Here we go. It's really good to be here.
We came through a couple years ago when Mike Walker's conference
stopped by here Sunday night to listen to the message. I wanted
to thank you for that. It's, your hospitality has been
exemplary and it's made us feel quite at home. Brandon and Angie
and Cole way back there. Made us, make us feel very comfortable. And it's just a joy to be here.
Now I may be jacked up and I use that term because of the grandbabies,
four weeks old, but I'm nervous too. So, bear with me. I think I've got something for
you. I really do. Turn with me to Job chapter 1.
Job chapter 1. We'll look at verses 1 through
5 and then skip to verse 13 to the end of the chapter. Job chapter 1, starting in verse
1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and
that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed
evil. They were born unto him seven
sons and three daughters, and substance also was 7,000 sheep,
3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses, a very great household,
so that this man was the greatest of all the men in the east. And his sons went and feasted
in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their
three sisters to eat and drink with them. And it was so when
the days of their fasting, feasting were gone about that Job sent
and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered
burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job
said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in
their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now skip with me to verse 13.
And there was a day, what a day, when his sons and his daughters
were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were
plowing, the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabaeans fell upon
them, and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants
with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell
thee. While he was yet speaking, there
came another and said, the fire of God has fallen from heaven
and burnt up the sheep and the servants that consumed them,
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking,
there came also another and said, the Chaldeans made out three
bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away, yea,
and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only
am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there
came another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating
and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house, and behold,
there came a great wind from the wilderness and smoked the
four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and
they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then
Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his beard, shaved
his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and
said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall
I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. What
I want to look at, even though the name of the book is Job,
I want to look at these four messengers. One, look at these
tragic events and see the everlasting gospel. In verses 15 through 19, let's
just go over what happened. The first messenger, he escaped
kidnapping, captivity, Slavery and murder, death, he escaped
death. The second messenger in verse
16 escaped judgment or weather calamity, whatever you want to,
however you want to call it, and death. The third messenger
escaped raid and sudden attack and death. And the last messenger
escaped unexpected and total house collapse and death. So what do these all four messengers
have in common? They escaped death. I wonder
what we would be thinking if this would have happened to us.
It's pretty difficult to grasp, put your mind around it. What about us here today? This word escaped. It could be
rendered rescued or preserved, which tells me they didn't have
anything to do with their deliverance. They didn't have anything to
do with their being rescued. What about us here this morning?
Spiritually speaking, providentially speaking, and speaking of grace
and by grace speaking, could we not all tell any who would
ask us what we have been delivered from, like these four here? Eternal, certain, and deserved
death. But they escaped, only those
four. Specifically, when we fell, we
fell an atom. Completely, totally. This alone
is enough to place us in hell's infernal. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 through 4. Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached
unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I
delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and He was buried and rose again on the third day according to
the Scriptures." Jump down to verse 9. For I am, me, I only,
this is all he's saying. And the least of the apostles,
we could say that here this morning, were less than anybody. And I'm
not meet to be called a saint. Verse 10, but by the grace of
God, I am what I am. Four messengers, four deliverances,
four rescues, four, as it says in our text, escapes. We just look back at the days
of our youth, a four-week-old child born in sin. Our days of our youth were spent
in folly and youthful lusts, all against God, our Maker, and
Christ, our mighty Redeemer. Led away captive with every whim
and fancy, carelessly and without respect to God or His honor or
His glory. What about our teenage years?
Young adult seasons? Self is in full swing. Full swing. It's our first fruits. It's all
about me, myself, and I. Deceived and deceiving ourselves.
and go in the way of the world, enticed and enjoying all of its
anti-God, anti-gospel ways and pleasure. Can we not remember, says Isaiah
51, the pit from which we've been pulled? This isn't luck here. We don't
even talk about that. We don't think about that. Personally,
let us recall or remember I only am escaped alone to tell you. Tell what? Tell what? Well, that word is actually,
it can be, to tell, it can be rendered declare or announce. Now you're, it sounds like you're
talking the gospel, right? The trumpet, the trumpet of jubilee,
the herald. What are you gonna tell about
that you've escaped? by God's free and sovereign grace. You
were just there, and others were there with you. And this great tragedy happened.
Well, we're going to talk about our fall. Those things that I just mentioned,
our youth and our younger days and youthful experiences, is
a complete fall. It was a total fall, a ruinous
fall. A fall to which we All in and
of ourselves could make no restitution. These men, the message they had
is I did not, I could not save myself. It doesn't even enter in the
narrative. Secondly, we're gonna tell of
God's sovereign grace. Somebody asked me, and I'm pretty
basic, I always talk about common denominator, I used to enjoy
math, and you take that fraction, you go to the simplest, and that's
me, that's what you're gonna get. Somebody says, well, what
is this sovereign grace? I said, sovereign is who he is,
grace is how he saves. We talk about his free and sovereign
grace and mercy found only in the substitute. How did I escape? By luck? By chance? By my will? No, never. Never that. But in
the fullness of time, when it pleased God, He separated me
from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. Turn with me
to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4, verses 4
through 7. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem. I love that word redeem. Again,
simple. When you women and men, when
you redeem a coupon, Who gets that? Who printed that coupon?
The company that you're redeeming it. If it's IGA or, you know,
Horton's or whoever, if you have, you're giving it back to them.
It was theirs to begin with. He's redeemed his people. He's
buying them back. Nobody else. That's redemption. That's redemption. "...to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because you are sons and daughters, God has sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father,
wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then
an heir of God through Christ." We were dead in trespasses and
sins. But you hath he quickened. Grace, grace, how sweet it does
sound in the believer's ear. Newton was right. Why? If you read what his life was
like, slave trader, then slave himself, he escaped. He owed it all to God's rich
mercy and grace, found only in the, not a, the substitute. My stepfather asked
me one time, he says, you keep talking about the gospel, and
he was pretty smart. He's an old Navy man. He'd been around. He said, you
keep talking about the, like it's the only one. I said, that's
exactly right. That's exactly right. The... The... Thirdly, what are we going to
tell? What are we going to talk about? What are we going to declare?
What are we going to announce? I'm going to tell you of a sufficient,
supreme, and complete satisfaction in, and through, and because
of Christ the Lord, the Son of God, Emmanuel. That's what we're
going to talk about. A perfect righteousness He gave
us. by his obedience unto death,
and he took upon him all my corruptions and miseries, and washed them
away, truly, purely, and voluntarily." Who does that? Christ. Because we couldn't. We sing
that hymn, I think you have it in your course book too. Did
you hear what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Fourthly, I'm going to tell you
that I'm complete in Him. The Father will receive me, the
Son purchased me, and the Spirit enables me to glorify His blessed
name evermore. Evermore. Fifthly, I'm not going to keep quiet.
By God's grace, you haven't stopped preaching. I've known you for
a while, not very close, but our paths have crossed numerous
times at Cherokee Conference. I first met the little rascal,
neither one of us. I had more hair, he had black
hair, I didn't have gray hair. I've known Tim since early 1981
or so. We haven't stopped. We can't. The love of Christ constrains
us. We're not going to stop. We're
not going to shut up or hold our tongue. Turn with me to Jeremiah
31. Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah
chapter 31 and verse 14. And I will satiate the soul of
the priest of fatness, and my people, my people, my messengers,
my proclaimers, my declarers, my ambassadors for Christ, shall
be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord." I'm satisfied
with Christ. I'm satisfied with Christ. In
this world of, in this country, and I love this country, in this
world, this country of want, need, gotta have it, gotta have
the most, the shiniest object. Four messengers, they only escaped
to tell. Not about the weather. Not about this, not about that,
and we do these things. We live in the world, I'm not
saying that. Above it, we are in this world. So we do these
things. But wouldn't your neighbor, your
little grandson, wouldn't you want them to understand and know
Christ? We alone, some of us are the
only ones in our family that the Lord has revealed himself
to yet, so far. We sing that song, and I'm sure
you do, redeemed. I sing, for I cannot be silent. His love is the theme of my song.
Let me read you something here by Mr. Hawker. Hail, great, glorious, and sovereign
Lord. To you, blessed Jesus, every
knee shall bow. You are our all-in-all in creation
and redemption, providence, grace and glory. You are all-in-all
in your church, in the hearts of your people, in all their
joys and all their happinesses and all their exercises and their
privileges. You are the all-in-all in thy
word, ordinances, means of grace, the sum and substance of the
whole Bible. Speak we of promises. You are
the first promise in the sacred word and the whole of every promise
that follows, for you are all in all and yea and amen. Speak
we of the law. Thou art the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes. Speak we of sacrifices. By thy one sacrifice, thou hast
forever perfected them that are sanctified. Speak we of prophecies. To thee give all the prophets
witness that whosoever believeth in thee shall receive remission
of sins. Yes, blessed, blessed Jesus, you are all and in all. Be it always so to us, the people
of your choice. The third, fourth thing I have
is what did they escape from? How did they escape? And what
are they telling? It's the gospel. But let's look
at something else. What does such an escape? If
you've been redeemed, you've been called out, what does such
an escape, what does that result in? What are the results of that?
What does such communications determine? What are we gonna
say? Well, first, a wholesome remembrance. Don't ever forget. Don't ever forget. This place has been here a long
time and it's still here. Maybe not tomorrow. Cherish one
another. Cherish the preaching of the
gospel, because I preached a message years ago when Christ is, I think
it's John, he says, ask Christ's disciples, and Christ says, are
you the one? And he says, in the gospels,
he says, well, you go back and tell them what you've seen. And
he says, the lame, the blind, and he's listed all these miracles,
and you know what he has in there? The gospels preached. Every time
that man, God enabling, and that man, and that man, and whoever's
coming up here to preach the Word, if God enables them to
preach the grace of God, it is a miracle. It's wondrous. It's glorious. What Lance said,
I was just dumbfounded. It just kept peeling away, and
peeling away, and peeling away. And Tim, you hear it, and that's
it. That's it. Let us remember, never
forget, it is our dear Lord that has made us to differ. It, like
a little child, runs to its mother's arms. May we flee to Christ in
thankfulness. Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3, verse
21, 22, and 23. This I recall. What's that? I'm less than the
least. I'm nothing. I can't redeem myself. I can't keep myself. Even believers, an example of that, those two on
the road to Emmaus, they were believers. And Christ is what
ripped them. They didn't even recognize Him
until He, by His sovereign free grace, opened their minds. That's
what it says. And a believer, yes, we understand
He's got the laws written in our hearts. But unless the Spirit
opens that and unlocks that and reveals Christ, we're still as,
you know, I'd say about as dumb as a box of rocks. Let us never forget This I recall
to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed, because His compassion is failing us.
They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. I've
recently retired, but you get up in the morning and you go
to work. No. Get up a little earlier and open
the book. Ask for instruction, because
it's dog-eat-dog out there. I guess you all sing, It Is Well
With My Soul. There's a man that wrote that
hymn named Horatius Spafford. He had some severe trials. He
was a lawyer in Chicago. His four-year-old son died of
scarlet fever before the Chicago fire hit and took all of his,
he'd lost about everything. He had four daughters and a wife.
He said, I'm on a ship, go over to Europe and I'll come, I've
got business to tie up and I'll come with you. Well, on the way
over there, they collided with another ship and went down. Lost
a lot. Here's what his wife said, she
telegraphed him, saved alone. I only saved. to tell you. What did he do? Well, he was
going over to meet his wife in Europe, and the captain said,
this is about the spot where your children lost their lives. He wrote, it is well. I couldn't
do that. It is well with my soul. I couldn't
do that. We heard a wonderful story, the
truth from Lance. What could Claire, and you said
she's a believer, so I don't doubt you. What could she tell
us? Survived alone. Don't keep it
in to tell. We thought we lost you. Survived alone. Tell of His glory. Help us to hear of His glory. Secondly, what does this such
an escape result in? Let us determine always to give
God the glory due His most wonderful name. Let us echo what Paul said
in Romans chapter 8. There is nothing that shall separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. Let us determine
to glorify Him, which basically is what Job did. He heard it,
didn't charge God foolishly, worshiped. Every time we gather
together here, every time we gather together in Jackson, Isonville,
out in Mission Field, Cherokee, wherever, miracle, you're hearing
a miracle? Don't forget. And give God the
glory. In closing, I asked myself this
when I read this, heart-wrenching. Have we, have I really escaped?
Have you really escaped? Have you truly escaped the grip,
grasp of Satan, the dominion of sin, and the tyranny of the
world? You know. Have you? He opened the prison doors. I only. For you, if you're one
of his. Has he done so? If he's done
so, it is owing all to the accomplishments of that Bauman Gilead, that rock
of ages, that bread that falls from heaven. If He has done so
for you and for me, be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even for God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4, do these things. But I say, echo what this book
emphatically, page after page says. First, John 15, 16, I have chosen
you, you haven't chosen me. Secondly, Hosea 14.8, from him
is our fruit found. And lastly, and I like this one,
John 15.5, without Christ, we can do nothing. In closing, let's
turn to Psalms 66. Psalms 66 and verse 16. This, I think,
sums it up. Come and hear, all ye that fear
God, and I will tell, I will declare, I will announce what
He hath done for my soul. Lord bless you.