together we'll sing hymn number
226. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know at His right hand
is one who is my Savior. I take him at his word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read, for in my heart I find a need. of Him to be my Savior,
that He should leave His place on high and come for sinful man
to die. You count it strange, so once
did I, before I knew my Savior. And O that he fulfilled may see
the travel of His soul in me, and with His Word contented be,
as I with my dear Savior. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
266. Fade, fade, each earthly joy,
Jesus is mine. Break every tender tie, Jesus
is mine. Dark is the wilderness. Earth has no resting place. Jesus alone can bless. Jesus is mine. If not my soul away, Jesus is
mine. Here would I ever stay, Jesus
is mine. Perishing things of clay, Born
but for one brief day, passed from my heart away, Jesus is
mine. Farewell ye dreams of night,
Jesus is mine. Lost in this dawning bright,
Jesus is mine. All that my soul has tried, left
but a dismal void. Jesus has satisfied, Jesus is
mine. Farewell mortality, Jesus is
mine. Welcome eternity, Jesus is mine. Welcome, O loved and blessed. Welcome, sweet scenes of rest. Welcome, my Savior's breast. Jesus is mine. Good evening. If you would, let's
turn to the book of Psalm. We'll read Psalm 24 together. Psalm 24. The earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the
seas and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend
under the heel of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted
up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive
the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of
his salvation. This is the generation of them
that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Lift up your heads,
O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and
the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the
Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Let's pray. Our great and mighty merciful
Father in heaven, we come to you in this King of Glory's name,
Lord, our precious son. We can approach thee only because
of his shed blood for our sins. We ask thee to bless this congregation
tonight, Lord, with the presence of thy spirit. Bless the preacher
as he preaches the gospel once more, may it run well. We ask
thee to bless the sick of the congregation, to heal them if
it be thy will, and comfort them, be their stay. We ask these things
in Christ's name, amen. Page 34 in our course books,
we'll sing the love of God. The love of God is greater far
than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest and
reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair bowed down with
care. God gave his son to win. His erring child he reconciled
and pardoned from his sin. O love of God, how rich and pure,
how measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure,
the saints' and angels' song. When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, When men who hear refuse
to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call, God's love so
sure shall still endure, All measureless and true. The saints' and angels' song. O love of God, how rich and pure,
How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure,
the saints and angels song. Could we with ink the oceans
fill? 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,
would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Oh, love of God,
how rich and pure how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore
endure the saints' and angels' song. Amen. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. Read these
first four verses. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, or your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, SHALL
APPEAR, THEN SHALL YOU ALSO APPEAR WITH HIM IN GLORY. I WANT TO
TALK ABOUT CHRIST OUR LIFE. IT SAYS THERE, WHEN CHRIST OUR
LIFE SHALL APPEAR, THEN WE'RE GOING TO APPEAR WITH HIM IN GLORY.
NOW WE'RE TALKING ABOUT LIFE, CHRIST OUR LIFE. LET ME MAKE
A FEW COMMENTS ABOUT IT. LIFE IS RELATIVE. Life is relative. There are some people who have
life, but aren't living. Aren't living. There's people
living on machines. They're alive, but they're not
living. There are people who, through
sickness, have no quality of life. Like in nursing homes,
they don't even know where they are. They're living, but they
have no life, no quality whatsoever. And they might not even know
who they are. And some live a life of debauchery, living just for pleasure, pleasure. Some live a life of pride, self-glory,
self-righteousness, trusting in themselves. Some live a life
of partying. Peter called it righteous living.
And they call it, boy, we're really living. We're really living. When Peter says, you know, said,
they go out and we lived a life of righteous living, living according
to this old flesh and all the different lusts in it. He said,
now they don't take no pleasure in you because you don't do that.
And then there are some people that have a life of misery. They're
just miserable. They're miserable. And I've always
heard the saying that misery loves company. You get around
somebody miserable, and after a while, you'll get miserable.
They really like misery. Company does. But some live a
life of hatred, misery, never, never satisfied, never enjoy
anything. with anyone or anything, everything
upsets them. Nothing, you ask them how they're
doing? Oh, don't ask. But oh my, there's some people
just like that. They have a root of bitterness
in them, a root of bitterness. And it takes nothing to cause
that root of bitterness to spring up in them. And some live a life
no different than an animal. They get up, they go to work,
they eat, they come home, they eat, they go to bed, unconscious
of any other kind of life other than what they're living. They
just live a life that's just That's like an animal, they don't
care, they don't know anything, they just don't care. They're
just like an animal, they just get up, they do what they do,
they live, and then they go to bed and go to sleep, and they
do it over and over again. And then some lead a very, very
religious life, deceiving and being deceived. So you see what
I mean when I say life is relative? Life is relative. But I know
what real life is. I know what real life is. Christ,
our life. Christ, our life. Christ, our
life. And oh, when Christ is your life,
and it's in capital letters. I'll say this life is in capital
letters. It's a full life. Our Lord Jesus
Christ said, I am come. The thief come nothing but to
steal and to destroy. He said, I am come that you might
have life, and not just have life, but I want you to have
abundant life. I want your life to be full.
I want your life to abound. I want your life to be free.
And I tell you what, when Christ is your life, you're talking
about a life that's got joy in it, peace in it, and when we're
talking about life here that Christ gives, Christ is our life,
that's the greatest quality of life you can have in this world. You know, that's the greatest
quality you can have in this world, is the life of Christ
in you. Would you agree with that? What's
the quality of my life? I can't tell you, if God's blessed
anybody more than me, I've not yet to meet them. That's how
good my life is and what quality of life I have. And I'll tell
you what, eternal life, eternal life, a life united to Christ,
and this is what God defines as life. God's word defines as
life. Christ, our life. That's what God says about it.
And our Lord said, I'm calm that you might have life. God defines
life for us, defines life for us. Oh, my. Well, let me give
you a few things about it, several things about Christ our life.
First of all, He's the SOURCE, the SOURCE of our life. I mean,
if we have any life at all, the life of God in us, and eternal
life in us, and spiritual life in us, Christ is the source of
that life. And that's why we preach the
gospel, why we preach the Lord Jesus Christ. He told his disciples,
he said, because I live, because I live, he said, you know what? You shall live also. Just because
I live, that means you're gonna live too. That's pretty good,
that's good, ain't it? I love that. But our Lord Jesus
Christ, He's the source of all life, all life that's in this
world. He's the source of life in heaven.
He's the source of life on earth. He's the source of life in the
animal kingdom. He's the source of life in the
vegetable kingdom. I remember my mother-in-law,
she'd go out and she'd always raise a big garden and she'd
plant her beans and she'd plant her corn. And she'd pray over
Lord. They ain't gonna do no good if
you don't bless them if you don't give it a life It ain't going
out to nothing and I tell you what and that's true. I Mean
listen weeds will grow without any problem but oh for God to
give he's that he's a source of vegetable life and He's the
source of mineral life He you know Our Lord Jesus Christ said,
all the gold and all the silver on this earth is mine. So when
somebody finds it, they say, I found some gold, I found some
silver. They just find what God put there. But oh, listen, especially, but
he is especially the source of our spiritual life. Keep Colossians
and look over here with me in John 17. Look in John chapter
17. Let's look at this together. Look what our Lord said about
life. Look here in verse 1. He is the
source, especially of our spiritual life. It says in verse 1, these words
spake Jesus. and lifted up his eyes to heaven,
and I told you why he does that, because he could actually see
into heaven. And when he looked into heaven, looked at his Father,
he said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy Son, that thy
Son also may glorify thee. Now listen, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, THAT HE SHOULD GIVE ETERNAL LIFE,
IT'S A GIVEN THING, IT'S SOMETHING HE HAS TO GIVE YOU, ETERNAL LIFE
TO AS MANY AS THOU HAST GIVEN HIM, AND THEN HE DEFINES THIS
LIFE THAT HE GIVES THOSE THAT WERE GIVEN TO HIM, AND THIS IS
LIFE ETERNAL, FIRST THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW THEE, THE ONLY TRUE
GOD, AND THEN JESUS CHRIST WHOM THOU HAST SENT, That's what he
said, I'm gonna tell you what life is that I'm gonna give him.
Knowing God and knowing me. It's not I but Christ that liveth
in me. I'm gonna show you another thing
in John 11 about our Lord Jesus Christ, about death and what
Christ views as death in John chapter 11. You know, when Paul
says, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet it's
not I, but Christ liveth in me. And here, it talks about a certain man was
sick, named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister
Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose
brother, Lazarus, was sick. Therefore his sister sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus
heard that, listen to what he said, this sickness is not unto
death, but we know he died. We know he died. He'd been dead
four days by the time Christ got there. But he says, this
sickness died unto death, but only one reason, for the glory
of God, that the Son might be glorified thy breath. How? Given
life, given life. Oh my. And now back over here
in Colossians, look what he says. In verse three, for you're dead,
you were dead. You were dead. Yeah, but now
you are dead, but now He hath quickened us together with Christ.
And our life is hid with Christ in God. And so when Christ, our
life shall appear. When my Lord Jesus Christ died,
we died with Him. When He was buried, we was buried
with Him. When He was risen, we is with Him. And when He sat
down in the heavenlies, we sat down right there with Him. That's
how identified we are with Christ. That's why it's called our life,
our life. Not only is He the source of
our life, but He's the security of our life. He's the security
of it. Now, how in the world do you
know if Christ saved you, you reckon you'll stay saved? If it's left up to you, no. If
it's left up to me, no. But if it's left up to Christ,
yes. I tell you what He said, He said
in John 10, 28, I give unto them eternal life, and THEY, THEY
shall never perish. And He says, No man shall take
them out of My life. So I tell you, that's a pretty
secure place to be, ain't it? And He has NEVER lost one for
whom He died. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
pray not for the world, but those thou hast given me out of the
world. Lord, they're in the world, so you keep them. You keep them
in the world. He said, I have kept all that
you've given me, but there's only one that's not, and that's
the son of perdition. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
now they out there in the evil one, They're right there where
the evil ones at. And Lord, I give them to you
that you keep them. So we're kept by the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're kept by God the Father.
So you reckon our salvation is secure? You reckon we could lose
it? And I've quoted this so many
times. Every one of you could quote it with me. All that the
Father gives me, our Lord said. He said, you know, They said,
Lord, if you be the Christ, tell us. He said, I told you, and
you don't believe because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, went
on to say, he said, do you know what they got upset about? And
he said, all that the Father gives me, they gonna come to
me. And there's two things there
the Father gotta give you, and he always come to him. And all
that the Father gives me shall come to me, and him, him that
comes to me, I'll never, as no way, that I'll ever cast him
out. Tom and Peter denied him three
times. Did the Lord cast him out? John and James said, Lewa's
going through Samaritan, they ignored Christ. He said, Lord,
you want us to call fire down from heaven, we'll just kill
all of them. We'll be like Elijah. We'll call that fire down from
heaven, kill all these people. I said, no, we don't do that. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ. THE
OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS WERE PRESERVED BY HIM AND FORGIVEN AND JUSTIFIED
BY HIM BECAUSE OF WHAT HE IS AND WHAT HE DID, AND THEY WERE
LOOKING FORWARD TO HIM. WE LOOK BACK TO HIM. AND YOU
KNOW, LOOK RIGHT OVER HERE, GO TO YOUR LEFT ONE TIME TO PHILIPPINES
AND LOOK IN VERSE 6, CHAPTER 1, VERSE 6. CHAPTER 1, VERSE 6, LOOK WHAT
IT SAID. Talking about our security, he's
the source of it, and he's the security of it. Listen, if my
salvation, the security of my salvation, depended upon me the
least little bit, there's no way in the world I'd be secure.
But look what he said here, in verse six, being confident of
this very thing. He's a confident fellow. He said,
we're all confident. We're confident of this very
thing. He said, one thing we're confident
of, What is it we're confident of, Paul? That He which begun
a good work. Can God do anything else but
a good work? A good work, and listen, where
did He do that good work at? In you. He said, we're confident
of this thing, this very thing. Drawing attention to it, that
He which has begun a good work in you will perform it or finish
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Go finish it. And that s why
it says, When Christ, who is our life, shall appear. You re
dead, our life is hid with Christ in God, that s a good hiding
place. And now Paul asks this question, Who shall separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ? Who shall? What shall? Who shall? Anything
separate us from the love of God? We're persuaded. We are persuaded that nothing
can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ. He
said, I know troubles can't do it. I know nothing can do it. I don't know of an angel that
can do it. I don't care how high something is, how wide something
is, how deep something is. HOW TOUGH SOMETHING IS, NOTHING
SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD THAT'S IN
CHRIST. NOTHING. AND I'LL TELL YOU, AND
I'VE TOLD YOU THIS TIME AND TIME AND TIME AGAIN, THAT IF YOU CAN QUIT YOU WILL.
And folks that come and listen to the gospel for a couple of
years or three years, and they leave and you don't see them
again for three or four or five years, they don't, listen, I
don't have no more confidence than I have a monkey. I just
don't have no confidence in them. I don't believe in them. You
know, if I could have left Christ, I would have. I can't even quit
preaching. I'd like to have a preacher in
here and let me sit down and listen to somebody else for a
while. I'd love that, I'd pray for that. But I, listen, if we
can quit, we will. Ask somebody, ask Henry Mahan
out, have you ever quit, Henry? He said a thousand times. You
know, we quit up here, but we never quit in here. You know
why? God won't let us. He won't let
us. And where in the world are we
gonna go if we leave this? People talk about, you know,
can be lost and all that again. If, listen, if you can leave
Christ and you decide you're going to come back, do you know
what would have to happen? Christ would have to be crucified
again. You walk away from Christ, you
walk away from the blood, you walk away from His righteousness,
you walk away from the gospel, you walk away from the only hope
you can have in this life, and you can forget it. There ain't
nothing else that can be done for you. If Christ is not enough,
if Christ and His righteousness is not enough, if the gospel's
not enough, then there ain't nothing gonna satisfy you. And
I tell you, I don't have no more, I have no more confidence in
somebody like that than I do, as old Scott said, spitting on
the ground. I really don't. And I want you all to know that. And I've told you time and time
again, if I ever quit, and leave the ministry and quit, I'll tell
you one thing, you can mark it down, I never knew Christ to
start with. And if you can leave Christ,
if we could quit, we would. But you know why we can't? Because
our life's not of our own, Christ bought it, and Christ paid for
it, and Christ ain't gonna lose it. Ain't that right? Our life
is Christ. Now if it's of us, forget it,
we'd all be gone. And not only is he the source
of it and the security of it, but let me
tell you something else, he's the sustenance of it. What do
I mean by sustenance? You know, if they ask somebody
how they feel sometimes, well, I'm able to sit up and take a
little nourishment. Well, Christ is our nourishment. Christ is
our nourishment. Christ is our sustenance. Christ
is our food. Our Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
look with me in John 6. I mean, I know we're going over
to John. I started to preach on Christ
the Bread of Life tonight because there's about five or six things
about Him as the Bread, but in John chapter 6, look what our
Master said over here. You know, He's that true manna
which came down from heaven. I like bread, I like bread, and
then a lot of butter on it. There's one thing to have bread,
but you gotta have some butter on it. And then if you're just
right, get some good strawberry jam and put it on. It's really
good then. Or get you a hot ham and put
some cheese on it. It's really good. Huh? That's good. But listen to what
Christ said. He said here in John 6 30. They said, therefore unto him,
what sign showest thou then, that we may see thee? that we
may believe thee, what doest thou work? What work are you
gonna do that we can believe you? And they told him, he said,
our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, in the desert.
As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven. Our Lord said,
listen, you fellas don't know what you're talking about. Our
Lord said, truly, truly, I say unto you, Moses did not give
you that bread from heaven. Moses had nothing to do with
that. But my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For
the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and
listen to this, and giveth life unto the world. And this is what
I say, Lord, give me this bread, and don't stop, just give it
to me evermore, evermore, evermore. And look what else he said. And
our Lord said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me,
he'll never hunger after salvation again. He'll never thirst. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
he's that bread of life which came down from heaven. And so
we eat bread. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
his body When he broke that bread, he said, this is my body, eat
it, eat it. So he's that true man that came
down from heaven. And then our Lord Jesus Christ,
not only is he the bread, but he's also our water. There's
two things about Christ being the water. He said, that rock
that was smitten in the wilderness, that rock was Christ, and the
water gushed out of it, and everywhere they went for those 40 years
in the wilderness, that rock went with them. Now, how does
a rock move in the wilderness? If it's Christ, it'll go with
you. He said, I'm the water of life. You know, our Lord, when
He went to talk to that woman at the well, He said, if you
knew who it was, you'd ask to him and he'd give you a drink
of living water. Well, where in the world are
you going to get this water at? You ain't got no bucket. The
well's deep. He said, I'm that water. He said, you
ask me and I'll give you a drink, a real drink. And I tell you
what, so we have bread, we have measure of life, and then you
got to have light. You know, light. There's people, I don't know
how many of y'all have this, but I know people that have.
They call what they call seasonal affectation disorder. When it
gets dark and dreary and starting in March, I mean in November,
and goes all the way through February, and it just stays dark
and dreary and all that, people get so depressed and they don't
get enough light and they get down. So you know, buy your light
and put a light on you. But anyway, but that's what happens
to people. But listen, let me tell you something,
Christ is our light. It may be dark outside, you can't
see nothing. It may be the dark, you know
it, the sun may be shining, but darkness may be all over you.
But you know where you can look and see the light? Christ. We need light. And oh, no wonder
David said, Lord, cause thy face to shine, shine. on us, to shine
on us. And so he's our bread, he's our
water, he's the light, and oh my, and he's everything in between. And I tell you, we didn't give
ourselves spiritual life, and we can't sustain this spiritual
life. And let me tell you something,
we have to live naturally, with food. food. We have to have food
to live naturally. We have to have water, we have
to have light, we have to have rest, we like comfort, and Christ
is every one of those things to us. We need water? Christ's our water. We need food? Christ's our food. We need rest? Christ's our rest. Our souls necessarily has to have a spiritual
diet. And I was talking to a dear,
dear brother one time, and I was talking about somebody that wasn't
very faithful, and he said, you know, he said, some people can
live on corn husk. You know, the prodigal son lived
on corn husk. Now, he was a son, but he lived
on corn husk. I don't live on corn husk. Do
you? I want the best food Christ can
give me. I want the Lord to set the table
and I want the Lord to feed me, don't you? But there's people
who get spiritually sick. You know, when you get physically
sick, run a fever, get upset with your stomach or something
like that, you don't eat, you can't eat. And you get sick and
you start eating. And there's people that get spiritually
sick and that takes just a little to get them by. And I tell you
what, if they would come and get a regular diet and get fed
regularly, I got to eat two or three meals a day. I can't get
by with one meal a week. You know, if I went one meal
a week, I'd fade away. I'd fade away. I want all the
food I can get. All right, let me go on. Not
only is he the, source of our life, not only is He the substance
of our life and the security of our life, and He's also the
object of our life. He's the object of it. What do
I mean by that? Well, for me to live, for me
to live is what the Apostle said, for me to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ. And
that's what he said, Christ our life. He's the OBJECT of our
life. I read it to you tonight. He's
talking about Moses, I mean about Adam and how God made him Lord
over his creation, but everything wasn't put under him. He gave
him one commandment and God took all that away from him. But then
he said, but we see Jesus. What do we see about Him? Everything. EVERYTHING is under subjection
to Him. Everything's gonna be put under His feet. And so we
look to Him, we've seen Him by faith, we see Him by faith, looking
unto Jesus, author and finisher of our faith. And one of these
days we shall see Him as He is, and when we see Him as He is,
we shall be just like Him. And ain't that what it says right
here in this verse, chapter four here of Colossians 3? When Christ
our life shall appear, that tells us He's going to do that. You
know what? When He appears, we're going
to appear too. Appear right there with Him. When He comes in glory,
we're going to be in glory with Him. We're going to be glorified
with Him. Now I'm going to, we know, oh my, ever looking at
ourselves or to ourselves or anything in the flesh, you know
what it calls? Discouragement. Oh, it's just
nothing but discouragement. Despair. Depression. Doubt. But looking, looking,
looking to Christ. Living on Christ. Looking to
Christ. You know what that produces?
Joy. Peace. Assurance. Oh, we have
life with purpose. We have a life that's definite. We have a life with definitions
to it. Oh, when his disciples, he told
them twice, he told them twice, he said, I've told you no man
can come unto me except my Father, which giveth me draw. And a whole bunch went away from
him. He told them again. And they said, this is a hard
saying. who can hear, and they went away.
And he asked his disciples, he said, are you going to go away
too? Oh Lord, who can we go to? To whom shall we go? You have
the words of life, and we can't go anywhere else. And let me
show you this. He's the example of our life.
Now you look over at 1 Peter. Look over in 1 Peter. In chapter two, we dealt with
this last week a little bit. He is the example of our life.
He's the example of our life. What I'm saying is that Christ
is all in all. I guess what I'm trying to say.
I'm just dealing with it one little point at a time. But He's
everything, He's our life. The object of it, the substance
of it, And here's the example of it. Look what it said here
in verse 21, 1 Peter 2, 21. For even here unto were ye called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that you should follow in His steps. Oh, what in the world
does that mean? Well, it said he did no sin.
He did no sin. No guy was found in his mouth.
He was the perfect man and he lived a perfect life perfectly. So how in the world can he be
our example in that way? Well, he's our example of submission. He submitted to the father. He
gave himself up entirely to the Father. Gave himself up entirely
to men and what men would do to him. It didn't upset him when
men mistreated him. He was reviled, he reviled not
again. When he cursed, he didn't curse again. When he was slapped,
he never slapped back. So he was submissive. He's our
example in submitting. Submitting. Not only submitting
to Christ, but submit to one another. Submit to one another. And then He's also our example
as obedience. Obedience. Is there anything
that you want more in this life than doing what God wills to
be done in your life? Is it in your heart to disobey
His Word? Is it in your heart not to do
what our Lord Jesus Christ said? No, no, no. And let me tell you,
He's our example of humility. Humility. I think that's the
grace of all graces, is humility. Me and Brad was talking about
this morning, and I said this morning, our headquarters ought
to be in the dust. Our headquarters ought to be
way down there. We ought to always be down. I
heard Bruce Crabtree tell a young preacher one time, he said, now
listen, stay down, stay humble, keep down before the Lord. God
won't use you if you don't stay down. If you're not down there,
God won't use you. Well, he didn't stay down. He
didn't stay down. One thing God's not gonna do,
He's not gonna let His preachers get up. He ain't gonna let them
get too big for their britches, if you heard that old saying.
He's just not gonna let it happen. He's just not gonna let it happen.
And I'll tell you another thing, and He can be an example for
us. Giving. Who gave like our Lord Jesus
Christ? James was telling me this morning,
he got a letter home from his mama. She wrote a letter of all
that she believed and all that. And you know what the last line
in that letter was? Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. I'd like to leave a letter like
that behind. I'd like to leave that to be worth. Thanks be unto
God for his unspeakable gift. And oh my, another example he
can be for us is in prayer. Prayer, he went alone to pray.
Went up into a mountain to pray. Went into Gethsemane to pray.
And here's another way he's a great example for us. Forgiveness,
forgiveness. Oh. I need forgiveness all the time. I need it all the time. And all
I tell you, and forgiveness. And here's another way he can
be an example to us. He was a servant. He was a servant. We can be servants. We can wait
on one another. We can be kind and gracious and
compassionate to one another. You know, it's his image that
the scriptures tells us we're gonna be conformed to. And that
conformity starts in this world right here. That's where it starts,
that's where it starts. And then last, let me give you
another one real quick. He's the crown of our life. What
do I mean by that? You know, here in James, go back
over, and you're in Peter, go back over to James, and look
with me in James chapter one, verse 12. You know, he's the crown of our
life. James 1.12, look what he says
here. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he's tried, he's going to be tried. This
is what he said, he shall receive the crown of life, which the
Lord has promised to them that love him. Oh, my. First of all,
he's going to be our crown of life. Well, he's our life. Why
not a crown to go with it? Huh? He s our reward, He s our
crown, and He s all the stars that go in it. I got a comment
on a message that I preached way back years and years and
years ago when no reward is in Heaven. A fellow wrote me and
told me, he said, Oh, yeah, we re going to have lots of them,
and he started using verses of Scripture here and verses of
Scripture there, you know. But here s the thing about it,
crown of life, we ve already got that. Is Christ not crowned
us with life? Huh? Oh, He's the reward. He's the crown. And if there's
any stars in our crown, He's the stars of it. Oh, my. Oh, listen, Christ. You know,
when Peter, excuse me, when Paul was fixing to die, He said, I've
finished my course, I've fought a good fight, I've kept the faith. Henceforth, henceforth, there's
raised up for me a crown of righteousness, a crown of righteousness. Laid
up up there, oh my. Crown of glory, we've got a crown
of life, crown of glory, crown of righteousness, and the scriptures
tells us we're gonna have an incorruptible crown. And then
you read in Revelations chapter five, you know what happens?
Every crown that everybody ever had they took him off their head,
and they put every one of them at the feet of Christ And I any
crown that I've got right now. Why would Christ? Why would Christ
reward me? I ain't done nothing. He's the
only ones done anything Huh? When I lay my trophies down we
ain't got no trophies What trophies we got now you go out here and
play baseball get a trophy play basketball get a trophy? But boy, I tell you what, I'm sorry. I hope I'm not being
too, and that's why the apostle says, you know, to be absent
from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. Oh, what about
you? What about me? Can we say that
Christ is our life? Can we say that that Christ is
our life? Can you say for me to live is
Christ? And to die is my gain? And it says here in Colossians
3, 3, 4 again, let me just give you that. You don't even have
to look back, but it says that when Christ, our life, shall
appear, when our Lord's manifested in His glory, comes in power
and glory, we shall appear with Him. And we shall enter into
glory too. And then all will see and know
that Christ is our life because we'll be with the place where
life, eternal life dwells and enjoy Christ forever and ever
and ever. Some look forward to. Oh, our Lord and our God, our
blessed Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the day. Thank you for your great and
abundant mercies and grace given to us in Christ. Oh, Lord, we
have no life except what Christ has given us. We have no life
except what Christ sustains. We have no life unless Christ
feeds us. Oh Lord, we look unto you. You're the author and you're
the finisher of our faith. We look to you for all things.
And Lord, you're our example and help us to submit to you, obey you, practice
forgiveness and humility. Oh Lord, we can't do it without
your grace. So Lord, give us the grace. to
be humble and submissive and loving and kind and gracious
and keep down low before you, keep
down low before you. God bless these dear saints,
meet the needs of their homes, meet the needs of their heart,
keep them when they have to go out into the world, have to work,
have to make a living. have to deal with the world.
God put a shield around them, hedge about them. And Lord, I
thank you for every single one of them. And I bless you for
them. In Christ's name, amen. Jesus Christ is made to me. All I need, all I need. Jesus alone is all my plea. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power. HOLINESS FOREVERMORE BY REDEMPTION
FULL AND SURE HE IS ALL I NEED And He really is. See you Wednesday,
God willing. Yeah.