Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 145. 145. Hail, thou once despised
Jesus. Hail, thou Galilean king. Thou didst suffer to release
us, Thou didst free salvation bring. Hail Thou agonizing Savior,
Bearer of our sin and shame. By Thy merits we find favor,
? Life is given through thy name ? ? Paschal lamb by God appointed
? ? All our sins on thee were laid ? ? By almighty love anointed
? ? Thou best full atonement made ? All thy people are forgiven
Through the virtue of thy blood Opened is the gate of heaven
Peace is made to expand and gone Jesus, hail, enthroned in glory
Therefore ever to abide, All the heavenly hosts adore thee,
Seated at thy Father's side. Therefore sinners thou art pleading,
There Thou dost our place prepare, Ever for us interceding, Till
in glory we appear. Worship, honor, power, and blessing
Thou art worthy to receive, Loudest praises without ceasing, Be it
is for us to give. Help be bright angelic spirits,
Bring your sweetest, noblest lays. Help to sing our Savior's
merits, Help to change Emmanuel's praise. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 52. Number
52. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
upon the Savior's brow. His head with radiant glories
crowned, His lips with grace o'erflown. His lips with grace
o'erflown. No mortal can with Him compare
Among the sons of men Fairer is He than all the fair Who feel
the heavenly train Who feel the heavenly train He saw me plunged
in deep distress and flew to my relief. Forbid he bore the shameful cross
and carried all my grief. And carried all my grief. To Him I owe my life and breath
And all the joys I have He makes me triumph over death And saves
me from the grave And saves me from the grave Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter
10. Let's read four verses this morning
I'm gonna preach from. Verse 13 down to verse 16. And they brought young children
to him that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those
that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was
much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom
of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he
shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms,
he put his hands upon them and blessed them. And I'm gonna read
you a verse of scripture out of Luke 18 just to show you what
kind of children were brought to him. And I'll read it to you. Luke 18, 15, And they brought
unto him also infants, that he would touch them. And when his
disciples saw it, they rebuked him. But Jesus called them unto
him, Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such
is the kingdom of God. So these children that were brought
were infants, infants. our great and glorious and blessed
God of heaven and earth, creator, sustainer, creates the world
by your word, upholds it by your word, and one will one day destroy
it by the same word. You hold it in store right now
until the day that the last one of your elect is saved, the last
sheep is called, And Lord, when you do that, Lord, this world
and all that's in it will melt with a fervent heat. And so,
Lord, we look unto you, our great and glorious Savior, for all
the mercy and grace that we need for while we're yet in this world.
Lord, we're in a world that does not care for you, don't think
of you, not interested in you. So many preachers don't know
you. don't say the right things about you, but, oh, God, give
us the grace to address you correctly, to worship you truthfully and
in spirit, to be humble before you, to understand how weak and
frail we really are. And, Lord, we pray for this service
today that you'd be pleased to meet with us that you'd come
among us. Oh, Lord, come down in the presence
and power of the Holy Ghost and meet the needs of every heart,
every home here. And the ones that's not here
that are traveling, give them traveling mercies and keep them.
The ones, Lord Jesus, who have needs of body, we pray for them. Lord, and we pray for salvation,
salvation of your people. Lord, there's people in this
congregation that's never, they hear the gospel, but they've
never heard it with the ears that you give. So Lord, give
ears today. Lord, give ears today. Lord,
bombard the ear gate. And Lord, when you get to the
understanding, it gets to the heart. So Lord, give understanding
today. Bring glory to yourself through
this service. Have mercy upon our families,
upon our children and grandchildren. Save, save for Christ's sake. Bring glory to yourself for Christ's
sake. Meet our needs for Christ's sake.
Amen, amen. Let's all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Sweet is the work by God my King,
To praise thy name, give thanks and sing, To show thy love by
morning light, And talk of all thy faith at night. My heart shall triumph Let's just do just the verses. Oh, how I long for that blessed
place where he unveils his glorious face, where all his beauties
will behold and sing his praise to harps of gold. And I shall share a glorious
part When grace has well refined my heart And fresh supplies of
joy are shed Like holy oil to cheer my head. Be seated. There in verse 13, it says they
brought children to Him in Luke 18, 15 back over in Mark chapter
10. It says in Luke 18, 15 that they
brought unto Him infants, infants. And these parents brought them.
Who brought them? Their mothers and fathers did.
That's who brought them. And you know our Lord, it says
back up there in verse that He is in the house, and I'm sure
that He is probably still in the house. I don't know whose
house it was, it don't make any difference, but He is in a house.
And these parents started bringing their infants, started bringing
their babies, started bringing their children that were still
in their arms to the Lord Jesus Christ. And look what it says
in that first verse, And they brought young children to him,
that he should test them. And listen to this, And his disciples
rebuked them that brought them. You're talking about a sorry
bunch of men. How would you like somebody to
rebuke you for bringing your loved one to the Lord Jesus Christ?
But they did. These were people that were following
Christ, disciples of Christ. He just taught them about marriage
and divorce. And we just see how impatient
and how stupid these men are. They rebuke these people. Stop
bringing them babies in here! Stop it! Don't do that! And oh, look what it says in
verse 14, But when Jesus saw it, it didn't say he was displeased,
but was MUCH displeased. It REALLY, REALLY displeased
our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, he was displeased, and
look what he said to him. And he had taught them, said
this, to suffer, allow the little children to come unto me. Don't
keep them to come to me. And listen to this, forbid them
not. Forbid them not. You know, three
times these disciples did this thing. This time here, and you
remember when Bartimaeus was sitting by the wayside begging
and our Lord Jesus was coming through and he began to holler
out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. The first thing
they said to him was, hold your peace, be quiet. And what does scripture say?
He cried that much the more. And then there was a time that
the mother brought her daughter TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE
ONE THAT YOU KNOW SAID SHE'D TAKE THE CRUMBS FROM THE MASTER'S
TABLE. AND THE SCRIPTURE SAYS THAT HIS DISCIPLES SAID, LORD,
SEND HER AWAY, SHE CRIETH AFTER US. BOY, I TELL YOU WHAT, THAT'S
A SORRY BUNCH OF MEN, AIN'T IT? IT REALLY IS. YOU THINK ABOUT
THAT. THEY REBUKE PARENTS FOR BRINGING THEIR CHILDREN. TOLD
BARTIMEUS, CRYING OUT FOR MERCY, to hold his peace, told a woman
who was concerned about her daughter and brought her to Christ and
said, send her away, send her away. Boy, what if somebody talked
to us like that, treated us that way? It'd be awful, wouldn't
it? But our Lord said he was much
displeased with these disciples, much displeased with them. And
when you find our Lord much displeased, one time He talked about being
grown in the Spirit. This much displeased shows us
how upset, not the right word, but He was displeased with them.
He let them know He was displeased with them. He told them He was
displeased with them. But our Lord saw what they were
doing. What they were doing was trying to make prerequisites
to come to Christ. But these are children, these
are children. What these men wanted was to
have people have a greater experience, more experience, have more conviction
of sin, have more knowledge before they come to Christ. But our
Lord was much, much displeased. You suffer not, don't you dare
stop these, don't you forbid these people from coming to me. And any, listen to me now, any
prerequisite that you give before coming to Christ is absolutely
wrong, absolutely wrong. And I'll tell you what, first,
you know, here's how people preach, and this is what people say.
First, you have to repent of your sins, then have a proper
sense of your sin, have a deep, deep experience Oh my, to say any of those things
before you can come to Christ is absolutely wrong. There's
nothing that you have said before coming to Christ. And I tell
you, coming to Christ don't take you, it's not a long journey.
It's not a long way to get to Christ. The minute you start
to Christ, you arrive at Christ. The minute you come to Christ,
you get at Christ. It don't take you all day and
all night to get there. There was a place up in Michigan
one time and a preacher was up there and Bruce Crabtree went
up there to visit and hear a preacher preach. And he was talking to
a man and he said, he said, I've been seeking the Lord for 25
years. Bruce said, that's way, way,
way too long. Why? He said, when you search
for me with all your heart, you shall find me. It don't take
all day ever, it don't take all day to get to Christ. It don't
take a lot of words to get to Christ. It don't take a lot of
experience to get to Christ. No, the minute you start to Him,
you get at Him. And these disciples rebuked these
parents, rebuked these parents for bringing their infants to
Christ. Oh, they didn't have what they were thinking, they
didn't have what it took to come to Christ. And oh, whatever was
required, our Lord was displeased with it. And I tell you, so many
preachers, they said, You can't come to Christ until you feel
your SIN more. Let me tell you something, I
still don't feel my sin like I ought to. I'm not conscious
of my sin as I ought to be. Now you, do you feel your sin
as deep as you ought to? But they tell you that you've
got to feel your sins more. Have more sorrow. Have more sincerity. And oh, this is one I think that
is really awful. You gotta show you mean business.
Show you mean business. Oh my. And all this is wrong. It's garbage, it's garbage. Now
I want you to look back over here at Mark 9 with me. Look
down here at verse 33. These parents brought their children
to Christ. They brought their infants to
Christ. And look what happens here. He
came to Capernaum, and being in the house, he asked them,
what was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way?
These fellows was arguing in the way, while they was on their
way. But they held their peace, for by the way they had disputed
among themselves who should be the greatest. Who knows the best? Who's the most experienced? Who's
closer to the Lord? Who is more dedicated? Who's
more in love with Christ? Who shows more devotion? That's
what they're talking about. And our Lord sat down and called
the 12, you fellas come around here. Come around here, you 12
come around here. And saith unto them, if any man
desire to be first, wants to be the main PISTON ROD. If any man desire to be first,
the same shall be last, and servant of all." Now, look what he did,
he took a child, he took a child out among those people that surround
him and set him right in the middle of those twelve, set him right there, took him
up in his arms and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive
one such children in my name, receives me. And whosoever shall
receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. But the
point is this, that these fellas will really thought that they
were something. And our Lord said, I'm gonna
show you something. You think you're something? He
took a child, maybe two year old, three year old child, set
him in the midst of them. And he said, does this child,
what's this child bragging about? What's this child, does this
child have any idea how great he is? Is he arguing over how
better he is than any other child? Is he acting like he knows so
much? No, no. He said, a child, I know one
thing that this child's not doing, or even thinking was, that he
was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And our Lord says,
you fellas think of something, look at this child. and except
you receive a child like this one right here and treat him
like as a child. He said, you in trouble, in real
trouble. And oh my, this little child,
he done what the Lord said, brought him out there, stood there. He
was unassuming. He had no sense of entitlement.
He had no sense of how great he was. He had no sense of how
much he knew. He had no sense of what he's
done wrong or anything like that. He wasn't interested in trying
to be somebody like these men were. And oh my. That child did not even think
he was the greatest. And I tell you, coming to Christ
is just, somebody gotta bring you. Somebody gotta bring you.
And all these parents brought these babies, and that's what
they're called over in Luke 18. They're called infants. And they
brought them that they might, Christ might touch them. Might
touch them. Ain't that what it says? In verse 13, And he brought young
children to him, that he should touch them, that he should touch
them. You know, there is no magical
touch. There's no magical power in Christ's
touch, no magical power. But I tell you what's in it.
There's power in his touch. There's power in his touch. There's
the power of life in his touch. There's a power of grace in his
touch. There is the POWER of MERCY in
His touch! There is the POWER of LOVE in
His touch! There is the POWER of SALVATION
in His touch! There is the POWER of HEALING
of MIND and BODY and SOUL in His touch! In His touch! And oh my! And our Lord is telling
them, Don't stop these infants from coming! Don't do that! And
look what he says, he said, don't, and he saw it and he was displeased,
and he said, don't you stop these little children from coming unto
me, don't you dare forbid them. And listen to what he said, for
as such, these infants, these children, these babies, they
belong to the kingdom of God. Belong to the kingdom of God. Now you think about that. And
our Lord says there in verse 15, Verily I say unto you, I
solemnly say unto you, oh my, declare unto you, whosoever shall
not receive the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God as a little
child shall not enter therein. Now that is, that's kind of,
that's a truth that's hard to deal with. How do you think? What do you think about what
he's talking about here? What do you think our Lord's
saying? What do you think he's talking about? If you don't receive
the kingdom of God as a little child, you don't get in. You just don't get in. Our Lord
said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you can't enter the kingdom of God. Paul said he had a righteousness
that was blameless after the law until Christ stopped him
on the road to Damascus. And you know what he said is
that your righteousness is not enough. I don t care how righteous
you think you are, how GOOD you think you are, how many WONDERFUL
things you think you ve done, how WELL you think you ve behaved
yourself. And oh, our Lord said your righteousness
is a filthy rag, but He said ACCEPT your righteousness. exceed
the righteousness of the Pharisees, you can't enter the kingdom of
God. And he told Nicodemus, now here's a ruler of the Jews in
the Sanhedrin, he said, except a man be born again, he can't
even see where the kingdom of God's at. He can't even know
where the kingdom of God's at. And except a man be born of water
and the Spirit, he can't enter the kingdom of God. Now, you
talk about something that when you accept a man to be born again,
he can t even see where the Kingdom of God s at. He don t have a
clue where the Kingdom of God s at. You know, a lot of folks
think that religion is all you have to do is make a decision
or walk an aisle or get on an altar or join a church, turn
over a new leaf, And this is one of the things that really,
really bother me, is that somebody will, you know, they think, well,
a fella is an Armenian, and he s a Pentecostal, or he s a freewheeler,
and then what he does is he holds on to that profession back there,
and then he gets deeper. He learns something about grace,
and he still holds on to that profession back there, but he
s learned something about grace, and all he s done is he s got
just a little bit more smarter than he was before. You can't
hold on to a profession back there. That's why our Lord said he was
displeased with these fellows. You're holding on to a profession
you got when you was 10, 12, or 14, or 15, or 16 years old,
you're holding on to something that ain't worth holding on to.
And our Lord said, I'm telling you, except you receive the kingdom
of God as a little child, you won't enter in there. How's a
little child receive the kingdom of God? Simplicity, simply in
simplicity. In humility, unquestioning, trustful,
trustful. Look over in Matthew 11 with
me. Look in Matthew 11. Look down in verse 25. Oh, they just come in simplicity. Humility. Got no questions to
ask. Trustful. Look what our Lord
said here. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Listen
to this. Because thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent and has revealed them to who? Babes. Babes. Why'd you do it then? Because it seemed good in your
sight. Babes. Babes. Babes. How many babes we got? How many babies we got in this
service today? Huh? Oh my. When these infants are brought,
they got no prejudices. They have no opinions. They're
not conscious of what race they are of. and they admit they don't
know anything, and they're brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what our problem is, most people's problem is, is that they know
too much. They know too much. They're too
proud. They're unwilling to take the
place of a babe, of an infant, of a child. I remember my father-in-law
Herman, for years and years. He had a great big Bible that,
you know, back in years ago, people went around and sold Bibles.
And you know, they'd knock on your door and they'd say, boy,
I got a Bible set. And they'd get those great big
huge Bibles, and they had all these beautiful pictures in it,
you know. And he had one of them great big huge Bibles that sat
right in the middle of his coffee table. Didn't read it. Only way
they opened it was to look at the pictures, you know. The pictures
was really nice. But, you know, every time I tried
to talk to him for years, he'd say, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know that, I know that. But when God
saved him by his grace, you know what he said? After he got about
eight, 78, 80 years old, you know what he said? He said, I
used to think I know everything, and now here I am. I'm 80 years
old, and I'm a babe. Don't know nothing. I'm a babe. I don't know nothing. Now, anybody want to confess
that they know a lot of things about God, about Christ? Want
to stand up and brag about how much they know, how much experience
they've had, and how strong they are, and how wise they are, and
how powerful they are, and how great they are? Oh, my. Oh, let me show you something
over in 1 Corinthians 8. Go over in 1 Corinthians 8. Paul talks about knowledge. Puffeth up there in verse one.
Knowledge puffeth up. Knowledge makes you smarter than
everybody else. But you know, correcting somebody
all the time. Knowledge puffeth up. But charity,
what does it do? It builds up, it establishes,
it makes people stronger. And listen to this. If any man
think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not Nothing, as he
ought to know. By the time you think you've
arrived, you know what you find out? I gotta start all over again. I gotta start all over again.
I've been doing this 40 something years, and I have to start all over
again. Time and time and time again. Time and time again. And oh my, enter in the kingdom
of heaven, When He talks about the Kingdom of Heaven, He said,
You know, such is the Kingdom of Heaven. You know, as entering
into life, that's what it is. Entering the Kingdom of God is
the same as being saved, being saved. And then look what He
says there in verse 16. Look what He says. And He took them up in His arms, Took them up in his arms. Put his hands upon them and blessed
them. These parents, I believe that
they stood in line. I believe there's quite a few
of them. And they stood in line with their
baby. And they would go in there and
hand their baby to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he'd take them in
his arms. And they put his hand on him.
Can you imagine being in the arms of Christ? Huh? And I tell you, he took that
baby up in his arms. And he looked at them babies.
I'm sure he looked at them, and I'm sure he loved them. Oh, how
he loved those children. Loved those babies. And their
parents, you know, they brought him to them, and he held them
in his arms. And then he put his hand on them. And the scripture
said he blessed them. He blessed them. You know, the
only person that can bless a person in this world is the Lord Jesus
Christ. I know people go to the Pope
and say they want a blessing from the Pope. They go to a priest
and say, I want a blessing from the priest. but the only person
that can give a real blessing in this world and this whole
universe is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Nobody else can give
one. And I tell you what, when he gives a blessing, I mean, you know it, you'll know
it. Them parents, you know, them
babies didn't know what was going on, but their parents did. I
believe every parent, when they brought that child, when the
Lord took him up in his arms, I believe they stood there and
wept. Say, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And then they,
he handed back to the mother and the next one brought him
in and he took him up in his arms. So they stood in line and
he blessed them. He blessed them. And there's
nobody can bless like the Lord Jesus Christ. HE'S THE ONLY ONE
CAN BLESS. I KNOW PEOPLE THINK THAT THEY
MAY BE ABLE TO EARN A BLESSING, BUT YOU CAN'T EARN A BLESSING.
DID THESE INFANTS EARN A BLESSING? THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. THEY COULDN'T DO ANYTHING. THEY
COULDN'T PRAY, THEY COULDN'T THINK, THEY COULDN'T ASK, THEY
COULDN'T SAY ANYTHING, THEY COULDN'T DO ANYTHING. SOMEBODY ELSE HAD
TO BRING THEM. And when they brought him, our
Lord Jesus Christ didn't refuse him. I has no telling how many
infants was brought to our Lord Jesus Christ. No telling how
many. I know that he was around Capernaum there and they brought,
every time they brought somebody in there, he's sitting in the
house. He's sitting down. And he holds those babies. Every one of them. Every one
of them. And he blessed every single one
of them. And I'll tell you this. I believe that when Christ blessed
these infants, that that blessing was given to them for all time
and eternity. He said, For such is the kingdom
of God. Those babies were as sure in
the kingdom of God as anybody s in the kingdom of God right
now. Now, I believe that they grew up And they were believers,
I believe because Christ blessed them, Christ put His hands on
them, Christ put them in His arms, and He done everything
for those infants that they could not do for themselves. And I
believe that that blessing, that Christ's blessing, listen, has
He blessed you? He blessed you the first time
He called you. He blessed you in calling you, blessed you in
convicting you, blessed you in saving you, blessing you every
morning you get up. Every morning His mercies are
new. Who would ever expect a blessing
from the Lord? But our Lord Jesus Christ, He
blesses in spite of anything else. Ain't you great? I'm so thankful
that he's a blessing. I'm so thankful he's a blessing,
God. How many times did our Lord said, blessed are they, blessed
are they, blessed are they, blessed are they. Blessed are they, blessed are
they. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. Blessed
is the man whose sins are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man who humbles himself before. Blessed is the man who
comes to Christ. Oh, what a blessed man it is.
And I tell you, Christ blessed these. You know, you just picture
it. You know, now people bring their
babies and I was telling my wife on the way over, I looked in
a bunch of commentaries and looked on the sermon audio about different
things about what preachers had to say about these verses of
Scripture, and you would not believe how many of them use
THIS, these verses that I read to you, to teach and preach infant
baptism. Infant baptism, they use that
for infant baptism. Now, how could you get baptizing
a child out of that? There was no water mentioned
there. Let me tell you about baptism. If
you're saved in streaks, pour them. If you're saved in spots,
sprinkle them. But if you're saved all over,
bury them. But you imagine, I could not
tell you how many people Use these verses of scripture to
teach infant baptism. Do you see that anywhere? That
our Lord took him up in his arms. Can you imagine, Christ? If our
Lord was here, you know, Rachel and Cody just had a new baby.
Had a new baby, born last week. Jack Gabriel. Can you imagine
them Taking that baby with Christ, with Christ as heir, and taking
their infant, standing in line, taking him over and laying him
in Christ's arms. Could you imagine having Christ? Let me tell you
something. Every believer right now is in
the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the safest place you could
possibly be. We're in his hands, we're in
his arms, we're on his shoulder, we're in his heart. You know, John leaned against his breast,
that disciple whom Jesus loved. Oh my, this promise is unto you
and to your children is far off. You know, Now, you know, we have to be
brought to Christ, and our parents never brought us to Christ. No,
no, they couldn't bring us to Christ. The Holy Spirit brings us to
Christ, and He blesses us with salvation and blessings every
day, every single day. You know, David asked this question,
he said, Lord, if I should number If I should number, the mercies and the thoughts
toward me are more than can be reckoned up in order, more than
can be numbered. Could you number the blessings
that God gives you? Just the very fact that we're
here, that's a blessing. The very fact that you got a
Bible in your hands, that's a blessing. The very fact that you understand
what's being said, that's a blessing. The very fact that you're interested
in what Christ has to say, that's a blessing. How many people don't
even know that? And not only are we blessed every
day, but we're blessed with eternal blessings. Our blessings are
eternal, are eternal. And let me give you five reasons,
five reasons I come to Christ. You know, our Lord said in John
6.44, it's the first reason that I come to Christ. Of course,
the Holy Spirit brought me to Christ. I'll give you five reasons
why I come. John 6.44 says, no man can come
unto the Father except the Father which sent me drawing. You know
what that word draw means? Dragged. You know why I come
to Christ? God dragged me. God dragged me. Yeah, I would
not have come if he had not dragged me. Oh my. You say, boy, I tell you
what, you just, I don't believe that. I know one thing, had he
not, If he hadn't have dragged me, I wouldn't have come. And
here's the thing about it. You don't feel like you're being
drugged. Did you feel like you were being
drugged? But could you not not come? When Christ calls you,
when you come into Christ, could you not not come? No, you know
why you could not not come? Because God the Father had a
hold of you, and He wasn't going to let go of you until you got
brought all the way. And that's what he goes on to
say, he said, everyone that the Father draws, he teaches them
of Christ. Everyone's taught of Christ.
The Father teaches them of Christ. And the first reason I come to
Christ, because God brought me. God dragged me. You can take
that any way you want to. I wouldn't have cared if he'd
gotten me by my shirt collar and drug me. all the way. It
wouldn t have bothered me a bit, you know, but that s one of the
mysteries of the new birth. That s one of the mysteries of
God saving a sinner, is that He saves them, as old Scott Richard
said, against their will with their full consent. Ain t that right? You don t know,
you don t know you ve been brought till you get there. But how did
you get there? God drug you. God the Father
drug you. And here s a second reason I
come to Christ. I m commanded to. Our Lord said,
Come unto Me. Come unto Me. That s not an invitation. People say, That s an invitation.
No, no. Come unto Me. You went every
place else, You went to religion, you went to your feast, you went
to your holy days, you went to your religion, you've been in
your fundamentalism, you've been in your legalism, you've been
in your self-righteous, you've been everywhere NOW, and you
didn't find anything. Come to me. Come to me. Come to me. I'm commanded to
come to Christ. I'm commanded. In all my life. And that's one thing that I,
listen, I don't have, you know, he that keepeth my commandments
and I keep that one, I come to him because I'm commanded. And
the third reason I come to Christ is because I have a great, great,
great, great need. Oh, what a need I have. And I,
what's my need of him? I need him. I need him. Why do I need him? Well, first
of all, I need him to save me because I'm a sinner. I need
him to keep me because I'll go astray. And I need Christ because
I'm weak. I am so weak. Oh, how weak I
am. And not only that, I need Christ.
I need him because I'm frail. I'm frail, so frail. I am so frail. There are people
who talk about getting old and he's getting frail. Listen, I
was born frail. I was born frail. Didn't know
it until God taught me. I'm weak and I'm frail. And I
need Him because I'm as helpless as a child. right now, and before
God, I'm always as a helpless child. How about you? Now, before each other, that's
a different story, but before God, I'm as a helpless child. I can't do anything for myself. I can't pray unless He enables
me. I can't read unless He blesses me. Come to Christ unless He
has been. I can't overcome the flesh unless
He enables me. I'm as helpless as a child. Somebody
else had to dress me. Christ had to dress me. All I
can do is make a mess out of things, and Christ has to clean
them up. All I can do is fall, and He has to pick me up. He
has to pick me up. And when I wrong somebody as
a little child, He's the one that has to forgive me. He has
to pick me up and carry me. Oh my, helpless as a child. And
I'll tell you the fourth reason I come to Him. I come to Him
because I'm afraid not to. I'm afraid not to. I'm afraid
not to come to Him. Our Lord said, no man can come
unto the Father but by me. I'm afraid not to. What would
happen to me if I didn't come to Christ? He asked his disciples
when they all started going away, he said, will you also go away? And they said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? I'm afraid not to come. I am
afraid, I'm so afraid of myself. Afraid of my emotions, afraid
of my flesh, afraid of my mind, afraid of my sin. I'm afraid of everything, because
I'm afraid. I come to him because I'm afraid
not to. Oh my, I wouldn't, oh my. Paul said it like this when he
went over to the glaciers, he said, I marvel, I marvel that
you're so removed, so soon removed from the gospel of Christ, removed
from the grace of Christ. There are so many people that
came here for years and years and years, and now they don't
come anymore. And I'm afraid not to come to
Christ because I may be the next one to go, and I wouldn't want
to go, would you? Oh, my. And I tell you what, I come
to Him Because I have no other option. There's no other options. This is the only place. This
is the only place God will receive us. The only place, the only
person that God will accept us. The only person God will bless
us. The only person that God said he's our savior, our redeemer.
The only person that's our mediator between God and man. The only
person. There's nobody else. Nobody else. But him, I go to him, because
there's no other option. And most folks, buddy, they're
looking for another option. They're looking for another place. They're looking for some salvation
somewhere else. But he said, suffer the little
children to come unto me. These are infants. These are
infants. It's hard. You know, when you
get older, and even when we're young, it's hard for us to realize
how helpless we are. But before God, we are as helpless
as children. And we always say, Holy Spirit,
please bring me to Christ. Keep me to Christ. Keep me cleaving
to Christ. Believe in Christ. Trust in Christ.
Embrace in Christ. Bound to Christ. I need Christ. Gotta have Him. Gotta have Him. Our blessed master, our Lord
Jesus Christ, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your
gospel. I thank you for your truth. And Lord, I, this congregation and myself
are left in your hands, in your hands. We got no place else to
take them. No one else to commit them to.
No one else can do for us what you do. Lord, I give myself and
I give this congregation into your holy presence, into your
holy care, into your keeping. For it's obvious, Lord, we can't
keep ourselves. We can't keep ourselves from
our thoughts, from our feelings, from the hardness of heart, For
our dullness of mind, we can't keep ourselves. But Lord, you
can keep us. And so keep us for Christ's sake. Amen, amen. 318 in the handbook. Stan, we'll sing this. 318, everybody
knows this one probably by heart. stand together and sing this. I need thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can
peace afford I need Thee, oh I need Thee Every hour I need Thee Oh bless
me now my Savior I come to Thee I need Thee every hour Stay Thou
nearby No nations lose their power when Thou art nigh I need
Thee, oh, I need Thee ? Every hour I need thee ? ? Oh
bless me now my savior ? ? I come to thee ? ? I need thee every hour ? ? Enjoy
your pain ? Come quickly and abide, or life's in vain. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Bless me now, my Savior, I come
to Thee. I need Thee, O Most Holy One,
O Soul, O Make-Me-Thine, Who bathed me night and day, Thou
Blessed Son, I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. See you tonight at 6 o'clock,
Lord willing. We're going to take the Lord's Supper this evening
at the Lord's Table.