of spiritual life and God has commissioned that. It is happening. and it says here, they pour out
the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. It is also a,
well, just turn with me to 2 Corinthians Chapter 2. It is a double-edged
sword, it's life. Also, on the other side, it's
judgment. 2 Corinthians Chapter 2 and verse
14, the Holy Spirit was so good to us to leave this word. and
to leave as much as he did. The scriptures tell us if everything
had been written, the world would not contain the whole. Well,
we know what it's like to go into a library and say, I'd like
to read all these books. It's not going to happen. Well,
we have one, and it is declarative of God Almighty and his work
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus and his determination before
the world began to save his people from their sins. In 2 Corinthians
2, we find the Holy Spirit gave words to the Apostle Paul to
write down, and it was in God's good pleasure that these words
would be put into a book that we know as the Bible, and that
we could read it tonight and say, this is the sense of this. And we see it around us that
the preaching of the gospel is a two-edged sword. It will cut
out a cancer. The Word of God will cut out
a blight. The Word of God will take what
was dead and give life. But at the same time, it is a
saver of death unto death. It is condemnation. The Word
of God is a judgment upon people. In 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14, The scriptures share this, it
says, now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph
in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by
us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. But
in them, oh, what a sweet savor. For the one we are a saver of
death unto death, and to the other a saver of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God,
but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak
we in Christ. We are a saver of life unto life. We're a saver of death unto death.
God has decreed this. Just look at the results of Stephen
preaching the gospel. It bit them. There was a sore
on their back. And that's what this vial says.
If we go over there to Revelation chapter 16 and verse 2, the first
went and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell
a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of
the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image. This egregious
sore, incurable sore, and this is just what we find that Stephen
was preaching, and I don't know how many of that whole host were
saved, but there was a bunch of people that were so stirred
up at the preaching of the gospel, the word that they knew. You read what he preached. It
was Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. That's what he preached to them.
And they claim to believe every word of it. But when he said,
this is the preaching of Christ, they gnashed on him with their
teeth. And I've read commentary says they didn't get that serious.
I don't know. That's what it says in the book.
They gnashed on him with their teeth and kicked him out of town
and stoned him to death. Now, another day, the day of
Pentecost, the preaching of the word, you'd think, well, this
is going to stir up a whole bunch of people. God saw that day fit
to save a host. They gladly received his word.
They that gladly received his word. They were, God had work
to work. He plowed the ground. He'd been
there with a finger and plowed their heart. He gave them a heart
of flesh, a soft heart to hear the gospel. And they rejoiced
in the preaching of the gospel. And there was a host of people
that day were saved. So it is a savor of life unto
life. Oh, those who hear the gospel
and it is something that attracted them, brought them, caught them,
broke them, whatever happened as God used it to bring us to
Christ, it's a savor. There's a savor about it. I have
to tell you this. I love gooseberry pie. My mother
used to make it. It had a savor of my mother. The gospel is a saver of life
to God's people. It doesn't matter how old you
get, there's still a refreshment about when you think about it.
I think about that gooseberry pie my mother made. It took me
right back to the table again. It took me back when she gave
me a quarter of a piece and heaped a bunch of whipped cream on top
of it. It was a savor of mom. And the gospel is a savor of
life unto life. We rejoice in it. We never get
angry with it. We're not put out by it. We never
get old. It never gets old. We want more
and more and more. I remember when I was in religion,
I wanted other things. But in Christ, you want to hear
the sweet Savior of Christ preach, and what he's done for us, and
how he was involved with us before the world began, and the counsel
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together, the
determination to save a people from their sin, and what was
required. The Son must go to the cross,
and you know what? The Holy Spirit must come down
to this sin-cursed earth, too, and get on the trail of the people
of God and acquaint them with the gospel. And God the Father
was involved, God the Son was involved, God the Holy Spirit
was involved, and they're still involved. They had to give up
the glory they had before the world began and come down here
and deal with human beings. We sing a song once in a while
about worms. Now that word has been changed
in the modern hymn book, but that's just all we are. We're
just worms and God comes down and deals with us what God has
done. Would you turn with me to John
3? John 3, as this first pastor pours out his vial of the wrath
of God, he pours it out onto this world. Look what we read
right here in John 3, 17 and 18. I've heard John 3, 16 read
alone, in my face read alone. I mean, it's a weapon. read in
my face, pointed fingers at me. But they never go before or after. John 3, 17, look at that. Again, the Holy Spirit gave this
writer these words so we can appreciate and enjoy them and
delight in them and have a savor of life unto life. If it wasn't
for God, if it wasn't for God, those words in the Bible, but
God. How gracious they are that God would get involved. John
chapter 3 verse 17. For God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. Now notice verse 18. He that believeth on him
is not condemned. Now this vial poured out of the
wrath of God. Listen to the next part. But
he that believeth not is condemned already. because he hath not
believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God." He's condemned
already. Now, just a little further in
that same chapter, John 3, verse 30, it says, John says, he must
increase, I must decrease. That's a wonderful statement
by this gospel preacher. Most of the preachers that are
found in the Bible that were involved in religion, if you
get over there, the prophets of Baal, they wanted people to
know who they were. They wanted people to know what
they did. They wanted people to know that they're dressed
like this for a reason. They wanted people to know, I
am religious. The prophets of Baal and those
Levites and priests that were in the day of the Christ broke
themselves out of the same mold. They are in it for reward. They're
in it for their own goals. Now listen to this gospel preacher.
He must increase, I must decrease. He must get bigger in the minds
of people, I must get little. Don't look to me, look to him. Don't depend on me, depend on
him. Don't trust me, trust Him. Paul said it this way, follow
me as I follow Christ. Don't depend on me. He goes here
and says, He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh
from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly,
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testified, and no man receiveth his testimony. What
does that say? No man receiveth his testimony,
by nature. It's a foreign testimony. We
will not receive it. We can't even comprehend it.
There's no way in this world we could believe it. It isn't
a foreign language. It is a language that our deadness
cannot and will not understand. And so he says here, no man heareth him receiveth
his testimony. He that hath received his testimony
hath set to his seal that God is true. How is it that someone
is able to receive his testimony? God has dealt in them and they're
able to confess God is true. He worked a work. Now look at
this. For he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God, for
God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him. The Father
loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand. He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him." What in the world did this first pastor pour
out onto the world in his preaching? The wrath of God abideth on you. Why? You believe not the testimony. You believe not the word. You
believe not. Well, we're stuck. We can't,
we won't, and we're required to. We lost it in Adam. That's why we're so dependent
upon the Lord to reveal it to us, to show us the truth about
it, to quicken us, to acquaint us with us. Going over to the
book of Isaiah chapter 8, we find a verse of scripture here
that is a blessing to us. I'll tell you, when you read
what we would be without the Holy Spirit, what we would be
without the quickening of the Spirit, what we would be without
salvation, without Christ, God's people are just thankful that
he took the time, if you please, that may be a poor choice of
words, but took the time to visit our house. Jesus told Zacchaeus,
I must go to your house. And I'm glad that that's not
the only house he goes to visit. He must visit where we are. And he will visit where his people
are. And he will make sure that they
hear the gospel. Now here in the book of Isaiah,
chapter 8, verse 14, he shall be for a sanctuary. But for a
stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses
of Israel, how can you be a sanctuary and a rock of offense at the
same time? Well, there's some, God has quickened,
that say, this is a good place to be. I'll stand on this rock.
And there's a whole bunch of people that come by and they
get tangle-footed on this rock. It breaks their step. Why? There's none other name under
heaven whereby ye must be saved. And then you get all tangly-feeted
over it. They're all sprawled out as a result of it. They're
on their faces as a result of it. This is a curse that comes
by God upon them that believe not. The wrath of God abideth
on them. They're caught on this very thing
that Jesus Christ is not enough. I must get involved in this.
I must complement it. I must supply something. It's
the grace of God that God's people say, he's enough. He said it's
finished and He's enough. He will be sufficient. He is
sufficient and He is our sufficiency. All right, goes on to tell us
here in Isaiah 8, 14, for he shall be for a sanctuary, but
for a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence to both the
houses of Israel for a, well, it's a trap. That's what that
word means. And for a snare to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. I wonder
how many of these actually were put into bird snares. It's not what he's talking about.
He's talking about they'll be caught up in religion. They'll
be snared by religion. We're born into this. We're gonna
find over there as we follow through on those woes, on those
vials of the wrath of God that's poured out. First one is an incurable
sore. That incurable sore started in
the Garden of Eden. We're carrying it along. There's
only one bomb of Gilead, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's only one cure. We can't cure it. And it is so
total. We're all been over this. It
affected us in our body, mind, and spirit. Our backbone won't
support the grace of God. We will do anything possible
on the work side, but grace is a foreign word to us. In fact,
it is so foreign that we'll change the meaning so we can go to the
word of God and say, for by grace, oh, that means I'm going to take
communion. It's changed into a work, and
the word will not ever support that, and the gospel will not
support that. Isaiah chapter eight, verse 15,
and many among them shall stumble and fall. Verse 16, bind up the
testimony, seal the law among my disciples, and wait until
the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and
I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom
the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel. There's the key. For children
have been given to the Lord. For the children whom the Lord
hath given me, God gave to the Son children, promised children. They will be born. They will
be his children. And they will be a number that
no man can number, from the host of Israel which dwelleth in Mount
Zion. And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that
have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter,
should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the
dead? That's an interesting comment
on what the gospel is not. It is not muttering. It is not
peeping. It is not wizarding. Paul, in his old life, commented
what he had done. He had butchered the gospel. That's what he's admitted. He
had butchered the gospel. He had butchered the word of
God. He had made it of none effect. Every time he uses those kind
of words, it's something that he used to do. He made the word
of none effect. When God came and saved him,
this word became powerful. This word became a saver of life
into life. He no longer wanted that old
nonsense. He wanted to know Christ the
better. And as he goes on here in verse
20, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there's no light in them. If there's
no light in them, the wrath of God abideth on them. That vial is coming to pass. It came to pass, it's coming
to pass, and it will continue to come to pass until the Lord
Jesus Christ comes at the saving of his last sheep. That's all
that's holding it up right now. The salvation of his last sheep.
There will be this plague, this sore until then. And the preaching
of the gospel identifies it. It is an incurable sore that
people don't think they have. I'm not that dead. I'm not that
sick. I'm not that incurable. What
I've done will take care of it. And that is just crossways with
what the word of God has to say. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, it is because there
is no light in them. Not this, it is this one. What we just read about there,
there's a sanctuary. That's the word they're talking
about. They speak not according to this sanctuary. not according
to this hope, not according to this person, the Lord Jesus,
not according to the father of the children, not according to
the savior of the children, not according to the God of the word
of God. They speak not according to him. If you're not gonna speak
according to him, you're gonna speak against him. I've been
there, spoke out against him. And that's what we find in that
beast. That beast is just religion speaking
out against God. Megaphone speaking out against
God. Declaring God is not right on
this issue. Goes on to tell us there, verse
21, and they shall pass through it, hardly be stead and hungry. And it shall come to pass that
when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves and curse
their king and their God and look upward. And they shall look
unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish,
and they shall be driven to darkness. My gosh, it just goes from bad
to worse. And then they raise their fist
to God and says, if you were a God of love. God loves everybody if you're
God of love. Raising their fist to God. It's
just an absolute declaration of what we find with regard to
God pouring out his wrath and the word of God on the hearts
of these people. It is a searing wound. It's a hot iron. It's salt in
the wound. There's no healing bond in it. Only those God regenerates is
it healing. To the others, it is a soreness. And they walk away angry and
bitter at the preaching of the word and at the thought of the
word. And even, I'd like to talk to you. Oh, I don't want to hear
that. I go to church. I go to church. I don't want
to hear that. Now, these seven vials of the wrath of God, they
do highly exalt the Lord God Almighty. His word that created
the heavens and the earth and created life from death in His
children now is to use to declare His judgment. It is highly exalting
to God. He is doing what he said he would
do. And it is falling out just like
he said it would fall out. He is not predicting a thing. Kids today will say, do you think
it will rain? My grandmother said, only fools
and newcomers will predict the weather in Oregon. And we're
not predicting a thing. The gospel is not predicting
things. It is declaring. I declare unto
you the gospel how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scripture and was buried and rose again the third day.
It's not a discussion point. It's a declaration. And it will
fall out a saver of life unto life or death unto death. Now,
our hearts go out to our family. Oh, God, would you have it in
your purpose that this gospel would fall out to them as a saver
of life unto life? We have no idea. We can't predict. We have no idea in this world
how it's going to react. I'm convinced that there was
a whole bunch of people in Paul's family and the church around
Jerusalem at that time says, he will never be saved. He's just done too much. He's
done send away his day of grace. There was a time he could have
come, but he didn't, and now it's too late. Well, God never
heard that kind of nonsense. Paul called himself the chiefest
of sinners, and when he starts talking about it, you say, boy,
he was a rascal. Persecuted the church, killed
them. Killed people who love God. Read the 11th chapter of
the book of Hebrews and find out what other people did to
those who loved God. It was a saver of life unto life,
but they were seriously persecuted. It doesn't take much for us,
very far, to go back and find out how much God's people have
been persecuted. But this, these seven vials,
they are a declaration of God's very word. These gospel pastors
are ordained of old to declare the simplicity of the gospel
and declare God's judgment to the world. It's a simplicity. Now, it's not simple. But there
is a simplicity in the gospel, in the sense that we just don't
have to know much to be able to preach it. I don't need to
know Greek. I don't need to know Hebrew.
I don't need to know what was in Corinth, what kind of town
it was. I don't need to know what it
was like in Galatia. I have never had any interest
of ever going to Turkey, past, present, or future. I don't need
to know that. That's the simplicity of the
gospel. The simplicity of the gospel is God saves his people
from their sins in all ages. And those rascals in Turkey of
old, or those rascals in Ephesus, those rascals wherever they were,
God saved them by his grace. And past, present, and future,
he's still saving his people out of all kinds of places that
are really not fit to live in. Doofer's right up there. People in Doofer. Friend. What's the... Fairbanks. Right over here. Little old bird. People there are all the same.
All the same. And it's very interesting that
we run into people every day that are dead. Sometimes we forget
that. Let's reach here. Go back to
the book of Revelation there, chapter 16. It says, verse two,
the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth, chapter
16, verse two, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon
men which had the mark of the beast. That mark, it's not a
mountain lion and it's not a grizzly bear. It's worse than that. This beast is just rotten religion. It's the worst of the worst. All you have to do is add just
a little bit of works to grace and you've got the rottenest
beast this world has ever seen. Just add a little bit of works
to grace. And it's all over. We practice
it by nature. We're born into it by nature. We may have never joined a church,
but we are part of the worst religion this world has ever
seen. And that is taking a little bit
of grace and adding a lot of works, or a lot of grace and
adding a little bit of works. It's still the same. You cannot
have grace and works in the same sentence. goes on to tell us
here that those who worship his image. Now, that's not a mirror. That's not that kind of image.
It's just the residue of this. The residue of this religion
is works-related, free-will religion. That's the image. You want to
see it? You want to see where religion is? You just go ask
people, what's your hope? Well, we'll borrow it up to heaven,
my works. Ask this question. I've mentioned
this several times. Just ask this question. Who did
Christ die for? And if, as Scott Richard would
say, he died for everyone the Lord loved before the foundation
of the world. You know what, we'll shake that
man's hand, because I think we could have some fellowship. But
most of the time we hear, well he died for everybody. That's the image of the beast.
That's what you see of religion. Verse three, the second angel
poured out his vial upon the sea. Now this isn't the ocean,
this is people. We find this several times in
the book of Revelation. It's a sea of people. It's the
world. And this sea of people, it says
here, it became as the blood of dead. Now men has been added. There is no way in this world
you can find the blood of half dead. This is just dead. I was, Last Wednesday, I was
looking there, nekro, which means dead in Greek. We get a lot of
words in our language from that. Nekro means dead. And you look
at the list of definitions under there, there is no hope that
there's any life in it. It is just dead. And I have mentioned
several times, definitions of words are not the issue. Christ
is the issue, whether you know him or not. Okay, it says here,
the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea and it became
as the blood of dead and every living soul. Now I've heard that
every fish in the sea died. Do we believe that fish have
souls? That's not what it's talking
about. Every living soul died in the sea. Now, when God came
down to visit Adam one day, he says, the day you eat, you shall
surely die. I don't know what the Hebrew
word is, but it means dead. Graveyard dead. Gravestone dead. The day you eat, you shall surely
die. And when he ate, he died. And every soul in the sea died. And that's part of the gospel.
Ruined by the fall. We are so ruined by the fall,
we can never get out of it. We are so dependent upon someone
else to help us. I was just so pleased this last
week when I got to go down and hold Mike's little grandson.
And that little grandson is just so dependent. You set him on
the floor, he's gonna fall down. You gotta watch their neck, you
know, you're trained. Hold their neck, support their back, do
all this. Why? Because they can't support
themselves. And that's where we are. We are
so needful of God's support. And you know what? It is forever.
We don't grow out of it. And thank God. There are times
that I just love to get up in somebody's lap. My days are over. But in the Lord, in the sense
that we're children of the Lord, we are never taken out of his
careful care. He supports the head. He supports
the neck. He supports the back. He supports
us. He is our support. And we're just necessarily dependent
upon that, and we delight in it. But these, it says that every
living soul died in the sea. That's why every day we meet
people that are just dead. Sometimes we forget it. We think,
boy, they're our friends. They're our neighbors. They're
our children. They're our parents. They're
our grandchildren. They're just dead. That's why
they do what they do and say what they say and why they are
what they are. And sometimes we reel at what
we see around us. But every living soul in the
sea died. And that's what we're dealing
with. Now, it's a good thing that there
is something that is a saver of life unto life. The gospel, a saver, a sweet
saver of life unto life. We were in that sea dead, and
it took the resurrecting power of Almighty God to lift us out
of it. And from then on, he supports
our head and our neck and our back. We're dependent upon him
for our entire salvation. We don't gain any righteousness
as we go through this life. We don't gain any sanctification
as we go through this life. We don't gain anything spiritually
as we go through this life. We grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but we don't gain in
those things that God gives to us. We got all there was, ever
will be, when he raised us to newness of life. I was sanctified. I will ever be sanctified. I
will never not be sanctified. And the same is true about his
righteousness. I don't gain it. I grew up in a church where it
was progressive. You started out pretty good,
but you got better as you went through life and read your Bible
and quit doing this and quit going there and quit seeing this.
And worked five, six, seven days a week at the church. Went to
all the Bible studies and everything else. You got better and better.
That's not what the Bible says. He is our righteousness. He is our sanctification. And when we say we're getting
better, he's not sufficient. And we've just seen the image
of the beast. Big picture, right there. He's not sufficient. When those
Jews came with their ragged sheep and offered him on the sacrifice
altar, We see the image of the beast. Here's the picture. He's not sufficient. He's broken. He's blind. He's halt. We're halt. We're blind. He's
thought. Says there, the second angel
poured out his vial. This preaching of the gospel
leaves an incurable mark on men. These men had the mark of the
beast upon them and they worshiped his image. Religion recoils at
the gospel. And many times it's not pretty.
We just soon not see it. And the most identifying mark
of the beast is found in the message of religion works, mixed
with various amounts of grace. It's been in the last few days
with a math class and they're talking about working proportions. I'm so glad, that's something
I knew about. I could work those problems on
the board and they were so impressed. Proportions, and we just by nature
work different proportions of religion to grace. And we really
get after the people way over here that got a lot more works
than they have grace. Those are the real odd people. And the
farther we get over onto the side that we agree with, we have
more grace and a little bit, a lot less works. But I'll tell
you, when you got one work involved that takes away from the glory
of God, we're still worshiping the beast. And he is ugly. and God will not have a thing
to do with him. What a statement about what we are dealing with
every day. Not only when Adeline goes to
that nursing home, she's dealing with people real close to physical
death, but we're dealing with people that are dead in trespasses
and sin, just dead spiritually. Every living soul died in the
Sea of Humanity and continues to be born dead. There are parts
of this sea we may never see, yet the results are the same
wherever we go. That's one thing we'll find if
we visit with Pastor Moose Parks or Missionary Moose Parks down
in St. Croix. He's going to tell us,
you know, this part of the sea is dead too. and you visit with
Brother Lance Heller down there in New Guinea, this part of the
sea is just dead too. And Brother Gene Harmon down
there in California, he will tell us, our part of the sea
is just dead too. It's not the Dead Sea over there,
it's the Dead Sea wherever we go. You and I, we wake up to
a sea of humanity that is dead. For the day you eat, You shall
surely die. And the gospel is the only instrument
that ever reveals the real problem and the seriousness of it. Religion
wants to, oh, we don't want to talk about worms, and we don't
want to talk about the need for blood, and we don't want to talk
about all grace. But the gospel says, It is grace
and grace alone. It's his word and it's his word
alone. And it's God and it's God alone. And it's Christ and
it's Christ alone. And we are the recipients. I'm
going to go in on the coattails of the Lord Jesus. I have nothing of my own. I'm
just gonna go on in his righteousness. We're going to stop there tonight
and we'll pick up with this verse for Lord Willie next week and