Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing the hymn of the day in our bulletins. Jesus, our priest, forever lives
to plead for us above. Jesus, our King, forever gives
the blessings of His love. ? The blessings of his love ?
Thou hast redeemed our souls with blood ? Hast set the prisoner
free ? Hast made us kings and priests to God ? And we shall
reign with thee ? And we shall reign with thee the whole creation
joins in one to bless the holy name of bits upon the throne
and to adore the lamb and to He breaks the power of reigning
sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood avails for me. His blood avails for me. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
two. Hymn number two. Love divine,
all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth condemn, fix in us ? Mercy's crown ? Jesus, thou art
all compassion ? Your unbounded love, thou art ? Visit us with
thy salvation ? Enter every trembling heart Spirit into every troubled place. Let us all in be inherent. Let us find that second pleasure. Take away our bid to sinning. as it's beginning set our hearts
at liberty come almighty to deliver let us all our life receive suddenly
we they we would be always blessing
serve thee as the host of love pray and praise thee without
ceasing glory in thy perfect love changed from Let's turn to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. And Debbie's going to have a
hip replacement Wednesday, right? I just got a message a few minutes
ago. Ms. Fran's going to have open heart surgery tomorrow at
1 o'clock. Oh, my. Fran, did you hear that? Yeah. She got up there and got
sick, really sick. Bless her heart. We will remember them. Start
reading with me here in verse 28 and going to read down through
verse 34. And one of the scribes came,
and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that
he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment
of all? And our Lord answered, The first
of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is
one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with
all thy strength. This is the first commandment.
The second is like this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
And there is none other greater commandment than these. And the
scribe said unto him, Well, master, thou hast said the truth, for
there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love
him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all
the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself
is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And
when Jesus saw that he answered him discreetly, he said unto
him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after
that durst ask him any question. Our most blessed, gracious God
in heaven, our Father, great God and Father by Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, the one who loved us from all
eternity, loved us with an everlasting love, called us with chords of
loving kindness. And oh Lord, we thank you that
you loved us so much that you gave yourself for us to redeem
us, save us from all of our iniquity. And Lord, we stand before you
this morning, complete in our Savior, perfect, complete in
the Lord Jesus Christ, accepted in the beloved, received into
the very presence of holiest of holies as the high priest
into the holiest of holies. We come into the holiest of holies
by the blood and merit and righteousness of our dear savior. And Lord,
we know that you hear us and receive us because we come the
way you appointed us to come through your blessed son. And
Lord, we thank you that you in sovereign mercy came moved in
our hearts and moved in our souls, brought us to faith in our blessed
Savior. But Lord, now we pray for this
service today. Lord, we need your presence.
Oh, how we need your presence. We could go through the motions
today. We could go through the motions
of worship service, but oh God, if you're present in our Service today by the presence
of the Holy Spirit of God, we'd have a worship service truly.
But Lord, we also pray for our dear sister Fran. God have mercy
on her. Lord, be with the doctors tomorrow.
May she be made whole. May she be made well and be able
to return home. And her kids, I know, will be
with her tomorrow, her children. Lord, be merciful to her. Be
gracious to her. Work your perfect will in her
life. We pray for Debbie, Lord, that you'd be with her and give
her the strength and grace to go through her surgery Wednesday. And Lord, save your people in
this place. Bring glory most of all to yourself
through our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. I stood beside a dying bed, where
lay a man with aching head. He was waiting for God to come. And as his spirit passed away,
he whispered, Christ is all. I saw that missionary go To islands
sand and greens and stones For he heard his master's call Nor home, nor life he counted
dear. Amidst wants and perils, he owned
no fear. For he knew Christ is love. Love is all in all. Christ is all in all. I dreamed that holy time had
fled, and earth and sea gave up their dead, and a fire dissolved
this world. I heard their singing of their
song. They were singing Christ is all. Christ is all. He's all in all. Come to Christ, O come to Thee,
The Father, Son, and Spirit sing. For he can cleanse your guilty
sins His love will soothe your weary pains Christ is all, He's all in all. Christ is all in all. For He can cleanse your guilty
stains. The Lord will soothe your weary
pains For Christ is all in all. That's what Colossians 311 says,
Christ is all. Oh, wasn't that a blessing? When you hear the Savior's call,
the last word you say, Christ is all. Christ is all. All right, let's
try to deal with these verses today. You all remember that
there was three groups of people that came to the Lord Jesus Christ
to question him. The first were Herodians and
the Pharisees, the political people that, you know, supported
Herod. And then the Pharisees, separatist
ones, they came to ask him something about the law. Is it lawful for
us to give tribute to Caesar or not? Our Lord, He confounded
them and marveled at them because He said, well, show me whose
picture's on that Caesar's is. You give to Caesar the things
that belong to Caesar, you give to God the things that belong
to God. And then them other fellas that didn't believe in the Spirit,
didn't believe in the resurrection, didn't believe in angels, didn't
believe in nothing. I don't know why they'd even
call themselves religious, but they came and asked Him, woman's
married seven men to seven brothers, and whose wife's she gonna be
in the resurrection? He said, God's not the God of
the dead, but the God of the living. He said, you err not
knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. And so here comes
a scribe, one of the scribes. He don't say all of them, just
one of them, verse 28. One of the scribes came. He came
and he had listened to all the things that had been said and
done. And having heard them, he heard these questions and
he heard Christ answer them. And they were reasoning together.
And he perceived, he understood and grasped that he had answered
them well. He answered all these Pharisees
and Sadducees and Herodians, answered them very, very well.
And he says, now I've got a question I want to ask too. I want to
get in this conversation. I want to ask you something too. And this is the question that
he asked, and that's the title of my message, The First Commandment.
Which is the first commandment of all? the first commandment of all
the law in the Old Testament. You know, they came to Him and
said, Is it lawful for us to give? And He s always interested
in what was lawful. The Jews have 613 laws, and I
think there was 38 of them positive and the rest of them negative.
It s like the Pharisee that prayed thus with himself, I thank you
that I m not this way, that way, and another way. And so He wanted
to know, they're always interested in the Law, they want to know
which is the greatest commandment, which is the first commandment
of all the Law. What do YOU have to say about
that? And whatever our Savior says, that's what we believe. And so I tell you what, He come
and He came reasoning, perceiving, and you know when you talk about
commandment, commandment, And I'll tell you this much,
any question that you would ask the Lord Jesus Christ, any question
you have for the Bible, He can answer it. How many times have
you come to a service with a question on your mind, a question in your
heart, a question of something you read, and you say, Boy, I'm
going to ask somebody about that, and you get in the service and
the Lord answers your very question that you was thinking about or
you was going to ask. He's done that countless times. Wonder what that means? Then
God'll tell you what it means. But oh, what a question he asked.
What a question. Great, great, great question.
Which is the first commandment of all? This tells us that this
man's curious, and he comes to the right person, he comes to
the right person, he asks the right question. He s very curious,
and the scribes and the Pharisees, they were constantly arguing
over which law was the greatest. They argued over it. They argued
over Christ, and they accused Him of breaking the Sabbath.
Do you know how many times they accused Him of breaking the law?
He said, Why do your disciples eat with unworshipped hands?
Why do they break the Sabbath? Why are you eating with those
publicans and sinners? Why did you heal that man on
the Sabbath day? They were constantly arguing
and debating over what was the greatest law. They always went
to the law. And I tell you what, and finally
they ask him, what is the first commandment of all? Of all the
law, which is the first commandment of all of them? Now I tell you,
he must have had some anxiety or some interest in this, but
behind this question or beneath this question, and maybe he had
a real, real desire for truth because our Lord said down in
verse 34, and Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, and you're
not far from the kingdom of God. He desired some truth and asked
some truth, and he got right to the very door of the kingdom
of God, but never got any farther, got right to the THRESHOLD of
it. And then our Lord gives the answer. Isn't that very interesting? And here's the first thing He
says, the Lord answered him and said, The first of all the commandments
is, it's the first one. He said, which is the greatest?
The first, that's what He wanted to know, the first. And the first
of all the commandments is Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is
one LORD. And the first thing He calls
their attention to is there's only one God, there's only one
God. Hear, O Israel, the LORD our
God is one, one! Why did He call attention to
one God, one God, one Lord? because all the heathens and
everybody around the battle had all kinds of gods. You know,
when Paul was on Mars Hill, he said this, he said, I see all
these altars to all these gods, and he said, and yet you got
an altar here to the unknown god. The one you don't know is
the one I'm going to declare to you. They always have lots
of gods, lots and lots of gods. And he said, here, O Israel,
and it's not just for him, he wanted everybody to hear this.
For everybody that's seeking the truth. And I tell you what,
you gotta have faith in one God. One God. The Lord our God is
one. Others had many gods. Let me,
you Mark chapter 12, and look over in 1 Corinthians 8. Look
what he says over here in 1 Corinthians 8. You know, this is the, you
know, one of the greatest mysteries of the Bible is the Trinity.
is the Trinity. How do you explain the Trinity?
We know that there's one God, but how do you explain that there's
three of them? Three persons in the Godhead,
when there's only one God. Now how in the world can you
explain that there's one God, but there's three different persons
in that God? Personalities, three different
persons that manifested in the Godhead. Now, how do you explain
that? How do you explain the mystery
of the Trinity when there's only one God? How are you going to
do it? Our Lord Jesus Christ Him said,
He was the only begotten of the Father, so Him and the Father
are one. He said, I and my Father are
one. And He says, And when I go, my Father will send the Holy
Spirit, the Holy Comforter, and He will take the things of mine
and show them unto you. So there's God the Father. And
it was at the baptism He said, He says three people revealed
at our Lord's baptism. When our Lord was baptized, the
scripture says that God spoke from heaven, this is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. And he says in whom I'll see
the Holy Spirit coming down in the form of a dove, you'll know
that that's He. So there's all three of them
manifested at the baptism of our Lord. Now that's the closest
I can come to explaining it. But here's the thing about, look
what he said about talking about one God. Look what he says here
in verse 5, I Corinthians 8, 5, For though there be that are
called gods, little g, whether in heaven or in earth, as there
be gods many, and lords many, but to us, but to us, THERE IS
ONE GOD THE FATHER, OF WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, AND WE IN HIM, AND
ONE JESUS CHRIST, LORD JESUS CHRIST, BY WHOM ARE ALL THINGS,
AND WE BY HIM, OR SAVED BY HIM. And you know they said the Holy
Spirit, God the Father, God the Holy Ghost, and all comfort you
in all things. And I'll tell you what, all I
know is I believe the Trinity. I have a hard time explaining
it sometimes, but I believe it. I really believe it. How in the
world would we know God apart from the Holy Spirit teaching
us about the Lord Jesus Christ? And how could we be saved without
the Lord Jesus Christ shedding His blood and dying for us? And
the only way we know anything about it is for the Holy Ghost
to reveal it to us. And the only way we're ever going
to learn anything is for God to teach us, and how's He going
to teach us? Through His Son and through the
Holy Spirit, and that's what they're saying today. Christ
is all! He's all in the Bible. He's all
in salvation. He's all in redemption. He's
all to the Father. Christ is all. And I tell you,
look what it says now, and in verse 30. Oh, hear, O Israel,
the LORD our God is one, and thou shalt love the LORD thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind,
with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. Now, what is he talking about?
What are you going to do? What are you going to do about
that? You know, this is not a request. God's not requesting people to
love Him. He says, Thou shalt Thou SHALT
love! Thou SHALT do it! There are no
options here! God don't give us no options
here! You know, this is not a request! Thou SHALT! Not if you want to, or you'd
like to, or you need to, Thou SHALT! What are you going to do? You're
gonna love Him with all your heart, the whole of our affections. The heart, with the heart, man
believe, with the heart, love God with all your heart. And
then our life, the whole of our life, love Him with all your
soul, our soul. And then the whole of our thought
and our thinking, love Him with all your mind. And then with
all our enemy, love him with all your strength, with all your
strength. And you know, and I'm gonna show
this before I get done, all the law is fulfilled in one word,
love, love. And then our Lord comes down
to the second one. He said the second is likened. And what he does is, is he, HE
CONSIDERS THESE TOGETHER. IF YOU LOVE GOD, YOURE GONNA
NATURALLY, IF LOVE IS IN YOUR HEART, IF GOD GAVE YOU LOVE AND
YOU LOVE GOD AND YOU TURN AROUND THEN AND YOU LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR,
YOU CANT JUST LOVE GOD AND NOT LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. HE SAID IF
YOU LOVE HIM WHOM YOUVE NOT SEEN, HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THE BROTHER
WHOM YOU HAVE SEEN? AND SO OUR LORD HE COMES TO THE
SECOND ONE, HE LINKS THEM TOGETHER, AND HE SAYS IN THE SECONDS LIKE
THIS, THOU SHALT Here we go again, Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Oh my, making them one commandment,
you can't have one without the other. And let me tell you something
about folks that I know that's under the law. And there's folks
that live under the law. There's people that go to the
cross to get saved, and then they run over to the Ten Commandments,
or run to the law, and they make the law to be their rule of life.
And I'll tell you something, I've run across a few of them
in my life, and they're the MEANEST, CRUELEST, HARDEST, FAULT-FINDINGEST,
SELF-RIGHTEOUS people you'll ever be around. They don't know
that love NEVER is in their way of doing things, never has been,
never will be. I remember one time years and
years ago there was some things going on and some fellas kind
of got pretty hot on me and got pretty hard on me, and I said,
Fellas, won't you all have some mercy on me? He said, We're not
here to show mercy! That's what you know, and people
say, Well, if They make, people think that they're so bound by
law and so bound by tradition that they think that they're
actually holiness and everything else comes by the law, and they
think by their dress codes, the way they dress, the way they
act, where they go, where they don't go, what they do and what
they don't do, that that makes them accepted with God. But listen,
you cannot know God and not have love in your heart. You just
can't do it. You just can't do it. And I tell you, everybody
in this building at one time or another is running around
with somebody that is a law keeper, and they'll find fault with everything
you do. They get upset with you. You go through the book of Galatians,
I've been through the book of Galatians and there's folks that's
been here when you get through it and you find out that you're
not under the law, not under the law in any shape, form, or
fashion. God saved us out from under the
law, and yet here He tells us, Thou shalt, thou shalt, thou
shalt. And this business, the whole
thing of the law is fulfilled in one word, love. And people
who have it, they're cruel, and they show no love at all. It's
a sad thing, but I know that several times over the years that people when they find out
that you really, really, REALLY believe in the grace of God,
that salvation is ALL TOGETHER grace, from start to finish,
that God saves you by grace, shows you by grace, gave you
grace in Christ before the world ever began, everything's by the
grace of God from the day you start to the day you enter into
glory. And the people that want to be
these law keepers like these fellas here, they want to get
to the end of the way to be accepted. They want to live right to be
accepted. They want to live right to be holy. They want to live
right to be justified. And where they want to end up
at, that's where we start. We start out accepted. We start
out justified. We start out being forgiven. And oh my, it's a sad thing,
but I don't know how many people have said to me over the years,
boy, I tell you what, I don't see how y'all can live, you know,
you're saved by grace, but what? You've got to live right! Well,
tell me what living right is! Who's the judge of who lives
right? Who is the judge of who's living
right or not? Who's the judge of that? I'm
certainly not! God doesn't do it! Who's the judge of telling us
what's right and what's wrong? Who's the judge of telling us
how we're supposed to live right in this world? Anybody want to stand up and
say, I'll do that. No. You know that here's what
the problem is. is that a man must have new life
in order to have love, and the only place you can get new life
is in Christ. He's got to give you that life,
and if He gives you that life, then He makes you a new creation.
He makes you a new creature, new loves, new life, new attitude,
new nature, new desires. But oh, my! Now, listen, we're
going to get to this. I'll get to it. I don't know
how it got off on that tangent, but anyway, here's what happens. Here's what happens when he said,
love your neighbors as yourself. Look what happens to this fellow
here. And the scribe said unto him, well, oh, well. And then he'd see a little apostrophe.
He said, oh, well, master, master, You said the truth. What did
he expect Christ to tell him? You'd expect him to lie to him? You'd expect him not to tell
him the truth? He is the truth. Oh, you said, you told the truth. You know what? That's what I
mean. The Bible is nothing like no
other book you'll ever read when you really see how people really
react to Christ and how they treat him. You said the truth. You said the truth. For there's
one God and there's none other but He. Oh, he agreed with the
Lord Jesus. He thought, Boy, I tell you what,
me and him on the same page, you know. Me and him agreed with the same,
we agreed the same day. You know, the fellow asked him,
said, Why does your preacher believe? Well, he believes what
I believe. What do y'all believe? We both
believe the same thing. But that's what happened here.
This fellow said, Master, you said the truth. You told the
truth. You told the truth. Oh, my. I'll tell you, you know,
look back up here in verse 14. This is exactly, they flattered
our Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what they said. When they
were come to him, they said unto him, Master, Look how they'd
said to him, we know you're true. We know you're a true man. And
you don't care for any man at all. Men does not impress you. You regard us not the persons
of man. You're not a respected person.
And listen to this, you teach the way of God in truth. And
then they, look what they started to tempt him. They started to
tempt him. And oh my. And I'll tell you
back over here in our text where we was. And he said there in
verse 32, oh my, the fact he admired the wisdom of Christ,
he admired the character of Christ, yet he didn't believe him and
trust him. And he said in verse 33, and to love him with all
the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with
all the strength, to love his neighbor as himself. Now listen
to what he says now. This is what he said, to love
is greater than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices, that's
everything. He says if a man loves God and
loves his neighbor. He said every sacrifice that's
ever been offered and all the burnt offerings are, this love
will take care of it. We don't need those things if
we have this love. That's what He's saying. We don't
need no other sacrifice. Our Lord said, I will not have
sacrifice, I'll have mercy. And so that's what He's saying
here. Of all the offerings that they have, all the burnt offerings,
all the goats, and all the lambs, and all the bullocks, and all
those that s been offered. He said, LOVE IS GREATER THAN
ALL THE OFFERINGS THAT S EVER BEEN, EVER BEEN. And oh my, He
comes down here and look what our Master says. Our Lord commends
Him. He commends Him. Look what our
Savior, He commends Him here. And He said, And when Jesus saw
THAT HE ANSWERED HIM DISCREETLY, DISCREETLY. HE SAID UNTO HIM,
THOU ART NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD. YOU KNOW, HE ANSWERED
DISCREETLY, HE ANSWERED RIGHT, NEVER MADE A BIG SHOW OF HIMSELF.
HE HAD AN INTELLECTUAL, HAD AN INTELLECTUAL APPREHENSION OF
THE MEANING OF WHAT OUR LORD SAID. He did, just like that
Jewish young ruler, he came to Christ and he said, Master, what
good thing should I do to inherit eternal life? He said, keep the
commandments, keep the commandments. You know what he said? I've done
this since I was a child, a child. And so he says, you're not far
from the kingdom of God. Now let me tell you, let me tell
you, if you get that close, that close, you still miss it by a
country mile. You can get to where your foot
is fixing to step in, but if you go by anything that you,
if you think that last step is going to be by something you've
done, you'll never cross that threshold. That's what keeps
people from coming to Christ. is because they have an intellectual.
They got it in their mind. They got it in their brain. He
got it and he understood our Lord's teaching. And he come
right to the threshold, but he was still outside. That means
coming short, not far, not far. And oh, let me now just show
you something about the love of God and how what love is the
fulfillment of the law. Now, I want you to turn over
with me in Romans chapter 13. I want to show you now about
what love is and how it is. You remember that Paul talked
about Romans, I mean, 1 Corinthians 13. If I have not love, I'm a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal. Though I give my body to be burned
at the stake, if I have not love, it profits me nothing. And oh, look what he said here
in verse eight. Oh, no man anything. He's talking
about tribute, custom. Oh no man anything but to love
one another. You reckon we'll ever get, oh
no man anything but that. You reckon we'll ever get that
debt paid? Huh? Oh no man anything but to love
him, but to love him. And then look what he says. For
he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law, hath fulfilled the law. For this, then he goes to the
commandments that the table considering man, the second table, thou shalt
not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. And if
there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in
this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Now watch this now. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Does love work ill? Any of y'all got love in your
heart? Does it work ill towards somebody? Does it have an ill
will and you have this desire to hurt or injure or ignore or
mistreat somebody. Love don't work no ill toward
anybody. You know, you've heard people say, boy, you act off,
you act off ill today. That means he's really upset
about something. And that's, you know, and he
says, oh, my love worketh no ill to his neighbor. And here
we come again. Therefore, love is the fulfilling
of the law. Love bondeth not, love thinketh
no evil. Love rejoices not in iniquity.
And let me tell you some of the things we love. You know love. I tell you the first thing I
think we love is we love God's word. We love God's truth. That's why we go to this blessed
book and go verse by verse by verse to see what it's actually
saying. We love God's word. We love God's
truth. You know, the scriptures tells
us that God shall send them a strong delusion because they received
not the love of the truth. A lot of people believe truth,
but do they love it? Or you love it so much that you
could not possibly part with it? Do you love it so much that
you want to hear what it has to say? Do you love it so much
that it's your food, it's your bread, it's your water, it's
your very life? Our life is connected with what
God says, with what the Lord says. Oh, we love God's word,
we love God's truth, we love it, love it. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
you know, and I love the truth that our Lord said. He said,
no man can come unto me but by the Father. Oh my, and no man
can come unto the Father but by me. I love that truth. I love
the truth. I love the truth about our Lord
Jesus Christ. There's no one like Him. no one
that's ever been like Him. No man has ever been as holy. He's God's Son. He's the only
Savior. He's the only Redeemer. He's
the only Mediator. He's the only one that God will
accept us by. He's the only righteousness that
we have. He's the only one who gave His
life, and in giving that life, He had such merit, such worth,
such value, THAT GOD ACCEPTED HIM ON THE BEHALF OF A MULTITUDE
THAT NO MAN CAN NUMBER, AND THEN HE TURNS AROUND AND SAVES US
AND WASHES US FROM OUR SINS. OH, WHAT A SAVIOR! HALLELUJAH,
WHAT A SAVIOR! HUH? MAN OF SORROWS, WHAT A NAME! OH, WE LOVE OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST! AND HE SAID, IF ANY MAN LOVE
NOT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, ANATHEMA, LET HIM BE ACCURSED. And I tell you what, we love
everything that we know about God. Would you change God? Let me ask you, would you change
God's word? Would you change God's word?
You know, as a fellow one time, this guy was preaching from Romans
9 and he believed in Romans 9, you know, God loved Jacob and
hated Esau. And went down through there,
and the fellow says, oh no, he said, if you don't believe that,
you don't believe nothing. He said, well, if I believed
that, I'd believe like you did, and I don't want to do that.
But I tell you what, I love God the way He is. I love God's Word.
It would not change, one iota of it. Not a jot or a tittle
in it. That's what our Lord said, a
jot or a tittle shall not fail till all's fulfilled. And oh
my, we love everything that we know about God. We would not
change God in any way. I love, I love His sovereignty. And what sovereignty means that
He's absolute supreme. There's no other God beside Him. He's the God that rules, controls,
and takes care. Everything that happens in time,
He purposed it from eternity. You think I can prove that from
the Bible? Huh? I mean, I'll show you. Look over
in Isaiah 46. Look in Isaiah 46. You know, I told y'all the other day, I said,
I seen somebody that was feeding some folks or something, and
he says, you know, I'm the hands and feet of Jesus here. Do you reckon He needs our hands
and needs our feet? If God needed anything, would
He ask us? If God needed to be just, would
He ask us to allow Him to be just? If He's going to judge
people, are we going to ask Him if He's got the right to judge?
No, no, we love God's sovereignty, God rules, He reigns, and listen,
I know with all the hurricanes and all the damage and all that
destruction and all the death that's happened recently, God's
as much an author of that as He is our salvation. You know, man says we're going
to control the climate. You got to control God. If you're going to control the
weather, you got to control God. If God and the devil is not having
a battle, see who's going to win. God's already won. He's already won. He declared
the end from the beginning. Look what it said here in verse
9, Isaiah 46, 9. God said, Remember, I want you
to remember this, the former things of old. I'm God, and there
is none else. I'm God, and there's none like
me. Listen to it. Declaring the end from the beginning. When he started the beginning,
whenever that was, he said he declared the end, and from ancient
times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel,
my will, my purpose shall stand, and I'll do everything that pleases
me. Huh? Oh, listen. God is, he don't
ask for permission to do anything. And I am so, so thankful. SO THANKFUL THAT HE IS ABSOLUTELY
SUPREME IN RULES AND REIGNS IN THIS WORLD. IN FACT, SOME OF
THOSE FOLKS WHO WENT THROUGH SOME OF THIS STUFF, SOME OF THEM
WILL TELL YOU THE VERY SAME THING. THE VERY SAME THING. AND OH,
WE LOVE GOD'S, OH, SOMETHING ABOUT GOD WE LOVE MORE THAN ANYTHING
IS HIS FAITHFULNESS. OH, HOW FAITHFUL HE IS. OH, HOW
FAITHFUL OUR LORD IS. How faithful he is. I get up
some days and I wonder why in the world God lets me exist?
Why in the world won't he stop me? Why don't he stop me in my
mad career? As a preacher, as anything in
this world, you know, I feel like such a miserable failure
in everything that I am and do and think. Why would God let
me go on? Because he's faithful. First
thing He's faithful to is His Word. Second faithful thing He
is to His Son. Third faithful thing He is is
to us. Ain't you grateful He's faithful? He said we may deny Him, but
He cannot deny Himself. And if we're joined to Him, and
we deny Him in ways that we don't even know we're doing it, He
cannot deny himself if we're joined to him. He cannot deny
himself. Oh, we love his love. We love his love. You know why
we have love in our heart? God shed abroad the love of God
in our hearts. He loved us with an everlasting
love. God loved, Paul said, Christ
who loved me and gave himself for me. How can God, how can
it be, how can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? And I'll tell you what, and I'll
tell you we love the way God saves sinners. I love the way
God saves somebody. You know what I love about it?
He gets all the glory because He does all the saving. He don't
ask us to help Him. He don't ask us to lend him a
hand. He don't ask us to cooperate
with him. He don't ask us to give him approval
to our will and ask us if our will would agree with him and,
you know, take our opportunity when he gives us a chance. No,
we love the way God saves sinners, and this is the way He saves
sinners. God is just. God is a just God. He's a righteous
God. That's His nature. And yet here
we are, we're sinners, born sinners, lived sinners, practiced sin,
shaped in iniquity, conceived in sin. So how in the world is
God going to save us and get all the glory at the same time?
He gave His Son, sent Him. to be our substitute, to be our
sacrifice, to be put in our stead, and our Lord from the day He
was born until the day He died on the cross, He lived not for
Himself but for us. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He went to the cross, He took all our sin with Him and nailed
it to His cross, He took the justice of God and God satisfied
God's justice that was against us. and He satisfied it, and
He put away sin, and when He rose again the third day, God
said He is satisfied with Him, and He wouldn't leave His soul
in hell. And now God, for Christ's sake, when we TRUST Christ, BELIEVE
Christ, and everything God said about Him, God will turn around
and give us Christ's righteousness, gives us Christ's obedience,
gives us Christ's merit, and saves us in a just way that gives
Him all the glory. I could just about dance on that.
I could just about stomp my foot and shout. That does something
for me, doesn't it? And I've been preaching that
for 46, 45, 46 years. And I'll tell you what, it's
just invaluable. It tears me. Well, it's better
felt than said, ain't it? Oh my, and I'll tell you what,
and here I love this. I love this and I'll be done.
We love the promises of God. We love the promises of his word.
And one of the greatest, two of the promises that I love more
than any other in the Bible is this, that we'll be kept. He
said, of all that thou has given me, you should lose nothing.
He said, my sheep hear my voice and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
father's hand. And so if we're in the father's hand, the son's
hand, open them if you can. And then he said, we're kept
by the power of God. He which begun a good work in
you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And oh,
being kept. I have to be kept because I certainly
can't keep myself. I want to keep myself. I'd like
to keep myself. But to actually be kept, be kept. Oh, to be kept by Christ. And
the second most blessed promise that I love is this. You believe God, believe also
in me. For in my Father's house are
many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you. And I love this,
and I will, I will, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's what it's all about. Receive
you unto myself, that where I am, you will be too. I'm just waiting
for that day. And the Lord will appear with
a shout. The trump shall sound, the Lord shall descend with a
shout. And oh my, and those that are
dead shall rise first and then they'll be changed in a moment
in a twinkling of an eye and we'll be caught up to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. You know how we love God and
where we get the love for God, the love for our neighbors at?
Knowing Christ. Christ loved God with all of
his heart, we did too. Christ loved his neighbor, and
we're evidence of that, that Christ loved his neighbor. You
and I are evidence of that. He even loved his enemies and
made them his blessed, blessed people. Our blessed, blessed Savior,
how wonderful, how gracious, how kind, Lord, we're thankful that you
remember that we're just dust, and Lord, you hold us up, and
you keep us, and you preserve us, and you teach us, and you
instruct us, and you enable us to worship. God, bless these
dear saints of God. Save your people in this place.
Bring glory to yourself. More than anything in this world,
bring glory to yourself through us. And Lord, keep us until you
call us home. because this world is not our
home. We're just pilgrims and strangers here passing through.
We're looking for a city. We're looking for a city. We're
looking for a place where you live, where you dwell. God, help
us to keep our eyes fixed on you and believe you with. Thank you for loving God, Lord
Jesus. Thank you for loving our neighbors
as well. and you gave us that love and shed it abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost. Bless the dear saints of God,
for Christ's sake, amen. Let's sing the love of God, okay? It's in the Course book, I think,
ain't it? Page 34. Page 34. 34. All right. 34 in the course book. Let's
stand together. The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or beard can ever tell It goes beyond the highest
star And reaches to the lowest hell The guilty pair bow down
with care Oh, love of God, how rich and
pure! How measureless, how vast, how
strong! the saints and angels song. When hoary times shall pass away,
and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, when men who here refuse
to pray on rocks and ? The sure shall still endure ?
? All measure let us fetch from ? ? Redeeming grace to Adam's
race ? ? The saints and angels song ? ? O love of God how rich
and pure ? measureless and strong. It shall forever more endure. the saints and angels song. Could we with ink, could we with
ink, the oceans feel, and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above, ? Contain the whole ? ? Though
stretched from sky to sky ? ? O love of God, how rich and pure ? ?
How measureless and strong ? ? It shall forever endure ? ? Through
saints and angels ? We'll meet again this evening
at 6 p.m., Lord willing.