Good evening, let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 489. 489. ? Down at the cross where my Savior
died ? Down at the cross where my Savior died ? Down at the
cross where my Savior died ? Down at the cross where my Savior
died ? Down at the cross where my Savior died Glory to His name Glory to His
name Then to my heart was the blood of Christ Glory to His
name ? I am so wondrously saved from
sin ? Jesus so sweetly abides within ? There at the cross where
he took me in ? Glory to his name ? Glory to his name ? ? There to
my heart was the blood applied ? ? Glory to his name ? ? O precious
fountain that saves from sin ? ? I am so glad I have entered
in ? ? There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean ? ? Glory to his name ? ? Glory to his name ? ? Glory to
his name ? There to my heart was the blood of Christ ? Glory
to his name ? Come to this fountain so rich
and sweet ? Unchained today and be made complete
? ? Glory to His name ? ? Glory to
His name ? ? Glory to His name ? Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 235. 235. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. groups that are calling. Do not pass me by. hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling,
? Do not pass me by ? Let me add a throne of mercy
? Find a sweet Kneeling there in deep contrition, help my unbelief. ? Savior ? ? Hear my humble cry
? ? While on others' throats ? ? Trusting only in thy merit ? Would I seek thy
favor Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by Thy grace. Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by Thou the spring of all my comfort and life to me. Whom have I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven but thee Savior Savior Hear my humble
cry While on others Thou art Good evening, I'd like to read
Titus And start in chapter 2, verse 11, and read down through
verse 3. Titus 2, verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men. teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto him a peculiar people, zealous
of good works, These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all
authority. Let no man despise thee. Put
them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to
obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak
evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness
unto all men. For we ourselves were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures,
living malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us. by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. That being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou
affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might
be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions
and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and
vain. A man that is an heretic, after
the first and second admonition, reject, knowing that he that
is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself. When
I shall send Artemis unto thee, or Titicus, Be diligent to come
unto me in Nicopolis, for I have determined to winter there. Bring
Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently,
that nothing be wanting unto them. And let ours also learn
to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. All that are with me salute thee.
Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.
Amen. Almighty God, we thank you for
this day. We thank you for bringing Cody and we ask that you'd be
with him again today. We thank you for the message
this morning. Thank you so much. We ask that you'd be merciful
to those of our family and those that we love that don't know
you and don't care anything about you, Lord. We ask that you would
be with your saints that are sick and afflicted, and we ask
that you do what you would have done, Lord. You're merciful,
and you're gracious to us all. And we appreciate you. We thank
you so much. For Christ's sake, we ask all
these things. Amen. Hymn number 292. 292. We'll save
the second portion of the chorus to the very end. A pilgrim was I, and a wandering
In the cold night of sin I did roam When Jesus, the kind shepherd,
found me and now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. He restoreth my soul when I'm
weary. He giveth me strength day by
day. He leads me beside the still
waters. He guards me each step of the
way. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me. All the days, all the days of
my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me. All the days, all the days of
my life. When I walk through the dark,
lonesome valley, my Savior will walk with me there. And safely his great hand will
lead me To the mansions he's gone to prepare. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me ? All the days, all the days of my life ? Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me ? All the days, all the days
of my life ? And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord Forever,
and I shall feast at the table spread for me Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my
life. All the days, all the days of
my life. Brother Cody, you come and bring
the gospel message to us once more. Good evening. This isn't turned
on yet. Well, there we go. I ain't got
to push a button. If you will turn with me to Job
chapter 34. Job 34. I was struggling trying to find
a message for tonight and I resorted to my Sunday school lessons that
I teach the high schoolers back in Kingsport. Gabe has told me
these can often be helpful in preparing a message to bring
to the congregation. Sometimes I end up using them
and working with them. I was running late looking for
something, and this lesson came to my attention, and it blessed
my heart, so I hope and pray the Lord gave me something, and
I trust he'll be pleased to speak comfort and peace to us tonight,
and I trust he will. Here in Job 34, look with me
at verse 12. It says, yea, surely God will not
do wickedly. Neither will the Almighty pervert
judgment." What I want to do tonight is consider this word,
surely. This will be one of our several
texts that we'll consider. But what a wonderful word, surely,
is. I say that word all the time. Well, surely this, or surely
that. That's not what it is. I want
to see right here and everywhere we look at in the scriptures
that has this word, and we're just going to look at a few.
This word is in the Bible many times, but it's a blessed, glorious
word, and I pray that it'll be comforting to us. You see what
he said here? He said, "'Yea, surely God will not do wickedly,
neither will the Almighty pervert judgment, I don't know how familiar
you are with the book of Job. Some of you, I'm sure, are more
familiar with it than I am, but we know Job suffered much. There,
in seemingly an instant, in chapter one, the Lord took everything
that man had from him. And then if you read on, in chapter
one, Job said, the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed
be the name of the Lord. But you read on in the following
chapters, and Job, he said some not so great things. And this
is a long book, but here, I think in chapter 32, this man Elihu
started preaching to Job. He was angry at Job, and he was
angry at Job's miserable friends. And what he said right here,
Job needed to hear it, and so do we. You know, we know that
whatever happens, God is in control. God is the doer of it. We know
what Job said about the Lord giving and the Lord taking away,
but how often do we forget it? How often do we need to be reminded
that God only does good. Surely he will not do anything
wicked. He will not do wickedly. He will not pervert judgment.
Now it goes without saying we live in a wicked world. We by
nature are wicked sinners. But what about our God? You know,
when I think about our wickedness, I can't help but think about
how God overrules that for good. One of my favorite accounts in
all the scriptures has to do with our brother Joseph. You think
of all the wicked that befell that man, and yet none of it
was by chance. None of it was by accident. It
was all according to God's goodness and purpose. His brothers meant
evil, but God said, I meant it for good. I meant it for good. Let's remember that. I saw this
quote from Pastor Don Fortner, who I believe is resting with
our Savior right now, and it's good, it says, our Heavenly Father
is too wise to err, too strong to fail, and too good to do wrong. Oh, that I might learn to trust
Him. A lot happens in life that I
don't understand, you surely don't understand. But we can
trust our God. We can trust our God that he
only does good. I won't quote it to you, but we know Romans
8.28, don't we? It seems like things are not
working together sometimes, doesn't it? But we'd be fools to forget
who is working all things together for good, for the good of his
people. All right, turn over a few pages
to Psalm chapter 23. Psalm chapter 23. Look at the last verse of this
psalm, Psalm 23. It says, Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. We just sang it. This blessed
psalm concludes with this most glorious verse, goodness and
mercy. Now, we just looked at a verse
in Job Again, you think of that man's life. You think there in
chapter one when the Lord, when he got word that his children
had all been killed just like that, that he lost everything,
do you think he thought what goodness and mercy? Do you think
that when trials come your way? Honestly, it's a wonder to me
that God gave him the grace and the faith to say what he did
there in chapter one, and it's no wonder that he wound up discouraged. We're no different. But everything
that our God has for us, brethren, is goodness and mercy. The trials are painful. We would
change them, right? I love that quote from Scott
Richardson. Had the power of God, I'd change
everything, but if I had his wisdom, I wouldn't change a thing.
You know, we say that, we hear that said, and I believe it. Believe it, whatever God has
for us is good. Thought of this, eternal goodness
awaits us if we're in Christ. You know what eternal goodness
is? It's Christ himself. He is goodness. I love right
here in this psalm, it starts with, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. Oh, the goodness of our God. Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. Talk about something we could
go home dwelling on. When I read that, I can't help
but think of what our Lord said in John 14. He said, let not
your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again. and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also." Child of God, that
is a word to us. And it's sure, it's certain. We don't have to wonder, well,
we know. I mentioned Romans 8.28, you
know how that verse starts? We know. All these things, these
things are most surely believed among us, aren't they? God's
word Christ revealed in the scriptures most surely believed among his
people. Turn over to Psalm 76. Psalm 76. And I'll just say this, we could
hear anybody stand up and give a speech or preach or Gabe says this all the time,
don't believe me, believe God. If what I'm saying is coming
from this book, then you can believe me. But my concern is
that you and I both believe what God has to say. All these verses
we're looking at that have this word surely, if God said it then
may God help us to believe it. It's sure, it's steadfast, it's
certain. Look here, Psalm 76 verse 10. Says, surely the wrath
of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath shalt
thou restrain. Man is so full of wrath. I say man, here in an hour or
so, I'll be out on the road, dangerous place, behind a steering
wheel, and I can just, normally Sunday night traffic is not too
bad, but I'm sure somebody will do something that'll cause a
little bit of wrath to start flowing inside me. I mentioned this morning about
the tragedies we keep hearing about on the news. Wrath, man's
wrath, man's sin. It causes us to be anxious, causes
us to be careful, causes us to worry and fear. But let me tell
you this. I rejoice to tell you this. Man's
wrath is nothing to our God. Man's wrath does not pose a threat,
may pose a temporary threat to you and me, but man's wrath is
no threat to our sovereign God who's on his throne. There is
no one and nothing that our God cannot restrain. I love how it
said right here, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Sometimes we think we're high
and mighty. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was
high and mighty. But then he learned this, that all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing before God. Let's remember who's
in control, brothers and sisters. No matter what the situation
is, our God's in control. Sin and corruption are running
rampant in this world, but God is having his way in the whirlwind
and in the storm, the clouds are the dust of his feet. God
alone will have the final word. The wickedness of man, it tells
us right here, will be to his praise. Surely the wrath of man
shall praise thee. You know what we're told in Philippians
2 that every knee shall bow, every single one. I mentioned
this morning the rich man in Lazarus. The time came for the
rich man to bow too. Every knee's gonna bow, every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Surely. Turn over a few pages
to Psalm 85. Glory's verse right here, Psalm
85 verse 9 says, Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him, that
glory may dwell in our land. God's salvation is near them
that fear Him. You know it, it won't be long
till our eyes are going to see God's salvation. That's what
Simeon said when he held our Lord as an infant, a baby. He
said, let now thy servant depart in peace. My eyes have seen your
salvation. Soon our eyes are going to see him. And Job said,
with my eyes I'm going to see the Lord. I'm going to see my
Redeemer that lives. Thought of this song, it says, someday
the silver cord will break and I no more as now shall sing,
but oh the joy when I shall wake within the palace of the king
and I shall see him. You think about this face to
face. And when I do, I'm gonna tell the story saved by grace.
I shall see him face to face and tell that blessed story saved
by grace. I feel like this message is gonna
be short, so I'll have you turn, turn back a few pages to Psalm
34. This matter of fearing the Lord,
these are the verses that always come to my mind, Psalm 34. And we know this, the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If we want to have wisdom, we
need the fear of the Lord. Lord, put your fear in us. Look here,
Psalm 34, verse 9 says, Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints. And
just so you know, the word fear right here doesn't mean be afraid,
hide. It means fear reverence. honor, respect, adore, worship,
okay? Psalm 349, oh, fear the Lord,
ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him. The
young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the
Lord shall not want any good thing. With fearing the Lord,
come seeking the Lord, all right? Now look at verse 11. Come ye
children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. Well, that makes me want to fear
the Lord. I pray he might enable us to, truly. Turn over with
me to Isaiah chapter 14. Fear the Lord, we don't lack
anything. We just read, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not warrant.
Oh, how we need the Lord. Isaiah 14, look at verse 24. Isaiah 14, 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn,
saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And
as I have purposed, so shall it stand. What a verse. Whenever God has a thought, it
comes to pass. I have a lot of thoughts. A few
of them come to pass. A few. Every single thought God
has comes to pass. I love that. Makes me rejoice
in His sovereignty. Does God change His mind like
we do? Of course not. I am the Lord. I change not. That's why we're
not consumed. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, forever.
We hope in Him. We can hope in Him right now. We can hope in
Him forever. I see God's sovereignty in this verse, but let's consider
his thoughts for a moment, okay? Let me read you a couple verses.
This one, I hear this one quoted a lot by lost people. This is
for God's people. What I'm about to read to you
is only for God's people, okay? Jeremiah 29 11, for I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, sayeth the Lord. Thoughts
of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end. Again, I think we saw it pretty
clearly this morning that God's thoughts toward the wicked are
not thoughts of peace. You know, a lot of people say,
peace, peace, where there's no peace to be had. No peace in
this flesh. There's no peace in these wicked
works that is all we can produce. But there's peace in God. There's
peace in Christ. There's peace through the blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He made peace. He is our peace.
And I love how that verse ends with, to give you an expected
end. We have a confident expectation, don't we? You know that's what
hope means. Well, I hope for this, I hope for that. Our hope
in Christ is a confident expectation. We have an expected end. We really do. And again, it goes
right with that great gulf that's fixed. Christ has fixed, he's
reserved our place in heaven at his feet. It's fixed. It's
our expected end. God's thoughts toward us. We're
told in Psalm 40 verse 5 that God's thoughts toward us are
more than can be numbered. Can't count them. We can't reckon
them. Amazing. Right here, Isaiah 14,
24 again. The Lord of hosts hath sworn,
saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and
as I have purposed, so shall it stand. We know God's purpose
was to save sinners, wasn't it? At the announcement of our Lord's
birth, first of all, our Lord's birth was prophesied in the Old
Testament scriptures. It all pointed to the Messiah,
which was to come. And when the angel came, he said,
thou shalt have a son, conceived of the Holy Ghost, thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
And he did. He didn't try to. I love what
we're told in Isaiah 42, how that he shall not fail nor be
discouraged. What a mighty God we have. The
Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save.
Surely he will save. Surely he will accomplish his
purpose. As I've purposed, so shall it stand. Nothing's gonna
hinder God's purpose. Nothing's gonna keep him from
doing what he's gonna do. You know, all the time I have
things in mind that I wanna do and then something happens and
I can't do it. Oh, it's not that way with God. It's not that way
with God. Maybe there's someone somewhere
on this earth today that God is pleased to speak to for the
first time. Is anything gonna stop him? Maybe
God's gonna give us a word of encouragement. Is anything gonna
stop him? Is this fool gonna stop him? Try as I may, I can't
stop him. I can't stop God, sovereign God,
from doing what he will. Because of God's purpose to save
us, that's the only reason he has such thoughts toward us.
Because of Christ, because we're in Christ. Praise God for his
purpose and his thoughts in Christ. Now this book might be hard to
find, but turn with me to Micah chapter two. Once I find it,
I'll tell you what page it is in my Bible. Micah chapter two. It's page 1153 in my Bible, Micah
chapter two. Micah chapter 2 verse 12. Micah 2 verse 12 says this, I will surely assemble, O Jacob,
all of thee. I will surely gather the remnant
of Israel. I will put them together as the
sheep of Bozrah, As the flock in the midst of their fold, they
shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. I will surely assemble, O Jacob,
all of thee." I love that. All of thee. We're told in John
10 that he said, other sheep I have which are not of this
fold. There's going to be one fold. I don't know anything about
sheep. I hear they're stinky and they're
dumb and they need a shepherd. I think I can relate to that.
But there's going to be one fold. One flock of sheep. And there's
going to be one shepherd. And we're told right here that
it's a remnant. He said, I will surely gather
the remnant of Israel. That's the scraps. That's the
leftover. When my children eat, if there's
any food left over, I eat it. It never fails. But most people,
most people don't care for scraps. Back home, when I lived back
home, we would take, we'd dump everybody's scraps into a bowl,
I'd go dump it to the dog. That's what remnants are. That's
what God's people are. Dogs, aren't we? Truth Lord. The dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from their master's table. But though God's people are referred
to here as a remnant, and not just here, it's in other places
in the scriptures too, we're also told that God's people are
a number that no man can number. Anytime I think of the word number,
I feel the need to tell you that I work with numbers. I'm an accountant.
I've seen some pretty big numbers. You can multiply and multiply
and keep on multiplying. But if God said it's a number
no man can number, I believe it's a number no man can number,
myself included. The Lord our shepherd, right here he tells
us, I will surely assemble, I will surely gather. Who does the assembling?
Who does the gathering? Who does the calling? Who does
the seeking? Everybody thinks they're out there seeking the
Lord. The Lord must seek us. He's termed us sought out. He sought us out, not forsaken.
We're going to be sought, and God must seek us. You remember
that lost sheep? We're talking about he's going
to gather, he's going to assemble. He left those 99 just persons
in the wilderness that needed no repentance, and he went out
and he found that lost sheep. And he put it on his shoulder
and carried it home rejoicing. There's rejoicing in heaven over
that one lost sheep that was found. God will surely gather
his people. And this is how he does it. He's
gathered us here together around his word and his name to worship
him. And he gathers us in the time
of love in the name of Christ. He calls us by the gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He gives
us an ear to hear, eyes to see, a heart to believe on him, receive
his word with joy and gladness. And I love this. He will gather. He will assemble. He's not gonna
forget one. You know, I often think, well, if one's gonna get
left behind, it'll be me. It'll be me. One might slip through
the cracks. With us, things slip through
the cracks. Not with our God. I love what he said in John 6,
39. This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me, and that's who's gonna be saved, all that
the Father gave him, the remnant, the number no man can number,
that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, not
one, but raise it up again at the last day. Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Turn over just a couple pages
to Zechariah chapter eight. Zechariah chapter 8. I think this might be my favorite
one. Zechariah 8 verse 7. Zechariah 8 verse 7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from
the west country, and I will bring them, and they shall dwell
in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and
I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness, surely. Surely not, and I like this.
For a long time I wondered what it meant when the Lord is referred
to as the Lord of hosts. Here's the best description I
got. The Lord of many hosts. He's gonna host a multitude. That great marriage supper of
the Lamb, there's gonna be a great multitude, and our Lord's gonna
be the host. He's the bridegroom. He's the
host. The shepherd, the preacher, you
name it. Our Lord's it. The lamb. Surely
God will save his people. And I like this too, how it tells
us here from the east, from the west. No matter who we are, no
matter what we've done, no matter where we came from, God has people
all over this world. We know of a few. We know of
a few congregations here and there, don't we? It's been such
an encouragement to me. Over the last few months, Gabe
has told us about these men in Africa that have been reaching
out to him. And none of them knew each other. And he's put
them in contact with each other. They're a lot closer to each
other than we are to them. And there was, just a couple
weeks ago, one of them They wanted Gabe to preach to them live streaming,
just to them. And of course, we could tune
in if we want to. But they needed a speaker. Just
bless my heart. So we were going to buy them
a speaker, a Bluetooth speaker. And one of our, I think it was Brandon,
mentioned that their power is different there than it is here.
So it's got to be a certain special type of speaker. And Gabe got
in contact with one of those other brothers down there in
Africa and told him the situation, said, hey, do you all have this
kind of power over here? And he said, yes. And Gabe said,
OK, well, they need a speaker. We're going to buy them a speaker
and send it to them. And he said, well, that's fine, but you've
got to let me pay for it. That other brother, he didn't
know who they were. When Gabe told me that, it just
blessed my heart. God has a people all over this world. When I first
came here, I believe in 2014, I had started going to gospel
conferences and they were blessing my heart. It just felt like for
two and a half, three days, it just felt like an out of this
world experience. The joy and the blessing of gathering
with God's saints and meeting them, getting to know their names,
where they came from, how they heard. Getting to sit and hear the good
news of what Christ has done for sinners. Oh, my soul, from
the first time I ever got to sit in one, once God had given
me a desire to, I used to not care for it. Oh, how it blessed
my heart to be reminded that God has a people. He's working
salvation in the midst of this earth. He's calling them out
left and right, bringing them together. It's a blessing. God's people
are a blessing to one another, and I'm so thankful He's saving
His people. Surely God will save his people.
I like what it tells us right there. The end of verse eight
said, They shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth
and in righteousness. It pleased the Lord, brethren,
to make us his people. We didn't decide to be his people.
We didn't wake up one day, well, I think I want to be a child
of God. God was pleased to make us his people. And again, who's
he talking about? Oh, the Jacobs, the Israels,
the no-good sinners. This is a wonderful message I
get to proclaim. What God's done for sinners. Turn with me to
Revelation chapter 22. Here's our last one. Revelation
22. The whole point of this message
is everything about our God is certain and sure. Whatever we
read that he has done, that he's promised to do, it's sure. It's sure. When he said that he will have
mercy, he will have mercy. Surely God will have mercy. I
love that you sang that song for surely goodness and mercy.
I love that. Here in Revelation 22, look at
verse 17. And the spirit and the bride
say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is
a thirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man
that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any
man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city
and from the things which are written in this book. Verse 20,
he which testifieth these things. saith, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. We can look at so many things
in God's word that are sure and certain. But I love how God was
pleased to end his book. He warns us against adding from
it, adding to it, or taking from it, which people do all the time.
Well, God said this. Now let me give you my spin on
it. No private interpretation of
it. God's word stands fast. It shall endure forever. We can't
add to it. We can't take from it. And he
leaves us with this final word. Surely I come quickly. What are we waiting on? What
are you waiting on? Are you waiting on the world
to change? Catchy song. The world ain't
gonna change. Wars and rumors of wars, it's
the way it's been, it's the way it's gonna be. I'll tell you
what I'm waiting on. I'm waiting on my Lord to come
quickly. Often, the thought crosses my
mind, when is he gonna come? When's he gonna come? Of that
day and that hour, no man. It's gonna come like a thief
in the night. We're not gonna see it coming. If the Lord tarries and I blink
and then I'm 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years old, I don't know, and
he still hasn't come yet, I promise you, I will be thinking to some
degree, Lord, are you coming? You said you're coming quickly.
Listen, it all happens in God's time. Everything happens at God's
appointed time. My birth came at God's appointed
time. My death's gonna come at God's appointed time. I'm gonna
stand before Him and behold Him in glory face to face at God's
appointed time. Christ is coming quickly, and
it's gonna be at His appointed time. We don't know when it is,
but brethren, just rejoice knowing this. He said, I come quickly. And what's our response to that?
Even so, come, Lord Jesus. I pray we can rejoice in the
surelys, the surelys and the shalls of God's blessed word. Amen. Let's have a word of prayer. Our most high and heavenly Father,
Lord God Almighty, we bow before you once more, coming into your
presence through your blessed Son, Lord Jesus Christ. We thank
you for this message. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the surety found
in it, the surety found in Christ, found only in your word and only
in Christ. We thank you for the blessed
gospel message. We thank you for the saints who are gathered,
Lord, and the place where we are gathered that you've freely
given us. What a joy and blessing it is
to be here, Lord. And thank you
for sending your word to us. We ask that you would engrave
it in our hearts. Let us not leave here and forget
everything we've heard, Lord. Let us continue to rejoice in
your word. Cause us to walk in your light. Cause us to do thy
will. We ask for traveling mercies
as they go home this evening and we ask for traveling mercies
for our pastor and his wife. Any other saints who may be traveling.
Lord be with us through this week. Keep us from this world
and keep us from ourselves. Keep us cleaving to you. Lord, we bless thy holy name
for Christ's sake. Amen. It's been quite some time ago.
I printed off copies of The Lord is My Shepherd. It's from Psalm
23. If you have them, great. And if you don't have them, it's
293 in our hymn book. It's almost the same. It's a
different tune. The first half of the second line will be repeated
if you're reading out of the book. So we'll try this. We had guitar the last time I've
done it, and it was quite some time ago, but the Lord's my shepherd. The Lord's my shepherd, I'll
not want. He makes me down to lie in pastures
green. He leadeth me in pastures green,
He leadeth me the quiet waters by, My soul he doth restore again
And make to walk doth make Within the paths of righteousness Within
the paths of righteousness E'en for his own name's sake. Yea, though I walk in death's
dark vale, Yet will I fear none ill, For thou art with me and
thy rod, for thou art with me and thy rod, and staff me comfort
still. My table thou hast furnished
in presence of my foes, my head thou dost with oil anoint my
head thou dust with oil anoint and my cup overflows goodness
and mercy my life shall surely follow me. And in God's house forevermore. And in God's house forevermore. My dwelling place shall be. Brother, thank you again for
coming and bringing the message to us. It's been a blessing. We're dismissed. We'll meet again
Wednesday evening, Lord willing. Have a good week.