Good evening. Let's all stand
together, turning our hymnals to hymn number six. Hymn number six. Come Thou Almighty King, Help
us Thy name to sing, Help us to praise. Father all-glorious,
Lord all-victorious, Come and reign over us, Ancient of days. Come Thou incarnate Word, Gird
on thy mighty sword our prayer attend. Come and thy people bless
and give thy word. Success, spirit of holiness,
haunt us, descend. Come, holy comforter, thy sacred
witness wear. In this glad hour, Thou who almighty
art, Thou rule in every heart, And e'er from us depart, Spirit
of power. To the great one in three Eternal
praises be Insevermore His sovereign majesty May we in glory see And
to eternity love and adore Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
334 three thirty four Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night, waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Be Thou my wish, And now my true
word I ever with thee and thou with me Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee born. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praying, Thou mine inheritance, Thou mine inheritance. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart, I, King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art. High King of Heaven, my victory
won, May I reach Heaven's joys so bright. All right, let's look together
again in Jude, the book of Jude. I know you were blessed by Brother
Aaron's preaching. I always am. I got to listen
to him. I haven't listened to him yet,
but I will. I'm going to start reading in
verse 12 and go down to verse 16. These are spots in your feast
of charity. when they feast with you, feeding
themselves without fear, clouds without water, carried about
of winds, trees who fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked
up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their
own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and
to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly
deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These
are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lust, and their
mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in
admiration because of advantage." Oh, blessed Father, blessed Savior,
our blessed Lord, how thankful we are to be able to meet again
this side of eternity, this side of the grave, to meet with the
children of God. Lord, and I ask for your presence
tonight, not only for me, but for them. And ask for the leading
of the Holy Spirit, ask for your power, ask for your presence.
And Lord, I thank you for how you blessed the services here
last Sunday, blessed the dear preacher, blessed his message. Bless the fellowship. Thank you
for it. Thank you for seeing us safely
home. I thank you for this body of believers and those that are
committed to you, faithful to you, love you, that's found grace
and mercy in your sight, and been saved by the grace of God,
who have their hearts made new, their minds enlightened, and
now it's got light, the light of Christ and his glory Lord,
forgive us of everything that's unlike you. Lord, have mercy
upon our children, our grandchildren. Lord, every family, sometime
or other, has problems with their children or their grandchildren,
have marriages problems. But Lord, we ask for you, for
Christ's sake, Lord, to deal with these children, to deal
with our families, our sons and our daughters, Our grandchildren,
oh Lord, our grandchildren grown with their own lives, live as
if you don't exist, live as if this world's gonna go on forever
and ever. But Lord, it's not gonna go on
forever. So Lord, if you'd be pleased to go and do something
for them, quicken them, stir up their hearts, stir up their
soul. Lord, you told us that you looked on the field and it
was ready to harvest, and you ask us to pray that the Lord
of the harvest would send servants in to help with the harvest,
laborers. Lord, send laborers. Oh, Lord,
we need laborers. Laborers in the vineyard. Raise
up some preachers. Raise up some men. Raise up some
people that would be willing and able by your gift and grace
and calling. to deal with the Word of God,
to preach it with some power and some understanding and wisdom.
Lord, we desperately need some preachers. We pray that you'd
bless them and raise some up to your own glory and the good
of your people. Meet with us tonight again, we
pray, for Christ's sake. Amen. Item number 117. 117. He was wounded for our transgressions,
He for our sins in His body on the tree. For our guilt He gave
us peace, From our bondage gave release. And with His stripes, and with
His stripes, and with His stripes our souls are healed. He was numbered among transgressors,
We did esteem him forsaken by his God. As our sacrifice He died, that
the law be satisfied. And all our sin, and all our
sin, and all our sin was laid on Him. We had wandered, we all had wandered,
Far from the fold of the shepherd of the sheep. But He saw us where we were,
on the mountains bleak and bare, And brought us home, and brought
us home. And brought us safely home to
God Who can number His children Who shall declare all the triumphs
of His cross? Millions dead now live again,
Myriads follow in His train, Victorious Lord, Victorious Lord
and coming King. It says there in verse 12, let's
look at it just again today, these are spots. Everybody knows
what a spot is. It's something that Christ said
he's going to present us spotless. These people have spots, dark
spots, filthy spots, spots that Can't be washed off with the
blood of Christ even, it says here. And there are spots in
your Feast of Charity when you have Feast of Love, which they
used to have in the services, you know, people that have Feast
of Charity. And they feast with you. They
sit down and eat with you. And they feed themselves and
they have no fear. They have no fear of God. They
have no fear of judgment. They have no fear of sitting
with the saints of God and making a profession. And he said, and
then they're like a cloud that doesn't have any water. Carried the winds, carry them
things and carry those winds and carry those clouds all over
the place. And trees, their fruit withereth. And oh, what little fruit they
ever had, it just withers. And then some of them didn't
have any fruit at all. Dead in trespasses and sin. Dead
in religion. Plucked up by the roots. Every
tree which my father hath not planted, our Lord said, shall
be rooted up. Rooted up. And he says, oh, these
are the kind of people, this is the way these people are.
But they don't know they're this way. Raging waves of the sea. Right now the seas, because of
this storm, the seas are six and seven, big six, seven, eight
foot waves coming in on the shore. And people, they get out there
and those things, foaming out shame, just foam coming out and
just whipping coming on. And they have no benefit whatsoever. And oh, foaming out their own
shame, their own shame and not ashamed of it. Wandering stars. And God said, I've reserved the
blackness of darkness, just like the night, darkness in the sky,
forever and ever. And this is what I want to deal
with tonight. Enoch. Some people call him Enoch. I
call him Enoch. Also, the seventh from Adam prophesied
of these people like this, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment, execute judgment upon all, upon all like this, upon all
these people he's talked about, and to convince all that are
ungodly among them all of their ungodly deeds which they have
ungodly committed. and of their hard speeches, which
ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers,
walking after their own lust, and their mouths speaking great
swelling words, having men's persons and admiration because
of advantage." Now, when we talk about Enoch here, You know why
he said he was the seventh from Adam? Now you keep this, keep
Jude, and go over to Genesis chapter 5. Because Cain had a
son, and Cain had a son, he was the third from Adam, and he had
a son named Enoch. But Enoch, the seventh from Adam,
the seventh generation from Adam, And it says, he prophesied that
he's coming here to execute judgment. And this is what it says about, in verse 18, Genesis 5, 18. And Jared lived 160 years, 62
years, and begat Enoch. And Jared lived after he begat
Enoch 800 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days
of Jared were 962 years, and he died. And Enoch lived 65 years,
and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after
he begat Methuselah 300 years, and begat sons and daughters.
And all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with
God, and he was not for God took him. I want you to notice about
Enoch. Two times it said he walked with
God. He saved us from Adam. Two times it said he walked with
God. How did he walk with God? How does anybody walk with God?
You can only walk with God and have communion with God and fellowship
with God through one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Enoch,
He was a prophet, he said he prophesied. But here's the thing,
people think that Christ wasn't back there. God has always used
Christ. He's always been the Word of
God. And everything God did, He did by His Word. And so Enoch
walked with God the same way you and I walk with God, through
the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't know God, we can't have
fellowship with God, we can't walk with God, except through
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the second way that he walked
with God, he walked by faith. Here's a man, didn't have any
convenience at all. He didn't have any conveniences.
He had a son named Methuselah, and he walked with God. Methuselah
lived to be, his oldest man ever lived. But he was 365 years old
when he begat his first child. And 300 years, he walked with
God. Now, how in the world does a
man that don't have nothing, had to go out and work every
day by the sweat of his brow and his hands, had to labor to
raise a family, had to labor so different than we had, no
conveniences, no big nice beds to go home to, no cars to get
to the meeting house in, no air condition when he got there,
but he walked with God. He walked wherever God, when
you walk with God, you walk the way God says to walk. You don't
walk your way, you walk with God. And you, when you walk with
God, you got to do it by faith. When you know if you can't trust
him in the dark, you can't trust him in the light. And here's
the thing, he walked with God. And he walked by faith. And I
tell you something, not only did he walk by faith, He couldn't
possibly walk by sight. There wasn't nothing to see.
But then also he walked in the light. He that walks with God
has to walk in the light. God, you can't stay in the darkness
and walk with God. You can't live in darkness and
walk with God. Whoever, whoever, he that walketh
with God walketh in the light. And so he walked with God. And
he walked with him day in and day out and day in and day out
and day in and day out. Every day he got up and he walked
with God. And then it said over there that
one day he got up to walk with God and he never got home that
night. He walked with God and he was
not. What happened to him? They said
the Lord took him. And that's exactly, you know,
that's what God gotta, he'll come one of these days and take
us. He was not for God, took him. Where'd he take him? Wherever
he was. That's what happens to people
who walk with God. That's what happens to people
walk in the light, walk according to his word, and walk with God
through Christ. One of these days we'll get up
and we won't be anymore. Who will it be? Wherever God
is, wherever God takes us. So back over in our text, oh
my, he was the seventh from Adam. And oh my, and look what he said. He prophesied. So that means
he was a prophet. He prophesied. He was a prophet. As far as I know, this is the
first person that's called a prophet in the Bible. And you know, Enoch
never called himself a prophet. God never told he's a prophet
back there. But here he said he prophesied. He prophesied
of when Christ would come. When Christ would come into this
world. And when he comes into this world,
look what it says he's going to do. And he says, and prophesied
that he said, behold, the Lord comes. The Lord's coming. He's coming. Our Lord said, I'll
come again. And you know, the Thessalonians,
they all sat down in a little while after Christ descended
back. They thought he'd come back immediately.
So they quit working. They sat down and started doing
it. And Paul went to them and said, listen, I don't know when
Christ is coming, but I tell you what, you do whatever you're
supposed to do until he does come. But he's coming. Behold, the
Lord comes. And when he talks about he's
coming, that's exactly the same thing that Job did. He said,
Oh, I shall stand in the latter days and see my Redeemer for
myself. And the Lord comes. And what
Lord is he talking about? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ, he's coming. He's coming. And what's he going
to do? He comes with 10,000s of His
saints. And oh my, He is holy, the Lord
Jesus Christ. 10,000s of myriads, myriads,
great, huge multitudes of people. And when He comes, what glory,
what majesty. And oh, when He comes in glory.
And oh my, and look what it says here, with 10,000s of His saints. Oh, he gonna come with sin, thousands
of his saints. Now look over here, look in Deuteronomy,
I think it's 31, 32, Deuteronomy 32, I think is what it's called.
Let me make sure, I'll get over and we'll see. In Deuteronomy
32, and no, 30, well, Well, it's, yeah, yeah, chapter
33 and verse 2. Thank you. And Moses, the man
of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death, and
he said, The Lord cometh from Sinai, and rose up from Mount
Seir with them. He shined forth from Mount Paran,
and he came with ten thousands of his saints, from his right
hand went out a fire along." Listen to this, "'Yea, he loved
the people, and his saints are at thy right hand, and they sat
down at thy feet, and every one of them shall receive your word.'"
Oh, they'll receive your word. And, oh, back over here, it said,
oh, my, he prophesied. Now, you know in Revelation,
it talks about they saw a multitude that no man can number, 10,000
times 10,000 thousands. And that's just what, but here
he says he's coming with ten thousands of his saints. What's
he coming for? What's he coming for? Huh? Look
what he says. To execute judgment. To execute judgment. You know,
God executed judgment many, many times in the Old Testament. He
executed judgment every single day in this world right here.
He executes judgment. He executed judgment upon Adam. When Adam sinned, God executed
judgment upon Adam. And upon his posterity, he executed
judgment upon Adam. And then he comes along and he
executed judgment upon everybody before the ark was made. And I tell you what, You know
how many people drowned? How many people drowned when
he executed judgment and sent the flood? Mothers holding their
babies up as high as they can to keep from drowning. Keep going
up on high, and high, and high, and up on the mountain. Hold
them up, Lord! And boy, the water. You know
why he did that? Same reason why he's gonna do
it now is because the thoughts of man's imagination's only evil
continually. Oh my, he comes, and then Sodom. He executed judgment upon Sodom. He told, Abraham said, if there's
just 10 righteous men down there, will you spare it? He said, I'll
spare it. Five, I'll spare it. One. One righteous man. Isaiah said, the righteous perish,
and no man lays it to heart. No man lays it to heart. And
oh, my. It said to execute judgment.
And you know, you know who the judge is? God hath committed judgment into
the hands of Jesus Christ, who shall judge the world. And it
also tells us this. It tells us that when the Lord
Jesus Christ, when some of these saints has come with him, that
the saints are gonna judge the world. That we with Christ are
gonna judge the world. Now, how in the world are we
gonna judge the world? I believe how God will use us to judge
the world, said, they believe me. They walked with me. They lived by faith. They trusted
me. They put all their confidence
and everything about them, and if they had 10,000 souls, they'd
give them to me, and they all have trusted me, and you didn't.
You heard the gospel. You heard the word. You attended
services, and we'll stand there, and God will say, I saved all
these people by grace, but what about our works? Grace! And God
will judge the world and we'll be standing there. And you know
what we'll do? Just like they said in the revelation.
Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth and executes judgment. And I tell you what, and you
know, all he got to do is execute judgment. Just leave a man to
himself. That's all it takes. Leave a
man to himself. God don't have to do a thing
but just say, I'm gonna let him go. He wants to live like that. He wants to think like that.
He wants to talk like that. He wants to walk like that. He
wants to have that profession. He wants to do this. Let him
do it. Let him do it. Oh my. And I tell you what, Enoch
saw this judgment of God far, far off. He executed judgment
upon Pharaoh and upon all of Egypt. Egypt was the powerhouse,
the greatest nation on earth at one time. And then he executed judgment
upon Rome. He executes judgment every single
day. You hear about earthquakes and
tornadoes and floods. God executing judgment. People
say, oh, hey, I just don't believe God do that. God will execute
judgment on people that don't know him and don't care for him.
He gonna do it. And every once in a while, he'll
get one of his and they'll go on with the rest of them. But
he executes judgment. Oh my. It's just awful what he
does when he executes judgment. I pray he don't execute judgment
upon my children before they come hear the gospel. I hope
he doesn't execute judgment upon my grandsons before he executes judgment on them. And he will one of these days.
He'll execute judgment. Oh, my. I tell you something,
tell you something. Oh, my. He said, oh, I saw he saw the
judgment way, way far off. God help us. Help us to walk
humbly before God, walk with humility before God. Oh, my walk
with God. To walk by faith. Oh, my. You
know, the scripture says, the secret of the Lord is with them
that fear him. And he come to describe his work. He come to execute judgment.
Well, who's he going to execute judgment upon? Look what it says,
upon all. You go back through this verses.
He executed judgment, don't you remember, on the people coming
out of Egypt? Everybody under 20 years old,
everybody over 20 years old died in the wilderness. He executed
judgment on them. He slew 23,000 at one time. And then there was
Korah. He opened up the earth and destroyed
Korah, 250 people, executed judgment. And then there's Balaam. He executed
judgment upon Balaam. And all these, he said, these
men These are people, these are crept in unawares. These that
come in with another message. These that come in with something
to say other than Christ and his gospel. These he said, oh
my, I said, he gonna judge you. And oh my, he described the judge. He comes to his work. Oh my,
and look who's gonna execute judgment upon all. Who's he talking
about? All these people. that he's mentioned
in these verses. And I, you know, judgment is a horrible thing.
Judgment's just a horrible thing. I was watching something the
other day, seeing something the other day, and a young man got
convicted, and they gave him life in prison, and he fainted.
When they told him that they was gonna give him life in prison,
it's without possibility of a parole, he fainted. That was an execution of judgment. That was an execution of judgment. But you won't faint when God
executes judgment. Oh, no. Oh, my. And look what
he says. He said, upon all. And look what he says, to convince
all. That word convince, it's the same word that he uses, the
Holy Spirit will convince. That word convince means to Convict
to absolutely prove to them of what they are and what they're
doing. Oh my, look what he goes on to say. Oh my, to convince
all of them. Convince all of them. Oh my. That are ungodly among
them all, them of all. They're ungodly men and women.
Ungodly deeds they've done. They've done everything they
did was wrong. Everything they did was sinful. Everything they did was ungodly. Every deed they committed, every
word they said, everything they did when they sat down with God's
people and went into this congregation of people said they're ungodly
deeds which they have committed. and have ungodly committed, and
of all their hard speeches which ungodly speak, as spoken against
who?" Who are they talking about? The Lord. The Lord. They're going to have hard speeches
against the Lord. Oh, He's going to execute this. They're going to find out just
how ungodly they were. And oh, they had hard speeches.
You know, they told our Lord, said, your doctrine's just too
hard. Well, here he says they got hard speeches. They say hard,
harsh, mean, cruel, arrogant, taunting, cursing against him
and against his name. Hard speeches. Proud speeches. Arrogant, taunting, cursing against
Christ. Keep Jude and look over with
me at Psalm 94. Look at Psalm 94. Boy, I've heard some awful, awful
hard speeches against God. I've heard some hard, hard things
against God. A preacher died here recently
that I tell you what, I heard him get up and preach against
the five points of Calvinism and said all of them, every single
one of them was hatched in hell. Man's got a free will, he can
choose. He didn't lose his free will
when he fell. He didn't lose the power to choose
when he fell. He didn't lose the power to live
right, if he will, when he fell. And he went on elections, oh
no, God don't choose people like that. He gives them all their
body a chance. And he said every one of those
doctrines is hashed in hell. That was an ungodly hard speech. And do you reckon somebody that
hated God that much, and hated the gospel that much, and hated
God's word that much, that don't you think that God executed judgment
upon that man? And he ought to execute judgment
on a man like that. And these preachers, ungodly
deeds, oh my dear, ungodly. Well, let me read this Psalm
94, 94 of 4, and then I'll, How long shall they utter and
speak hard things, and all the workings of iniquity boast themselves? I remember several years ago,
they started a new work here in town. They ended up building
a beautiful, beautiful building. But they put out flower after
flower after flower, Flyer after flyer after flyer, not flowers,
flyers. Been in Tennessee too long. But
you know, they put out them flyers. Contemporary worship. Contemporary worship. What that
means is I'm going to get up in my golf shorts and my golf
shirts and my shorts and I'm going to wear my tennis shoes
or my running shoes and you come and we'll have contemporary worship.
We're not going to sing Amazing Grace. We're not going to sing
Jesus Paid it All. We're not going to sing Come
Thou Almighty King. We're not going to sing Worship
the Lord. We're not going to sing any of
those things. We're going to have a band and they're going
to play and they're going to sing and they're going to have
contemporary worship. And I mean they packed that place
out and built one of the biggest buildings in town. That out there,
that big glass building out there by that army store, midnight store. And
then the same preacher, now listen to me. These people, what, you're
talking about hard, ungodly men, ungodly deans. Oh, listen. We don't want that narrow way.
We want that broad way. I want everybody to come in here. And we are not going to say anything
about it, you or nothing else. We're not even going to say something
about sin. That would make you too uncomfortable. And now that same preacher left
them and he's building another great big huge building. and
doing the same thing. Oh, I tell you, it's an awful, awful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God. But that's what
he's talking about. God's going to come and execute
judgment. And he said, all you hard sayings, hard sayings. And they had hard speeches, hard
speeches. They spoke against God, they
spoke against Christ, they spoke against God, they spoke against
free grace, speak against election, they speak against Christ dying
particularly for his own people. They don't like the fact that
Christ died only for his elect. They don't like that Christ died
and his sheep will hear his voice and nobody else will. Oh my. I tell you, they refuse Him as
the only Redeemer. They refuse Him and the fact
that He might bring judgment on us. They refuse Him. But oh my, and He uses to convince
and to convict. It's like that rich man in hell.
He executed judgment on that rich man. As Lazarus, the poor
Lazarus, laid at his gate, Dogs licking his sores. That rich man who found something,
he went in and out his gate over and over and over. Never paid
a bit of attention to Lazarus. One day, God took him and put
him in hell. And the scripture said he lifted
up his highs. And he said, would you let Lazarus
That fella I ignored, that fella I never fed, that fella I never
clothed, that fella I never sent to the doctor and made sure he'd
be taken care of? You mean him? Would you let him
dip his finger in water and let it just one drop on my parched
tongue? And then tell him to go and warn
my five brothers? He said, if they don't have Moses
and the prophets, they wouldn't believe if somebody rose from
the dead. Oh my. And I tell you, when God's convinced
a man and condemned a man, he's been condemned. And there ain't
nothing he could do. And then look what he said, hard
speeches. I hope I'm not taking too long, hard speeches. Oh,
you know what they said about, do you know what they, some of
the things they said hard about Christ? They said, he has a devil. They said, can you imagine telling,
looking at the Lord Jesus Christ and said, you got a devil. And they said, he's a winebibber,
he's a drunk. He drinks wine, he's a winebibber,
he's a drunk. And not only that, but listen,
he sits down and eats with publicans and sinners, the worst kind of
people. Hard speeches against him. They blasphemed him. They cried out foot to cross,
save yourself. Save yourself. Oh my. I'll tell you one thing, hard
speeches. You know, we as believers, let
me just take a minute here and talk to us about hard speeches. Let's be very careful ourselves
that we won't be hard toward one another, say harsh things,
unkind things. things without thinking of the
consequences of what's said and what's done, how it will affect
somebody. You know, you can say something
to somebody and you don't know how deeply you've hurt them sometimes,
and you know, and you're not conscious of what you said or
what you've done, and yet you can hurt them so deeply, so deeply. So let's, if you're gonna have
a hard speech, Please don't have it to one another. Don't have
it to one another. Please don't do that. Don't do
that. And our Lord says, by the word
you'll be justified and by your word you'll be condemned. Then
look what it says about them now. The hard speeches. Oh, hard speeches. I've had some
hard, you know, I've had some people been pretty hard to me
a few times. Me and Todd was talking the other
day, and he said, you know, I can talk about how bad I am, how
low I am, how sorry I am. Somebody else tells me how sorry
I am and how low I am. It makes me mad. But I'll tell you what. God's
my witness. If somebody can tell me anything
about how sorry I am, then I'll have to agree with you. If they
tell me I'm arrogant, I'll have to agree with them. Whatever
you say about me, I'd have to agree with you. I really would. I really, I just have to agree
with you. And then look what it says about these murmurs,
verse 16, I got to hurry. And these people that he's going
to execute judgment upon, convincing them, these are murmurers, complainers,
walking after their own lust. And their mouth speaketh great
swelling words. Oh boy, blow, you know, Blowhards
is what I'd call them. Speak great swelling words. Make
everybody think, man, look how intelligent he is. Oh, look at
that. He can brag. Oh, he can tell
these great big stories. Oh, my. Having men's persons,
the people. He'll have somebody's person
in admiration. And if I show that fella, and
I'll treat him right, and brag on him a little bit, maybe he'll
do something for me. That's what they're talking about.
murmurers. You know, murmuring, murmuring
is a great, great sin. Great sin. What it means is you're
discontent. You, you, you vent your impatience
and you complain. Murmuring when you complain of
God. Ain't that what these people
did there? You know, they murmured, oh my, they murmured against
God. Murmuring, complaining of God,
more than to God. Oh, David said, how long, how
long do I have to wait? Oh my, look at Numbers chapter
14 with me, Numbers chapter 14. In verse 26, And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation? Now listen to this, which murmur
against me. I've heard the murmurings of
the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I
live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will
I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in
this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according
to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have
murmured against me. You know what our Lord said? Take no thought. Don't even take
a thought for tomorrow. Back over in our text. Murmur. Murmur. Murmur. Murmur against
God. Murmur against His sovereignty.
Murmur against His providence. Murmur against His government.
Murmur against His gospel. Murmur against free grace. And
I tell you, sometimes we murmur for what we want. Murmur for what we want. Sometimes
we murmur for what we've lost. And you know, let me give you
three reasons why men murmur, why we murmur. Pride. People murmur because of pride. God needs to treat me better
than I am. And the second reason that we murmur is self-love.
We love ourselves so much. that we murmur over what we lost,
we murmur over what we want. And the third reason is, is presumption
of merit. Presumption of merit. We think
we're somebody, that we've got some merit, and we would have
God in debt to us, and we would murmur and complain. When I was
a young man, young preacher, and didn't know much, didn't
know very much at all, But I would, I would go to services, and after
I'd leave the service, I'd murmur and murmur and murmur and murmur.
Lord, I've quit a thousand times because of, I said, there ain't
nobody coming. Nobody's listening. And I thought
that I deserved better. That pride, that's what it was,
pride. I deserve more people to preach to. And I said, you're a good preacher.
They ought to just be flocking in here. Oh, it's a wonder God
didn't just knock me in the head and put all everybody else in
misery. But you all ain't never done
nothing like that. I hope you haven't either. But
presumption of merit. You know, everything is free.
God gives us everything. It's free. Why complain? Oh my. Look what Paul said. I want you
to see this. Keep this now. Look over in Philippians chapter
4 with me. You need to see this. In Philippians chapter 4. Look down verse 11. Philippians 4,
11. Not that I speak in respect of
want. For I have learned, and this
is, he said, I've learned this. He said, I wasn't born with this.
It's not natural to me. I've learned in whatsoever state
I am to be content. I know how to be abased. I know
how to abound. Everywhere and in all things
I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer need. And this is the key to it right
here. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthens me. I can have contentment. And that's something you have
to learn. That's something you have to learn. Back over in our
text, and I'm gonna walk us up. And he says, these are murmurs,
verse 16, walking after their own lust, their mouth speaking
great swelling words. walking on their, after their
own lust. They had lust, but they walked
in them. What they desired, that's what they went after. And that's
natural to the man, that fallen man, fallen man, and oh my. And then they use great swelling
words, boasting. Boasting, that swelling words
means they're boasting. Boasting, bragging, swelling
words. Oh boy. And then look what is
swelling, swelling words against others, scorning. And then they
have men's persons in admiration. Oh, I tell you what, that person
right there, buddy, I tell you what, you need to get close to
him. He's, he's got something. He
got lots of money. He can do something good for
me. Having men's person in admiration because of advantage. If I If
I can get on their good side, and I've, I was talking, we was
talking the other day, I've seen men do that with certain people
in congregations, with people who had things. They look on
men with outward state and appearances. They'd brag on them, admire them,
to get a favor from them, an advantage from them. And they'd
done it for worldly profits. You know, for worldly profit. But I told somebody, I said,
you know, there was a congregation back years and years ago when
Henry was in 13th Street for quite a while. You didn't dare
go up there and say you needed anything, because if you did,
you'd get it. You just didn't say it. You just didn't do it.
You didn't walk up there and say, boy, that's a nice looking
automobile. Next thing you know, somebody
would be bringing you a car like that. They was that generous,
those people were. And that's what you learn not
to do. You learn not, not to go after anybody under any circumstances. And admire, the only thing we're
to admire in one another, now listen to me, is the grace of
Christ in one another, Christ in one another, gentleness, goodness,
fakeness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Those are the things
we're to admire one another. Ain't that right? And I tell you what, that's something
to admire in somebody, the grace of Christ in them, the love of
Christ in them, the faith of Christ in them, the love of Christ,
their love for Christ and Christ's love for them. That's what we
need to admire in one another, not what we have, what we got,
or what we're going to do. All right. Our blessed, blessed Savior,
our great and glorious God in heaven, how I thank you for your
great, great mercy given us in Christ. Lord, we see this world
in all its ungodliness all around us. We see men having their hard speeches against
you, hard speeches against your word, hard speeches against the
things of God. And Lord, let us not have hard
speeches, especially to one another. Help us, O Lord, to be gentle
with our tongues, gentle with our words, gentle with our natures towards
our brothers and sisters in Christ. Forgive us, O Lord, forgive us
of everything that's unlike you. Lord, we need you. We need you. We need you, Christ, to be our
strength and enable us to bring glory to yourself through us
as a body of believers, for Christ's sake. In his holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing his word. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. Well, I'll see you Sunday, Lord
willing. And Billy Argeropoulos is going
to be here to preach Sunday night. Down in St. Petersburg. He's
been here before. And he's going to come by and
preach here Sunday night. Lord willing, we'll see you Sunday
morning. you