Oh, well I'll tell you what. Finally and always. I'm. A ghost? Can I have a tissue? Right here. Right here. All right. No, no. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There's a guy that puts out a
bulletin and he says, you know, All the bulletins, all the articles
will be by me, if that's how it's taxed. And he's got them
all trademarked. Well, I guess, you know, you
have to ask permission. Well, but that's the thing about
it. You always ask. You want to ask about it. You
know, I've had folks who've gone on and done this, and they haven't
changed a word here and there. I say, yeah, I'm fine. They can
fix it. That don't offend me at all. Listen, they can take half of
it away and still have me sing. What it was about? It wasn't the gym. That's why, you know, you've
got to leave the Staying on it for the air conditioners to,
well that dehumidifier is what, that's what makes this cold in
here with just the dehumidifier. Oh, it's up to me. Good evening. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 292. 292. A pilgrim was I and a wandering,
In the cold night of sin I did roam, When Jesus the kind Shepherd
found me, And now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. He restoreth my soul when I'm
weary, He giveth me strength day by day, He leads me beside
the still waters, He guards me each step of the way. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. When I walk
through the dark, lonesome valley My Savior will walk with me there
And safely His great hand will lead me To the mansions He's
gone to prepare Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. And
I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever And I shall
feast at the table spread for me Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life All the
days, all the days of my life be seated we'll sing hymn number
255. 255. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a pure taste of glory
divine! Heir of salvation, Purchase of
God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, This is my
song, praising my Saviour all the day long. Perfect supplication, perfect
delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight angels descending
ring from above echoes of mercy whispers of love this is my story This is my song, praising my
Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest. Watching and waiting, looking
above Filled with His goodness, lost in His love This is my story,
this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. Moments 15. We'll move on some
more through this chapter. And let me mention the plan for
Sunday's dinner. It's going to be a picnic type
thing. Whatever you'd bring to a picnic, that's what you bring
here. If you bring hamburgers, hot
dogs, potato chips, potato salad, you know, We're going to have
a picnic here. Just bring whatever you'd bring
to a picnic. Now, I think that's what, is
that right? Did I get it right? The only thing is, is I'd like
to be at the picnic, but I won't be able to. I'd sure like to
be there. All right, let me start reading in verse seven and read
down through verse 17. Wherefore receive you one another
as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now I say that
Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God to confirm the promises unto the fathers. And that the
Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written for
this cause, I will confess thee among the Gentiles and saying
unto thy name. And again, he said, rejoice you
Gentiles with his people. And again, praise the Lord, all
you Gentiles, and laud him, all you people. And again, Isaiah
saith, there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise
to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. And I myself am also persuaded
of you, my brethren, that you are also full of goodness, filled
with knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless,
brethren, I have written more boldly unto you in some sort
as putting you in mind because of the grace that is given to
me of God. and that I should be the minister
of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God,
that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified
by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may
glory, though through Jesus Christ and those things which pertain
to God. Our blessed, blessed Savior. How blessed we are, how blessed
we are. And so we come to praise you
and bless you and thank you for all the blessings that you give
us every single day. For the mercies, Lord, that you
give us that are new every morning and your compassions never fail.
We thank you, Lord, that you're God. And you do according to
your will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And no man can stay your hand or say unto you, what
doest thou? And so, Lord, we've gathered
here to worship, gathered here to look at together in you your
word. Please meet with us. Give me wisdom. Give me understanding
how to deal with your word. And Lord, bless it to the hearts
and minds of those gathered out this evening. And again, we pray
for our Dear Brother Doc, it's at home, and Lord, we ask you
for your mercies toward him, and raise him up for your good,
and thank you for Janie. And Lord, I pray that other folks
among us who are not feeling well or weak in body, please
be merciful and gracious to them. Forgive us of everything that's
unlike you. Bring glory to yourself tonight. For Christ's sake, amen. Page 30 in our course books,
we'll sing Living by Faith. Page 30 in the course book. I care not today what tomorrow
may bring, If shadow or sunshine or rain. The Lord I know ruleth
for everything, And all of my worry is vain. Living by faith
in Jesus above, Trusting, confiding in His great love. Safe from all harm, in His sheltering I'm living by faith, and we'll
know along. Under this big blue, endless
storm clouds arise, obscuring the brightness of light. I'm
never alarmed at the overcast skies When Master looks on at
the strife. Living by faith in Jesus above,
Trusting, confiding in His great love. Saved from all harm, in
His sheltering I'm living by faith in fear alone I know that He safely will carry
me through, No matter what evils betide. Why should I then care,
though the tempest may blow, If Jesus walks close to my side? Living by faith in Jesus above,
Trusting and fighting in His great love. Is sheltering us Living by faith
In pure love Our Lord will return to this
earth some sweet day, Our troubles will then all be over. The Master so gently will lead
us away, Beyond that blessed heavenly shore. Living by faith
in Jesus above, Trusting, confiding in His great love. Safe from all harm, this shelter
ain't gone. I'm living by faith, in Villanova
home. I hope you're still in Romans
15. But we need to pick up in the verse 7, where we left off
last week, because he is talking about the different growths of
believers. But yet he says, wherefore receive
ye one another, as Christ also received you to the glory of
God. Receive you one another. Welcome other believers into
your heart. Have communion, have fellowship
with all believers in Christ, all of them. No matter how weak
they are, how strong they are, how poor they are, how prosperous
they are, whether you're male or female, it doesn't make any
difference. Welcome them, love them, and
them all as Christ loved you and received you. So ever how
Christ received you, that's how we're to receive one another.
He received us graciously, we receive one another graciously.
He received us in love, we receive one another in love. We have
communion with him, we have communion with him. I'm gonna be going
out to North Carolina this next weekend, and it's been years
since I've been out there, but I'll go there and I'll feel at
home just like I do anywhere else, and the reason being because
I'm with believers. That's just the way they are.
They receive one another. They receive one another. And
then look what he says in verse 8. Now, I say that Jesus Christ
was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm
the promises unto the Father. Now, what he's talking about
here, that our Lord Jesus Christ was born a Jew. And being born
a Jew, he was made under the law. Made of a woman, the seed of
the woman. He was circumcised the eighth
day according to the law. He was obedient to the law of
Moses. He was the promised Messiah.
He was the promised Christ. He was a son of Abraham. He was
of the seed of Abraham. He didn't take on Him the nature
of angels. He took upon Him the seed of Abraham. When He says,
Seeds, not as of many, but one seed, which is Christ. All the
seed that God promised Him, by which He had blessed all the
nations of the earth, and all the earth be blessed through
Him, was one person. That's His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then He came to You know, He was the Son of David
according to the flesh, and this He said He confirmed, confirmed
the truth of the promises. When our Lord Jesus Christ came,
He come not only to confirm, but to fulfill every promise
that God made, every prophecy that God made concerning Him,
every type was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every one
of them that was given to the Jews according to their Messiah,
regarding their Messiah. And I'll tell you what, you know,
when he was, but the fact that he dealt with Gentiles even in
his earthly ministry shows you, now he fulfilled the law in our
room instead. I mean everything about Christ
being the Messiah, being the Christ, I mean, he fulfilled
everything about it. But, you know, when we talk about
Gentiles, not only did he do something for the Gentiles, he
healed the centurion's servant. Remember when that centurion
says, you know, I've got a servant, and he's sick unto death. And
our Lord Jesus Christ went and started toward his house, and
he sent word, says, Master, you know, I'm not worthy to come
unto my house. All you do is speak the word, and my servant
will be healed. That's the centurion. There's
a Roman, there's a Roman man. And then there was the Syrophoenician
woman. You're talking about a pagan.
Syrophoenician woman, she come brought her daughter and asked
the Lord for mercy for her daughter. And he said, it's not right that
I give the children's bread unto dogs. She said, truth, Lord,
absolutely truth. But even the dogs get the crumbs
out from under the tables. And he said, great is thy faith,
great is thy faith. So you know, he was born a Jew,
made under the law, circumcised according to the law, obeyed
the law of Moses, but he fulfilled every promise that God made and
fulfilled the mercy and grace that God made to all of his people. And in fact, let me show you
something in Luke chapter 24. Look in Luke chapter 24 with
me. Look down here in verse 25. Then he said unto them, O fools,
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Now he's talking to the Jews here. He's talking to his disciples.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into
his glory? They wanted Christ, but they
didn't want a suffering Christ. They wanted a king, they didn't
want a crucified Christ. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded all unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. All right. Now look down here
in verse 9. He confirmed, he just confirmed
the promises that God made. And here's the thing about the
Gentiles. There are going to be three verses here I'm going
to deal with. 9, 10, 11, and 12. Four verses. And then he says, you know, he
was the minister of the circumcision. But then he goes on to say this,
that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. For it is
written, for this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles
and sing unto thy name. Here's the first thing he says
about it, and these Gentiles were included in this. The first
thing he said here is glorify God. He says, you know, there's
that the Gentiles might glorify God. That's the first reason
God does anything in this world, that he might get the glory.
He does everything. If you want to know whether a
fellow's telling the truth or not, and whether your salvation
is of the Lord or not, who gets the glory? Who gets all the glory? Does God get the glory or do
you want to keep some for yourself? And then not only that, but look
what else he says here. He says that he might glorify
God for his mercy. For his mercy. That's something
to glorify God about. His mercy. I tell you, bless
God for mercy. Mercy. All God's work is for
his glory. That's the highest objective
of it. But then mercies. All believers glorify God for
His mercy, and He give us His mercy in Christ. There's nothing,
nothing in the scripture to encourage anybody, Jew or Gentile, in hoping
for salvation through their own merit. by something they've done,
or their own works, or righteousness, or anything. Salvation is of
God's mercy. Salvation is in Christ, and mercy
is to the unworthy. And I tell you, every one of
these things that's read here tonight, I can tell you where
you can find them at if you want to find out. And then he goes
on to say in verse nine, for this cause, Christ is going to
do this now. I will confess to thee, confess
to the father among the Gentiles and saying unto thy name. And
again, he said, rejoice you Gentiles. That's out of Deuteronomy. Rejoice
you Gentiles with his people. Rejoice with the Jews. Rejoice
with God's people. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Lord him, bless him. Lift him
up, all you people. And I preached from this last
Sunday night out of Isaiah 11 and verse, I think
it was 10. And again, Isaiah said, there
shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over
the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall trust. And you know a Gentile,
to a Jew, they was considered worse than dogs. God had to make
Simon Peter go and preach to a Gentile. He had to make him
do it. Had to do a great work in his
heart and in his mind, his understanding, before he ever went to preach
to a Gentile. He said, it's not lawful for
me to do that. That's the first thing to say,
it's not lawful. Not lawful. But oh my, thank
God for mercy. Thank God for mercy. Look at
Revelations 5, talking about Christ, you know, His salvation
was for you and Gentile alike. And I know you all don't hardly,
this, look what he says in verse 9,
Revelations 5, 9, talking about Christ and what He does for His
people. And they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take
the book and to open the seals thereof. For thou was slain and
has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of, listen to this
now, of every kindred and tongue and people. There's no place
on the earth where there's people he hasn't saved, hasn't saved. And so he was a Jew, but he also
saves Gentile dogs like ourselves. And then look what it says in
verse 13. And here's a prayer. Paul has
two prayers for us in Romans 15. The first prayer over there
is in verse 5. Now, the God of patience grant
you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. Now, that's a prayer. That you
may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus. If you break that down, like
I'll do this, look over and here's the second prayer he prays for
us. And this is a prayer. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of
the Holy Ghost. Oh, my. You think about it, he
says, he started talking about, you know, mercy. We give thanks
for mercy. Christ ministered to the Jews. And then he turns
around and say, now the God of hope. What a title for God, the
God of hope. If God's anything, oh, what a
hope he gives. It's just a good hope. It's a
blessed hope. It's a sure hope, sanctifying
hope, purifying hope. It's a hope. It's a hope that
God gives us. And when He talks about hope,
it always has to do with the future, with the future. And
then He's called the God of hope because, let me tell you this,
all true hope that we have comes from Him. If you don't have a
hope that He gives you, if it's not a hope that God Himself doesn't
give you, a hope eternal life, a hope of being with Christ,
a hope of being done with sin, a hope of being done with flesh.
If you've got a hope, and this hope gives us forgiveness of
sins and salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you,
if you've got a hope, that's in yourself, or in philosophy,
or in works, or in free will, if you got a hope in anything
besides God giving it to you, it's a false hope. It will do
you no good in that day. Won't do you any good. Oh my. And I tell you what, if God don't
give it to you, you ain't got it. And then look what he says,
and fill you. Not just give you a little bit, Fill you. Fill you. Fill you with what? Oh, joy and
peace. Oh, my. Joy and peace. You know, through joy, and I
guess, especially when I'm preaching, I have joy as much as anybody.
I ran across an old fellow I hadn't seen in a while today, and it
just gave me joy just to see. I was tickled to see him. I was
glad to see him. But true joy and peace are the
gifts of God, and they're given to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. They're not the natural effects
of human nature. Oh, no. They're, you know, joy
and peace. You know, if they're not of God,
they'll last temporarily, temporarily. But joy and peace, oh, the joy
Knowing God that peace that goes with but and that's the here's
the key to it right here joy and fill you with all joy and
peace in faith Believe me if you're not believing you're not
gonna have no good. Hope you're not gonna be filled
with joy You're not gonna be filled with peace You know, I've
seen some folks in some bad situations, but I'll tell you what, they
have handled it with such peace and such joy, and say, it's the
Lord, let him do what seem as good. Oh my, I'll tell you what,
oh my, peace, oh my. You know, the scripture says
there's pleasure in sin only for a season, only for a season,
but boy, the joy, of Christ's blood washing us from our sin,
the joy of peace that Christ made through the blood of His
cross, the joy of having peace of mind, peace with God, peace
among ourselves, and all our spiritual blessings come through
our Lord Jesus Christ and all that you may abound. And I tell
you what, you know, the joy of redemption, peace, here's the
thing about them, they're eternal. The joy and peace we're talking
about, they're eternal. And they're real. And you in
the midst of human misery and severe trial, they're real. There's
people went to the stake. There was people that were crucified,
that they'd done it with joy. So they went up with burning
up, saying, I thank God that I'm able to suffer for Christ's
sake. And oh, my. You know, it's real, this peace
and joy of Christ because of the blood of Christ. It's real
in the midst of human misery and severe trial. And every one
of us has been through some severe trials. But I tell you, you never
lost that peace and you never lost that joy. And then look
what else he says. That you may abound in hope.
I just want you to be a God of hope, but I want you to abound
in hope. I want you to just have abundance of it. Abound in it. Now, what in the world is it?
He's the God of hope. He fills you with joy and peace.
He does it through believing that you may abound in hope.
Now, what in the world is he talking about here? I think he's talking about the
more we hear about Christ, the more we know of Christ, the more
we trust Christ, and the more we hear the gospel and believe
the gospel, and see all the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ,
that Christ is all in all, our hope really abounds then. When you hear in the gospel,
hope abounds. It hope abounds. And I tell you
what, the more we rejoice in the blessings of Christ, and
oh my, And then look how all this happens then. Look what
he says in the last part of that verse. That you may abound in
hope. How do we do all of these things?
Through the power of the Holy Ghost. Only God works these in
us. The power of the Holy Spirit
works these things in us. Works these things in us. You
know, the Father gives us hope. He's the God of hope. We got
a good hope through grace. But oh my, through a good hope,
good hope, God of hope, good hope, abounding hope. And then
look what he says in verse 14. Now he's writing to the Romans,
he's writing to the Romans, and, and I myself, and I myself, after
he prayed for them, and I myself am persuaded of you, I'm convinced
of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled
with all knowledge, able to admonish one another." So what's he saying? He said, when he wrote these
people, he said, I'm fully persuaded, I'm convinced and confident that
you're full of goodness. Well, when you talk about full
of goodness, what do you think he's talking about? When he said himself, he said,
I know that in me that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
So where's this goodness come from? Where's this goodness come
from? Well, it comes from God through the Holy Ghost, you know.
And another thing is, is that this is the fruit of the Spirit. That's what it is, this goodness
that he talks about. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. They're full of goodness and
kindness and grace. And I tell you, love and joy
and peace and goodness and kindness and meekness. And then look what
he says here. We're also. You're you're full
of goodness. And also with filled with knowledge. Now, what kind of knowledge?
What's the first thing that you'd say that I have knowledge of? If you were to ask, if I was
to ask you, filled with all knowledge, what
would you say? What would be the first thing
you'd say, I know? I know. What would be the first thing? Well, I know that I'm not worthy of anything
that God gives me. I know that. I know that. I know my own infirmities. And I have the knowledge that
I'm utter and absolutely dependent upon God Almighty, absolutely
dependent on Christ. And I know that the Lord Jesus
Christ came here and did a work for us and did a work for his
people. And I also know this. That I'm
absolutely dependent on His mercy and grace, and I am convinced,
and I know that all completeness that we have is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That Christ is all and in all.
I know those things. I have that much, I have that
knowledge. I know exactly what I am. I know
who I am. Oh, I thank God that He came.
that he came to save sinners. And oh my, these people were
full of goodness and kindness and love and joy and peace. And
then look what else he goes on to say here. And because you
have this knowledge, you have this knowledge of God, this knowledge
of Christ, this knowledge of yourself and this knowledge of
salvation, you have all this knowledge that God's blessed
you with. And because you have it, you're
able also to counsel, admonish, encourage, and sympathize with
one another, because we know to have this knowledge, we're
able to admonish one another, sympathize with one another,
encourage one another, encourage one another. Then look what he
says in verse 15. He was convinced about these
people, and he calls them, my brethren." Nevertheless, brethren, again
he calls them brethren, I have written them more boldly unto
you in some sort as putting you in mind because of the grace
that is given to me. And he says, though I've written
these things and I've prayed for you, and I know you're filled
with all knowledge and yet goodness, I've written unto you boldly.
I'm not afraid to write to you. I've written more boldly unto
you in some sort as putting you a mind. And the reason being
goes, God gave me the grace to do this. And Paul, what he's
saying is, I know that you're aware of everything that I've
told you up to this point. I know you're aware of these
things and I know you're concerned for the glory of Christ. And
I know as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, I boldly, boldly
write all these things to you, and I do it to remind you. You
need to be reminded. You know, Peter says, I'll put
you in remembrance. I want to put you in remembrance.
But he write these things to remind you of them. Everything
I've said, I write them to you to remind you. I want to remind
you. And oh, I tell you, and this
is so true, so true. I told somebody Sunday night,
you know, I think it's Sunday night. I study all the time and
read all the time, and a person may be acquainted with them,
with all the things of God, but you still have to have a preacher.
You still have to have a preacher. And what he's saying is that
God gave me grace to exhort you and to remind you to live and
practice the things that I've written to you until this time.
And you know, that's the thing about it. As long as I've been
preaching, I still have to get all this stuff in my head. Because,
you know, I don't care how many places I've preached, I still
have to use, go over again and again. You know, it's just, it's
not our nature. You know, when you used to, have
a sieve, you know, sift things. Well, that's the way my poor
old brain is. Something will get in it and it sifts its way
out. There wasn't much in it to start
with, but it sifts its way out. And I know you're the same way.
You know, you think about it. You come here and you hear three
messages a week. Three messages a week, not counting
what you listen to on sermon audio or listen somebody sends
to you or something. You hear it three times a week.
And most of the time, by Wednesday night, you forgot Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and then by Sunday morning, you've already forgotten
Wednesday night. You know why? I do it. I have to look. Why didn't you
preach last Sunday, somebody, last minute? I said, I have to
look. You know, I'm being honest with
you. You know, and age is not helping me. Age is not helping
me out. Oh, my. But look what he says
here in verse 60. You know, he says, I put you,
I remind you. I'm putting you in mind. I'm
going to remind you. God gave me grace to minister
unto you and preach unto you. And this is what he gave me grace
to do. Verse 16, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ
to the Gentiles. That's the first thing God told
him when he saved him. I'm going to send you to kings,
to Gentiles. I'm going to send you, and you're
going to bear witness to me to Gentiles. And, oh, my, he said
that I should give me grace, that I should be the minister
of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. They hated Paul. They tried to
kill Paul. They put him in prison because
he preached to Gentiles. They hated him for it. Despised
him for it. And said it was awful that he
was that minister. When he told them that, they
throw dust in the air. And oh my, but look what he says
here. He said, I should be the minister of Jesus Christ, ministering
the gospel of God. And I was made a minister to
the Gentiles. God sent him to the Gentiles.
Peter was to the circumcision, Paul to the Gentiles. But what
did he do? He's made a minister to preach
the gospel of God, to preach the gospel of the grace of God.
He didn't minister in the tabernacle. He didn't preach the law of Moses. He didn't preach the traditions
of the fathers, but he preached the gospel of Christ to sinners. And then look what he says. that the offering up of the Gentiles
might be acceptable. So when Paul prayed, he prayed
with all the people that he went to preach to, and God saved the
Gentiles, saved a multitude of them. He said, they're an offering,
and God has accepted these people. That's what Peter said, said,
God has accepted these Gentiles, let's not put a yoke on them
that they're not able to bear. And oh, I'll tell you what, we're
an offering made acceptable God's accepted us. God's made us acceptable
in Christ. And then look what he says, being
sanctified. That word means, you know, I've
told you so many times, set apart, sanctified, accepted in the Beloved,
sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God, setting us apart and
calling us into faith and the preaching of the gospel. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by what? By the gospel. That's
how we hear. Then let me say this and we'll
be done. Look what he says. You know that
I should be the minister of Jesus Christ according to the gospel
offering up the Gentiles acceptable by the being sanctified by the
Holy Ghost. I have therefore where have I
made glory through Jesus Christ and those things which pertain
to God. And what he's saying is that in Christ I have reason
to rejoice in glory in the things that God has accomplished through
me." You know, he said, in one place, I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace in me. And oh my, God
used him. And here's the thing about it.
He uses men. God's always used men. And he
makes, he takes these old vessels of clay. And like he took Paul
and made him a gospel preacher. And you know, you got to have
a gospel preacher. You got to have a minister that
tells you the things of God. You know, whosoever shall call,
we preach that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. But how shall they call on him in whom they
have not heard? How shall they believe in him
whom they have not? How shall they hear of him that
believe not? And how shall they hear of him
without a preacher? And then, so then, faith cometh
by preaching. And that's what Paul said, if
I glory, it's because of Jesus Christ and the things that God
has enabled me to do. And oh, he said he took the gospel
to these people. And I tell you, we can rejoice.
We can rejoice in what God's pleased to do through human instruments.
I was telling a man today, I was telling a man today, that I am so thankful, so thankful
that God crossed my path with a preacher that loved me enough
and loved the gospel enough and loved Christ enough and did not
fear men or afraid of men or showed any favoritism at all,
just flat preached the gospel and showed Christ to be the only
Savior and preached the gospel to me, and I bless the day that
man crossed my path. And I tell you, I bless the day
that God crossed my path with somebody preaching the gospel.
And I tell you what, I wanted to go and just sit down and listen
to somebody do nothing but preach the gospel to me till I could
learn something. Oh my. And we could rejoice in
what God's pleased to do through human instruments. And that's
all we are. Clay pots, clay pots with a treasure in it. But Paul
says, but I will not take myself to praise of myself for the work
of others. I've looked and preached and
God has been pleased to bless the word. And that's what he
says in verse 18. He said, I will not dare speak
of those things which Christ has not done by me. I'm not going
to talk about things that Christ didn't do. Now, let me show you
wind up with looking in Philippians. Look over with me, Philippians
chapter one. And I'll quit. Philippians chapter
1, talking about Paul, saying, you
know, everything that God's done, he's done through me. And that's a, you
know, and oftentimes he'd say, boy, if the Lord be pleased,
I'll go over there, go over there. But look what he says here in
verse 13. He says, so that my bonds in
Christ are manifest in the palace and in all other places. So he
was in jail, he was in bonds, and everybody talked about Paul
being in jail, being in all the palace and in many other places.
And listen to this, and many other brethren in the Lord, waxing
confident by my bonds, seeing how I'm bound and yet the word
of God's not bound, are much more bold to speak the word without
fear. Now look what he says, some indeed
preach Christ of envy and strife. They do it because they've tried
to outdo somebody and they think they're better preaching somebody
else. And also some that has a good will and good. The one
preached Christ of contention or out of contention, not sincerely,
Supposing to add affliction to my bosom Supposing to make it
harder on me where I'm at but listen to this But the other
of love Knowing that I'm set for the defense of the gospel
What then? notwithstanding Every way whether
in pretense or in truth Christ is preached and I rejoice and
yes, I will rejoice Christ is preached That's all I'm interested
in, Christ is preached. They may be arguing about it,
contending about it, but he said Christ is preached. Christ is
preached. Our blessed Savior, thank you
for this evening. Thank you for your mercy. Thank
you for being so patient and kind with us. Thank you for being
long-suffering. And thank you for your word.
Thank you for your word. Seems I have so little understanding
of it, but oh God, I ask that you'd give us all understanding,
give us all insight into your scriptures, understanding wisdom
to deliver, wisdom to read it, wisdom to enjoy it, wisdom to
understand it as we hear it proclaimed to us. God bless my dear brothers
and sisters as they go their way, go to their jobs, go to
tomorrow, what they have to do. God bless them, encourage them,
and keep them for Christ's sake. Amen. Well, I'll see you next
Wednesday night, God willing. Oh, you know, That's got a please
God by the boosters. I don't know. For yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Jack. I know he's not. I know he's
not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's
not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know
he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I
know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's
not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's
not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know
he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I
know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I
know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know he's
not. I know he's not. I know he's not. I know Give
me some. Give me some. Give your safety
glasses. Keep from hurting your eyes when
you're working. You've got to have your moon.
Keep from hurting your eyes when you're working. There. Don't let them come over there. They're watching that. You want to go paint? Yeah. I
want to go paint. I want to go paint. I want to
go paint.