Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 474. 474. Not have I gotten but what I received. Grace hath bestowed
it since I Lost, excluded, pride I have
faced I'm only a sinner, saved by grace Only a sinner, saved
by grace Only a sinner, saved by grace I was foolish and sin pulled
my heart, causing my footsteps from God to depart. Jesus hath found me, happy my
case, Only a sinner saved by grace
Only a sinner saved by grace This is my story, dear God, be
the witness ♪ Tears are there, we know where
it ran out ♪ ♪ Mercy has saved me or else I must die ♪ ♪ Sin
and heartache, fear in God's face ♪ Only a sinner, saved by grace
Only a sinner, saved by grace This is my story, to God be the
glory I'm only a sinner, saved by grace For a sinner whose heart overflows
Loving his Savior to tell what he knows this is my story Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
258. 258. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. Rock, there rivers of pleasure
I see. Deep lie in my soul, in the cleft
of the Rock, that shadows the dry, thirsty In the depths of His love, and
covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. O say can you see, by the dawn's
early light, ♪ That shadows of dry, thirsty
land ♪ He piled up my life ♪ In the depths of His love ♪ And
covers me there with His face ♪ Such a Redeemer has found ♪ ♪
He died in my soul ♪ ♪ In the cleft of the rock ♪ ♪ At shadows
of dry thirsting water ♪ In the depths of His love, and
covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. in His brightness transported
I rise to be in clouds of the sky His perfect salvation is
I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me with His love. Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3. I'll read from verse 11 down
to verse 19. And unclean spirits, when they
saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the
Son of God. And he straightly charged them
that they should not make him known. And he goeth up into a
mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would, and they came
unto him. And he ordained twelve that they
should be with him, that he might send them forth to preach, and
to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils. And Simon
he surnamed Peter, and James the son of Zebedee, and John
the brother of James, he surnamed them Bonageres, which is the
sons of thunder, and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew,
and Matthew, and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus,
and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed
him, and they went into a house. our most gracious, blessed God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God and our Father. We can
call you our Father because you saved us by your grace. You're
our Father and you provided us your Son to be our Savior, to
be our Redeemer, to be our Mediator, one to take up our cause before
you our great high priest who offered a sacrifice. And oh Lord,
we thank you for that. God, no one like you. Of all
the gods in this world that people worship, all the idols that they
have, all the flesh that's in this world and in religion, oh
God, I thank you that you blessed a people, called a people out
of this world, Call them from darkness to light, from death
to life, from uncleanness to holiness. Oh, Lord, from unrighteousness
and disobedience to righteousness and obedience. Oh, Lord, blessed
be your name. Thank you for what you've done
for poor sinners like us. Oh, God, we didn't deserve anything.
Have no merit that we can bring to you, no works we can bring. Nothing we can bring, but oh
Lord Jesus, we bring that precious blood, that blessed name, the
righteousness and merit of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus. And
Lord, we know you receive us for him and for his sake. Thank you for allowing us to
be here today. God, meet with us. Meet with us, meet with us,
oh Lord, meet with us by the presence of the gospel, presence
of the spirit of God, presence of our Lord Jesus himself. Open
hearts, save sinners in this place to your glory. Have mercy upon our families.
All of us have lost loved ones and we ask for mercy. Ask to
ask for mercy for them, that's all we can ask. And we ask these
things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 205. 205. Free from the low, happy condition,
Jesus hath planned where his remission. Curse but a foe, and
God I will know. Now Jesus ♪ Come and He saves us ♪ Watch
for all ♪ Watch for all, O sinner, receive it ♪ Watch for all, O
brother, believe it ♪ Cling to the cross, the burden will fall Children of God, O praise God! Let's stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. ♪ O Lamb of God, still keep me
near to thy wounded side ♪ ♪ Tis only there in safety and peace
I can abide ♪ ♪ What foes and stares surround me now ♪ but
lust and fears within. The grace that sought and found
me alone can keep me clean. Tis only in thee, hiding, I know
my life secure. Only in thee, abiding, I steadfast
shall endure. Thine arm the victory gain, ♪
For every hurtful foe ♪ I love my heart sustaining ♪ In all
its care and woe ♪ Soon shall my eyes be holding with thee nothing told me of all apparent
grace. Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,
the wonders of I hope you're still in Mark chapter
3. I want to actually deal with
verse 13, but I'm going to start at verse 11, but there, he goeth
up into a mountain and calleth, and I love this, calleth unto
him whom he would, whom he would. You know, that's playing his
nose on your face. He didn't call everybody, he
called whom he would. And He's still doing the same
thing, calling on whom He would, whom He would, whom He would.
But back up here in verse 11, And when the unclean spirits
saw Him, they fell down before Him, and cried, saying, Thou
Son of the Most High God, Thou art the Son of God. I want
to talk about Christ being the Son of God for just a little
bit. The devils called him the Son of God. James says the devils
believe and tremble. But there's two things about
devils. They believe and they know who he is. They tremble
because he can do what he wants to them. He can put them in hell
just that quick. Just that quick. Remember that demon that says,
you know, don't cast us out, you know, and there's a bunch
of hogs here and throw them in them hogs. And man can keep a devil
in him. Man can. But when he gets in
an animal, got in those animals, those animals kill themselves.
They all run down into the sea. Only man's the only one can stand
a devil inside of him. An animal can't. They all destroyed
themselves. And that goes to show you, they
believe, they know who he is, but they tremble. But they don't
love him. But one thing they do have to
do, they have to obey him. I'm grateful for that. at the
devil. Our Lord has him on a chain.
Everybody, you know, they want to give the devil done this,
and the devil done that, and the devil made me do it. Well,
I tell you what, you got enough rottenness and corruption in
your flesh, the devil won't have to make you do anything. You'll
do enough on your own. Ain't that right? You don't need
the devil on your shoulder telling you what to do. Your flesh is
bad enough. Wouldn't you agree with that? But oh, they don't
love Him. And look, I want to show you
something over here in Mark chapter 5 about the devil and about demons. You know, in Mark chapter 5,
you all know the story of the maniac from Gadara. And it says here in verse 2,
And when he was come out of the ship, They immediately met him
out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit." This man
dwelt in a graveyard where dead people are. "...who had his dwelling
among the tombs, and no man could bind him." They couldn't even
chain him up. Because that he had often been
bound with fetters and chains, and chains had been plucked asunder
by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any
man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, cutting himself
with stones. But now listen to this. But when
he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him, and cried
with a loud voice, and said, Jesus, and cried with a loud
voice, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, the Most High God? And I read all that to say this,
what have I to do with thee, Jesus, the Son of the Most High
God? What have I to do with you? You're
holy. You're holy. What do we have
to do with God? God is holy. God's holy. And I'm unclean, that's what
he said. What do I have to do with you? Christ is holy, I'm
unclean. You're light, I'm darkness. You're good, I'm evil. You're
life, and I'm dead. And that's what it is, that's
why people don't have nothing to do with him. And then back
over here in our text, Jesus, the Son of God. You know, when
we talk about the Son of God, and Christ being the Son of God,
that means He's a distinct person. You know, there's three distinct
people in the Godhead. And God the Father, He chose
a people in Christ before the world ever began. And He sent
His Son, you know Isaiah said it this way, unto us, A child
is born. It had to be born first unto
us, then that son is given. And that son was given to us.
And he said, thou shalt call his name Wonderful. Because everything
about him is wonderful. Absolutely everything is wonderful
about him. And they shall call him Counselor. What does that
Counselor mean? That means that He's the one
that does His will. God said, I will do all things
after My own counsel, and do the good pleasure of My own will.
So that means that the will of God is done in this man. The
counsel, the purpose of God. God works all things after the
counsel of His own will. And then I tell you what, not
only that, but He says He's the Eternal Father, the Mighty God.
The Mighty God. You know, we sung that song this
morning. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock. When Moses
said, Lord, show me your glory, I want to see your glory. He
said, Moses, you can't see it. You can't see it. There's no
way in the world you can see it. He said, I tell you what,
there's a cleft over here in the rock. What I want you to
do, I'm going to put you in that cleft in that rock, and I'm going
to put my hand over you. I'm going to put my hand over
you. You can't see my glory, you can't do it. I'll just show
you my back parts. And that was enough to satisfy
Moses. If I can just see any part of God, that satisfies me.
Huh? That's what we're talking about,
the Son of God. And I'll tell you, who was in
that burning bush when Moses stood before him? The Son of
God. Who was it that walked in the cool of the evening and spoke
with Adam and Eve? Who was that that walked in the
cool of the evening? That was the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who was it that made Abraham
at the tenth door and said, oh, listen, and Abraham went out
there and worshiped him and served him a meal? The Son of God. Huh? Oh my, who was it when Jacob
was laying there and he said, indeed, this is the house of
God and this ladder going up and down. That was the son of
God that he met that night. Got a hold of him. Got a hold
of him. And I tell you what, and I, you
know, he said in the beginning, in the beginning was God. The word was with God. The same
was in the beginning with God. And all things, all things that
you can see in this world, all things, the person sitting beside
you, the baby's gonna be born today and the old man's gonna
die, all things, star, sun, moon, earth, heaven, all things was
made by Him. And without Him, there wasn't
anything made. Now we're talking about the Son
of God. Huh? Oh. I was talking to Greg Amquist
this week and talking about a young preacher. Well, he's not young,
I don't reckon. But anyway, he's a new preacher
we've met, preaching the grace of God. But anyway, I was talking
about idols and how people worship idols. He says, my mother was
raised Catholic. She's a Catholic, but she had
every idol that she could get for insurance. She had Buddha,
she had Jesus, she had Moses, she had statues of everything
she could find and put in her house, pictures, everything. He said she wanted all her bases
to be covered. Well, I tell you what, there
ain't but one God in this world that can save you. Only one God
in this world that can keep you. Only one God in this world that
can do anything for you. And that's God the Son. Huh? Oh my. I wanna show you something
in John 5. I love talking about Christ. I just love it. I just, I mean,
he's everything. In John chapter 5, look in verse
17. Yeah, John 17, I'm in John 6,
here we go. Look what our Lord said in verse
17, John chapter 5. But Jesus answered them, said,
My Father worketh here, where I am at right now, and I work.
My Father and I are working right now. That s what He said. Therefore
the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had
broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father,
making himself equal with God. They didn t like that. They didn
t like that. He said, fine, keep him in a
manger. Fine, keep him on a cross. Fine,
keep him as a man. But don't make him God. Don't
make him God. And our Lord said this, and then
I'll be done. He said this. He said, no man
has seen the Father. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten of the Father
hath revealed him. You wanna know God? You go see
Him in Christ. You wanna know His attributes?
See Him in Christ. You wanna know how powerful He
is? See Him in Christ. You wanna see how gracious He
is? See Him in Christ. You wanna see how angry He is?
See Him in Christ. The only place you can see. Ain't
that right? Oh my, so okay. Let's go down
here now to verse 13. And he goeth up into a mountain. And look what it says. And called
unto him whom he would. And listen to what it says. And
they came. And they came. He called them unto him. They
come. They come. They come. Oh, and then look what he went
on to say, and he ordained. And what that word ordained is
means the same word as predestinate. Predestinate means exactly the
same word. As Moroniites were predestinated
unto eternal life, they believed. Ain't that right? We use the
word ordained, but God used the same word as predestinate, and
foreknowledge, the same absolute word. But oh, he went unto a
mountain and called whom he would. I was talking to a man the other
day that fell asleep and knew my doctrine. He said he'd done
a lot of music in church, and he told me that one time this
fellow asked him to come and sing in a revival. They set aside
a few days to have a revival. They scheduled a revival. And
of course, you know when you schedule a revival, you're going
to have one. They scheduled this revival.
They're going to start on Monday. Oh, we're going to get revived.
It's going to end on Friday. We're going to go back to being
dead again. But that's the way they're done. He's talking about
that. And then this guy asked him to come and sing, lead the
singing in this meeting. And he said they went, they had
the invitation for 45 minutes. 45 minutes. And he said, I've never been
in anything like that, seen anything like that. And he kept singing
and going and then begging and begging and begging. And there
was an old drunk man sitting in the back of the building.
And he got up and said, if you're talking to me, he said, I've
already been saved, so just stop it. But that fellow said, I've
never been in a meeting like that, and I never would do that.
I said, I knew right then and there how awful this was. begging
people to be saved, and nobody will come. But if God don't beg,
if God saves you and God calls you, he went under a mountain
and called unto him, he will. And when he calls a man, guess
what's happening? He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. And oh my. And I tell you what, he said
he went under the mountain and called whom he would, and they
came unto him. He calls whom he would, But He
calls whom He wants to, He calls them WHEN He wants to, and HOW
He wants to. And I tell you, you know what,
this shows us His sovereignty, oh my, His sovereignty, His power. Could these men have said, I
ain't coming? Could these men have said, I refuse? Could these
men have said, I just don't believe our God. I just don't believe
I want to be a disciple. I just believe I don't want to
be an apostle. I just believe I don't want to follow Jesus.
I just believe I don't want to have anything to do with Him.
Could they have done that? Could you have not come when
Christ called you? That's what you call irresistible
grace. It's what you call effectual
calling. Could Lazarus not have come out of the grave when Christ
said, Lazarus, come unto me? Huh? You find somebody says, oh, it's
left up to me. I can refuse him if I want to.
Well, I'll tell you what, if he calls you, you've done refused
all you're going to do. Oh my, and then they came unto
him, and it says he ordained. I love that, he ordained. You
know, when he said he called them, you know, many are called,
but only a few are chosen. You know, a multitude pressed
upon him in last week's message. A multitude did, a multitude
did. But out of that multitude, he
only chose 12. Huh, only chose 12. And he ordained
12, ordained 12. And look what he said, ordained
12, and listen to what the next line says, that they should be
with him. That's what he calls them, that
they should be with him. That's what he said, you know,
he said, where I am, he said, I'll come and get you, that where
I am, you may be with me. He told that thief on the cross,
today thou shalt be with me. That's what he ordained them,
that they should be with him. Oh, could you ask for anything
better than to be with him? To be with him? And that's he
ordained 12, and that they should be What more blessed, what more
precious thing should happen than that? And you know what
our Lord said? He said, you know, He said, the
people that I love and the people that I call, He said, if there
ain't but two or three of them, just two or three of them, if
they actually gathered together in my name, and they gathered
to worship me, and they come as they are, He said, I will
be right in the middle of them. I'll be right with them. Oh,
I'll be right with them. And oh my. And then look what
the next line says, that he might send them forth to preach, to
preach. That's what God sends people
to do. That's what he calls men to do,
to preach. He called these men to go preach.
Christ was a preacher. He called these men to go preach.
What are they going to preach? Well, we ll get into that in
a minute, but I tell you what, I know what they was going to
preach. They were going to preach what Christ gave them to preach.
Oh, my. And He sent them forth to preach
and to have power, give them power, give them authority to
heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. You know, He gave these
men certain powers that nobody has ever had but them and the
Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something,
these fellows spent three years with our Lord Jesus Christ, three
years with Him. And you know what they was talking
about right before our Lord went to the cross? They was walking
along arguing with one another, who's going to be the greatest?
Who's going to be the greatest? You know what? One, two of them
said, Oh Lord, when you come into your kingdom, they was talking
about a kingdom on earth. They thought he's going to set
up a kingdom on earth. When you sit on your throne, I won't,
I won't, John said, I won't sit on this side and I won't, my
brother James said on the other side. That s people today, they think
that they got the authority, when they get to heaven they
re going to have so many crowns and they re going to have more
rewards than somebody else. Why in the world was God going
to reward you for something He did? Why would He reward you for something
He did? The fact that He gave you life,
is that not enough? The fact that He gave you grace,
is that not enough? The fact that He don t keep you,
is that not enough? The fact that He don t bless
you every day, is that not enough? The fact that He don't give you
a heart to believe, give you faith, give you love in your
heart, is that not enough? That's enough for me, ain't you?
Face to face with Christ my Savior, face to face, I long to see. That's all that matters. That's
all that matters. I've got enough. I've got enough. I've got enough. And I tell you,
these fellas learned and understood so, so very, very little. And
what we have here is our Lord choosing the twelve and the description
of doing it. And Christ is the Head of the
Church, and He ordains the first preachers in the New Testament.
And I tell you, He s countlessly ordained a multitude, a multitude
since then. And I'll tell you what, and look
how it says, you know, when it says, he went unto a mountain
and called unto them whom he would, back there in verse 13.
In Luke chapter six and verse 12, it says this, over in Luke's
account of it, it says, he went up into a mountain and he prayed
all night. He went unto a mountain and he
prayed all night. So on this mountain, it don't
tell us what mountain it is, And it tells us that our Savior was
a praying man. Oh, how many times do we find
him praying? In fact, the disciples said,
Lord, teach us to pray. And he went as a praying man.
And you know, in our Lord, in his high priestly prayer in John
17, how many times did our Lord said, I pray for them that thou
gavest me. I pray not for the world, but
those that thou gavest me. They received your word, Lord,
that I gave you. I told them about you, and they
believed. And I tell you what, and our
Savior was a praying man. And I believe, you know, this
is just, I'm just gonna, I'm bad to paraphrase. But anyway,
he go, Father, Father, here I am. And I'm gonna choose 12 men 12 men, and you gave me those 12
men. And you've ordained these 12
men. You chose these 12 men. You gave these 12 men to me.
And Lord, give me wisdom. Oh, Father, give me wisdom. Because
these men, to teach these men, instruct these men, protect these
men, uphold these men, be the shepherd of these men, teach
these men. Love these men, keep these men,
teach them to love me. And oh, put it in their hearts
to love me and follow me. And Lord, they're gonna carry
on after I return. And oh my, if our Lord done that,
how we should ask our Lord for direction before we start anything. Lord, please direct my path.
If he prayed before he chose the 12, how often we should pray
for preachers who God called. You know, almost everybody gets
up here to pray, and they pray in the study. They always pray
for me, and I'm very thankful for that. I'm very, very thankful
for that. You know, pray for preachers
that are called of God. I pray for my preacher brethren.
I've got preacher brethren up this morning, they're laborers
in the Kingdom of God, but oh, how we should pray for preachers
called of God, preachers sent of God! That's what He called
them, CALLED them, and turned to Himself and SENT them to preach! Huh? And I tell you, that's why
the Lord said, When you know men that say they're called to
preach, and I was talking to a fellow the other day, and he
feels like he's called to preach, and all, you know, he's told
me, and I, you know, the scripture says, lay hands suddenly on no
man. What that means is that don't you set your approval on
somebody just because they exercise a little bit of gift. If God's
called a preacher, if God's called a man to be a preacher, if God's
called a man to preach the gospel of grace, you'll find out soon
enough without him running around telling you he's called. Huh? It'll come out on him. It'll,
you know, it's like your salvation. It'll leak out on you after a
while. It'll leak out. I'll tell you,
you don't have to wonder why they're called to preach. No,
you won't. And I'll tell you one thing you'll
know about them. Every single one of them preaches the same
gospel, preaches the same Lord, preaches the same salvation,
preaches man in his awful state. God s sovereignty, God s electing
grace, God s effectual calling, God s irresistible grace, and
God s perseverance and preservation of His people, every single one
of them does. I ll tell you something, one
of the most awful things can happen to anybody sitting in
a congregation of an unconverted, uncalled, unsent preacher. They
re death to their hearers, death to their hearers. Oh Lord, send
us, send us laborers into the harvest. And then, you know,
over in Luke again, we would look over there, but you know,
I can tell you what it says. And it says, when it was day,
when it was day, he prayed all night and when it was day, when
it was day, he no sleep, no sleep, up all
night praying. Then what happened when he done
that? He called unto him whom he was. I can't get over that. He called
unto him whom he was. Oh my. And they called him his
disciples. Called him his disciples. Oh
my. You know what a disciple is? a learner, the disciples. John had HIS disciples. You know,
they followed John around as John pointed to Christ. Everybody
s got disciples, but He called unto Him HIS disciples. A disciple
is a learner. A disciple is a pupil. A disciple
is an adherent, a follower. a close personal relationship
with the one that's teaching them, that they follow. And out
of all these disciples that followed him, all these people that followed
him, all these people who wanted to learn, out of this group,
he chose 12. Chose 12. And then he named them
apostles. He named them apostles. And you
know what an apostle is? Now after the last apostle, after
Paul, that was the last apostle on this earth. There never has
been another apostle. There's false apostles, deceitful
workers, but he named them apostles. An apostle is an office that
our Lord gave to His people. And He gave them authority that
nobody else on earth had. He gave them gifts that nobody
else had. He gave them power that nobody
else had. They could cast out demons, They
could heal sicknesses. If they said, ìCan I curse on
a man?î He is cursed. If they said, ìHeís blessed.î
He is blessed. And let me tell you what some of them were. Four
of these men were fishermen, fishermen, just old fishermen. They made their life fishing.
And you know when you fish and you make your life fishing, You
know what you do, you know what you smell like? Smell like fish. Smell like fish. When I go fishing,
I even wear gloves so I don't have to go home and wash my hands
with lemon because I can't stand the smell of fish on my hands.
And you know, they're awful, they stink. Somebody else clean
them, somebody else fry them, and I'll eat them. But they smell
like fish, they stunk. They stuck, and four of them
were fishermen. One of them was a publican, and
all Pharisees and scribes hated publicans. But I tell you something
about all of them. Not one of them was rich. Not
one of them was great. Not one of them was noble. Not
one of them was connected to prominent people. Not one of
them could add anything to the kingdom of God. The only reason
they was called is because Christ said, come unto me and that you
should be with me. And I'll tell you something else.
Not one of them was a Pharisee. Not one of them was a scribe.
Not one of them was a priest. Not one of them was a ruler or
an elder in Israel. In fact, when they caught him
in Acts chapter 4, and caught them fellas preaching over in
the temple, and healed that lame man, and that lame man laying
there in Acts chapter 3, I think it was, and he's going in the
temple to pray, and that man's sitting there asking for alms.
You know what Peter said? I ain't got no money. I ain't
got no silver. I ain't got no gold. But I tell
you what I do have. I have a wonderful relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, and He gave me power. Stand on your
feet. And that man jumped up and leaped
and went into the house of God praising God and jumping up and
down. Huh? Oh my, is it poor? But they had
something nobody else had. And I'll tell you what, when
they caught him in Acts chapter four and wanted to tell these
fellows to quit preaching, you know what the first thing they
said about him? They had seen, took notice that they had been
with Jesus, and here's the second thing they said. They're ignorant.
These fellows are ignorant. And they're unlearned. That's
what the world thinks about people. That's what the world thinks
about people. Oh my. You know, how many preachers
do you know that you know that did not go to any school at all
other than just a college, regular college? None of these fellows
was prominent. None of them was noble. None
of them was connected to promised people. None of them was businessmen
that knows how to conduct his services. None of them was businessmen
that could help out the church with their offices and their
power and their abilities. None of them was nobody. All
of them was nobody. The only thing that made them
to differ was Christ called unto him whom he would. Are you interested
in Christ calling you? Let me ask you that, would you
have Christ to call you? Would you have Christ to call
you? Are you one of them that He would call unto Him whom He
would? Would you be a nobody like Simon Peter and all these
fellas? Would you be nothing? Would you
be a stinking fisherman? Would you be an old sorry publican? Would you be one of them? Would
you? Oh, listen. I want to be one
of them woods. Call unto him whom he would.
Oh, Lord, call me unto you. Keep calling me unto yourself.
Never stop calling me. Never stop calling me. Never,
ever take your voice from my ears. Never, never leave my heart
to itself. Never, Lord, please don't do
that. Never do that to me. Please, Lord. Oh, my. And this shows us that I, let
me show you something here. This shows us that our Lord's
kingdom, our Lord's kingdom was entirely, entirely independent
from anything in this world. I tell you, God's kingdom did
not depend on anything. He just called unto Him whom
He would, and that they should be with Him. The church and God's
kingdom absolutely don't need anything. You know what our Lord
said? He said, if I was hungry, if
I was hungry, you reckon I'd ask you? He said, gee, all them
cattle on them hills, they every one of them belong to me. And
I'm not poor. He said, all the gold that's
on these mountains and in these hills belongs to me. Oh, listen. People, you know, well, we need,
we gotta have a running sale so we can collect money up for
the church. I remember when I first come
down here, there's a little old place over at Hell's Chapel.
And I went in there, that's when they used to have boards on the
wall when you come in, how many people was in attendance and
how much money they give and all that kind of stuff. I seen
on that board one day, that church gave $4, $4, $4. I thought, Man alive, I don't
want to be around this bunch, and I didn't know straight down
falling out of a tree at that time. But $4? Congregation of
people meeting together to worship Christ and say that Christ is
everything and then give $4? It's not that God needs their
$4, what I'm telling you is this, you don't have to do a thing
in the world but what God puts in your heart to do. If God puts
it in your heart to love Him, know Him, if He's got your heart,
He's got you. If He's got your soul, He's got
you and everything you own. Huh? Oh, the church wasn't built by
power or might but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And I tell you,
the Lord used these men to turn the world upside down. They didn't
possess any money. They didn't possess any power.
But I tell you what they did possess. They possessed Christ
in their hearts and in their lives. They possessed the Word
of God, the doctrine of Christ. They possessed the Word of Christ.
And God saves men with words. Christ saved men with words.
And I tell you what, when they started preaching the first time
Simon Peter preached, 3,000 were saved. Second time he preached,
5,000 were saved. Oh, my. And I tell you what,
it's still that way today. We still have to use the Word.
You know, when Andrew first saw Christ and understood who he
was. God made him know who he was. You know what the first
thing he did? He went and got his brother Simon Peter, Simon,
and he brought him to him and said, there's the Christ, here's
the Messiah, right here, right here. Let's go over their names
now, let's go over their names. He gave them his power, let's
look at their names. And Simon, Simon, he surnamed
Peter. Oh my, Simon. And he gave him the last name,
a surname of Peter. Renamed him. He was Simon, son
of Bona Geres. But he named Simon Barjona. And he named him Peter. Called
him Rock. You're a rock. And now I tell you what, he didn't
name him Rock because of what he was, but what grace would
make him to be. You know, he went from doubt,
from trust to doubt, just that quick. When I, Lord, went walking
on the water, and Tom and Peter said, Lord, if it's you, tell
me to come to you. He stepped off that boat and
stepped on that water and stopped off walking. But a big wave come
up in front of him. Down he went. Trusted him, and
boom, down he went. Stuck his hand up and said, Lord,
save me, I perish. Our Lord just got his hand, stepped
on the boat with him. I don't think he had to try to
get him around the neck and try to save him the way they do in
the life of God. Our Lord just, he was walking on the water and
Peter's coming to him, he went down. Our Lord just wretched
and got him by the hand, stepped out of the water onto that boat
and set him down there with him. That's what kind of Christ we
worship and serve. I mean, how many times has he
rushed and got our hand? We say, Lord, SAVE ME, I'LL PERISH! And oh, when he went to confessing
Christ to rebuke at Him. You remember when he says, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and he said, You're
so blessed, Simon Peter. And then just a few verses later,
our Lord said, I must be delivered under the hands of sinful men
and die, suffer and be crucified. You know what he said? Simon
Peter got ahold of him and said, oh Lord, no, no, no, no, no,
that's not gonna happen. Can't have that happen. He went
from being blessed, be called, get behind me, Satan. You don't
understand the things of God. And I tell you, he went from
the, He went, you know, when our Lord was fixing to wash the
feet, Simon Peter said, oh no, Lord, you're not gonna wash my
feet. He said, if I don't wash you, you ain't got no part with
me. Oh, what Lord? Not only my feet, wash my hands,
wash my head, wash me all over. He always went to the extreme.
And then he boldly, boldly declared, Lord, I'll go with you to death. If you go to prison, I'll go
with you. If you go die, I'll die with you. And then that very
night, he denied the Lord three times. Oh my, that's Simon. I can identify with him, I really
can. And then look what it says here
about James and John, the sons of the brother of James. James
and John, the brother of James, he surnamed them sons of thunder,
bona geris, sons of thunder. These fellas, I mean, they had
some power. Sons of Thunder, you know, when
they was going through some areas, they wouldn't receive Christ,
said, Lord, you just tell us what to do. We'll call fire down
from heaven on them. These fellas was upset. Oh my. And then Phillip, I want you
to see this over here. I think it's He was the one who found Nathaniel.
And I, Lord, in John chapter 14, let me show you something
over here. I want you to see this. I'm taking way too long,
I'm afraid. I don't want to wear you out,
but I'm just about done. John 14, and look what I, you
know, look what Philip, He found Nathaniel, and Philip was a man
who was mildly used of God, and he said, show us the Father.
And no, that's not where I wanted
to go. That's not where I wanted to go. But anyway, Philip said,
show us the Father, and that'll satisfy us. And he said, if I've
been with you such a long, long time, Philip, and you don't know
us, you don't know me, you don't know me, And I tell you, John
in Bartholomew and Nathanael, Nathanael, you know, you all
remember the story. Let me tell you this. I'll hurry
up. Nathanael, Philip found Nathanael. Philip found Nathanael. And he
said, we have found him whom Moses said, would come, the Christ,
Jesus of Nazareth. You know what Nathanael said?
He said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Well, Nathanael
got up and he went with Philip and he went to Christ and they
come to Christ and our Lord says about Nathanael said, a prophet
in him, an Israelite indeed in whom is no God. And he said,
where do you know me from? He said, before Philip went over
and found you. He said, I saw you under that
fig tree, sitting down there taking life easy. I saw you under
that fig tree. Oh, thou art indeed the Christ.
You sure are. And then there's Nathanael, you
and Nathaniel. They went back fishing when Peter
and them went back fishing. And then there's Matthew the
publican. Oh, Matthew, the publican. What a publican he was. Oh, my. And then let me show you this.
Thomas. And we went down there and then we got Thomas. Thomas. Everybody knows who Thomas is.
Everybody calls him Doubting Thomas. Thomas was a pessimist. Pessimist. He was one of them
fellas that desponded all the time and seen nothing but negative,
negative, negative, negative, negative. Always seen the negative
in everything that ever happened. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
said, I'm gonna go where you can't go. I'm gonna go and you
know the way. You know what the first thing
Thomas said? We don't know where you're going, Lord, and there's
no way in the world we can know how to go where you're going.
See, he saw that and our Lord said, oh, I'm the way. That's
all he said. But he said, there's no way in
the world we can know where you're going. And you all know the story
very, very well. where he told his disciples,
he told the Lord, he told his disciples, I will not believe
unless I can put my finger in his hands and take my hand and
put it in his side, because I know what happened to him on that
cross. And about that time, Christ appeared unto him and said, here,
go ahead, if that's what it takes for you to believe. That's how
gracious our Lord is. If it's what it takes you to
believe, I'll give you what it takes for you to believe. And
if he don't give you what it takes to believe, you won't believe.
But anyway, he said, oh, he fell down before my Lord and my God. Oh my. And I, Simon, he's called
Canaanite, that means zealous. And there's a Judas, the brother
of James. And then look what it says here
in verse 19. And Judas Iscariot, which also
betrayed him. Oh my. Every time Judas is mentioned,
he's mentioned as betraying Christ every single time. He was the
traitor. Did Christ choosing him make
him the traitor? No. He was the son of perdition
from the beginning. Here's a man who sold Christ.
He loved money. The love of money is the root
of all evil. He sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver. And they
bought this oil to put over Christ's head. Three of them, he said,
oh, that could have been given to the poor. They said, oh, not
because he cared for the poor, but because he kept the bag.
He was a thief. And when it was time to take
Christ, you know how he told everybody who Christ was? He
said, the one whom I kiss, the one whom I kiss, take him. Oh,
kissed him, betrayed him with a kiss. And then he had the audacity
to, when our Lord says, he that lifted up his, dips in the sop
with me, he's all gonna betray me. He said, is it I? And then
he went, throwed all that money down. I betrayed the innocent
one. Went, hung himself and went to his own place. I tell you,
if this tells us one thing, One thing, when I went through all
these men, Christ called unto Him, He would. Let no man glory
in the flesh. No man. If you're gonna glory,
glory only in Christ. Huh? You reckon the Lord would
call you? I pray God would call you. Our Father, blessed, blessed
name of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us to preach
the gospel again this side of eternity. Oh, what a blessing,
what a privilege to be able to stand before people and preach
the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ, his power, his glory,
his sovereignty, his love. Oh, God, thank you for meeting
with us. Lord, work in hearts. There's darkened minds, but you
can turn on the light. There's dead hearts, but you
can give life to that heart, take out that heart of stone,
give a heart of flesh. Lord, if you do it, it'll be
done. Lord, we leave the message with you. You do with it what
you will, what you're pleased to do. Bring glory to yourself
through all of us. and do it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. Let's do 318 in the hymn
book. We all love that. We love that. I need thee. Oh, I need thee.
Let's stand together. Sorry I took so long this morning. I need thee. Oh, I need thee.
Every hour I need thee. most precious can be Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power, Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I need thee every hour. I need thee every hour. Enjoy
your pain. Enjoy your pain. Oh, come quickly,
Lord. Oh, come quickly, Lord. And abide. And abide. Oh, I need you, Lord, I need
you. Oh, I need you. Every moment,
every moment. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I need thee. Oh, most holy one. Oh, Lord, make me thine indeed. Oh, thou blessed, blessed son. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Oh, we do. We really, really do. Well, see
you tonight, six o'clock, God willing. Lord bless you.