No, they don't. So you didn't
hurt them, they just sat there and talked, did they? I was telling
Diana, yeah, that's what they done. I was telling Diana, when
I was a kid, Dad, we'd get ready to go somewhere. Dad would be
ready when we were supposed to leave. Mom would still be carrying
our purses. He gets frustrated to have me
and Dad at him. I'm going to go sit in the car.
I guess he thought that would make her hurry up and all things.
Well, I know one fella, buddy, that his wife was so slow and
so slow, and he got tired of waiting on her. He just went
on to church. Done that, done her wet wait about two times.
And from then on, buddy, she has no time. She's ready to go?
He said, listen, I'm going to go. I'm tired of going in late.
Yeah. Good evening. Let's stand together.
We'll sing hymn number 17. Hymn number 17. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of cloudless praise. Teach me some mer-lorious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above Raise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, Mount of Thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine heaven-desert,
Hither by Thy help I'm come. And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home. Jesus loved me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger interposed
His precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
Find my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O, take and
seal it. Sing hymn number 233. 233. Depth of mercy can there be,
Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear,
Be the chief of sinners fair? I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face, Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls. ? Now it's finding to repent
? ? Let me now my sins lament ? ? Now the foul revolt deplored
? ? Pleads to me in sin ? There for me my Savior stands,
Holding for His wounded hands. God is love, I know I feel Jesus
keeps and loves me still Good evening. Let's all turn
to the book of Isaiah. I'd like to read a few verses
in chapter 41. Isaiah chapter 41. Keep silence before me, O islands,
and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near,
then let them speak. Let us come near together to
judgment. Who raised up the righteous man
from the east, caught him to his foot, gave the nations before
him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his
sword. and has driven stubble to his
bow. He pursued them and passed safely,
even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath
wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with
the last, I am he. The isles saw it and feared.
The ends of the earth were afraid, drew near and came. They helped
everyone his neighbor, and everyone said to his brother, be of good
courage. So the carpenter encouraged the
goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote
the anvil, saying, it is ready for the soldering, and he fastened
it with nails that it should not be moved. But thou, Israel,
art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my
friend, thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and
called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee,
thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee, Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee,
yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou
shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended
with thee. They that war against thee shall
be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord thy
God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I
will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob. and ye men of Israel, I will
help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel. Let's pray. Our Father, we join our hearts
together tonight, give you thanks for all that you've given us
and done for us, Thank you for your great mercy given to us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Thankful that you've chosen
us, called us your people, and your word speaks to our hearts
because you've given us life, you've given us spiritual life
that understands to a measure spiritual words of life in this
book. Thank you for the comfort it
gives us, Thank you for enabling us to lay hold upon your promises
to a measure. And when you say, fear not, I
will uphold thee, we take that to heart and we lean upon that. Help us to enter into that rest
that's given us in Christ that all of our battles have been
fought and won. Our enemies have been defeated. All that's against us has been
done away with and conquered. Most of all, our sin that was
laid on him, he put it away. And we stand in our sight righteous
as your dear son. How we do thank you for him.
We ask, Lord, that you condescend once again tonight and meet with
us and whisper to us, speak to us. We not just hear the words
of a man, but you would speak to us in our hearts, in our minds,
in our souls, as only you can do. Prepare our hearts to worship.
Give us ears to hear. Lord, we've gathered. As we do
most Sunday nights, we ask Lord that it not be just a meeting
of habit, but we've come to truly worship and that you've sent
a messenger to us to tell us and give us a word in due season
that would bless our souls, that would light our path, that would
encourage us and teach us and cause us to Once again, see Christ our Savior
more clearly. Help us to honor him and to set
him forth. And we know that's your ultimate
purpose, that Christ, your dear son, be honored and glorified.
And all that see him will be helped and encouraged. We remember those of our gathering
that are that are weak, those that can't
be here, those that mourn and suffer loss. Be with us all,
Lord. Supply our needs. Come and give
us grace. We need your grace. We need your
mercy. Leave us not to ourselves. And
keep us for thy dear name's sake, in Christ's name, amen. number 20 in our course books. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flow Be of sin the double cure, Save
for breath that make me pure. Nothing in papers of my hands
can fulfill Thy laws demands. Goodbye, seal, no respite, no. Goodbye, tears, forever flow. All her sin could not atone. I'm now alone Nothing in my head
I bring Simply to the cross I cling They could come to thee for dress Looked to thee for grace, fell
I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I soar to worlds unknown,
See beyond thy judgment throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let
me hide myself in thee. Job 42. Job 42. We're just about done with the
book of Job. I want you to look at a couple
of things before I deal with chapter 42. I want you to go
all the way back to chapter 38. You know, these men had been
arguing and debating about God, and they accused Job of being
a great sinner, and Elihu tried to straighten them all out. And
then look what it said in verse 1, Then the Lord answered Job
out of the whirlwind. Answered Job out of the whirlwind.
And He asked this question, Who is this that darkens counsel
by words? not having no knowledge. And
he told him, said, Gird up your anoints now like a man, for I
will demand of thee, and answer thou me. And then God began to
talk, tell him all the things that he had done, all the things
that he had done in this world, and all the things that he is
responsible for in this world. And then they get over here to
chapter 40. God's telling him all the things
that And so if you wanna go back and read how God speaks to Job
and the things that God says to Job, you read these verses
here. Moreover, the Lord answered Job
and said, shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? You're gonna instruct God Almighty,
contend with God and instruct him. He that reproveth him, you're
gonna reprove God, let him answer for it. Then Job answered the
Lord. He said, God, I'm vile. I'm vile. What can I possibly answer you? I'll lay my hand on my mouth.
I've said enough about you and wrong things about you. Once
have I spoken, but I will not answer, yea, twice, and I will
proceed no further. Then the Lord answered Job out
of a whirlwind, said, now, gird up your loins like a man. I'm
going to talk to you. And now we get over here, chapter
42, and God's been telling Job all the things that he's done.
So they ask him questions like, where was you when I made the
sea? Where was you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Where was you when I fed the Leviathan? Where was you when
I made the well? Where was you, Job, when I put
the stars in the heavens? Where was you, Job? And then
in verse 40, chapter 42, Then Job answered the LORD, and
said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought
can be withholding from thee. Now it says in the margin, no
thought of thine can be hindered. In other words, if God wills
to do something, purposes to do something, He can't be hindered
in it. And then also it does mean that
God knows every thought that we think. and there's not anything. You know, God told Abraham when
he told him that he was gonna have a child and Sarah laughed
about it. She said, that ain't gonna happen,
that ain't gonna happen. And God told Abraham, he said,
Abraham, is anything too hard for me? Is anything too hard
for me? just to show you that nothing's
too hard for me. This time next year, on this
day, I'm gonna visit you again, and you're gonna have a son.
That's how easy it is for me to predict something, prophesy
something, and have the power to carry it out. And that's what
Job was saying here. He said, Lord, I know that you
know everything, and you can do everything. They asked the
Lord one time, they said, Lord, who can be saved? Who could possibly
be saved? And our Lord said, with men it's
impossible, but with God, all things are possible. And then
he goes on to say here, now, who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? And this is why he's talking
to God, exposing himself to God. Who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? There have I uttered that that
I understood not. Things that are too wonderful
for me, which I knew not. Here I beseech thee, I beg you,
and I'll speak, and I'll demand of thee, and declare unto me.
And look what he says now. He said, I've heard, I've heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes seeth
thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and
repent in dust and in ashes. Now I want us to look at this
business of hearing and seeing. Hearing and seeing. You know,
if you're gonna hear, and John Bunyan
said this in his holy war, when God attacked the city of Mansoul,
you know where he bombarded first? The first place he attacked a
man? City of Mansoul? He attacked him right there in
his ear gate. Called him the ear gate. Nothing's gonna get
to here unless it comes through here. And so that's what he's
talking about. I heard about you. I heard about
you. I heard about you. I heard with
my ear. I heard about you. And I tell
you what, beloved, there's no way in the world that a man,
he got to hear and it makes a difference on what you hear. It makes a
great difference in what you hear. You know, there's another
Jesus and there's another gospel and there's another spirit. So
it makes a great difference as to what you hear. And if you
don't hear, let me show you what I'm talking about. Look in Romans
chapter 10. Here's a perfect illustration
of what I'm talking about. If you don't hear the right things,
you can't believe the right things. If you don't hear the right things,
you won't see the right things. It says here in Romans 10, 13,
look what it says. whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." Now, when it talks about here
calling on the name of the Lord, once you call on Him, you continue
to call on Him, it s a continual call. But then He said, How shall
they call on Him in whom they have not believed? You can t
call on somebody you don t know nothing about. You can t call
on Him for salvation if you don t know He s the Savior. You can
t call on Him the remission of your sins if you didn t know
His blood put your sin away. You can t call on Him for strength
unless you know you ain t got no strength. So you got to hear
the right thing. And look what else he goes on
to say, Then how shall they believe in Him, and listen to this, of
whom they have not heard? You got to hear the right things
about Christ. Our Lord Himself said, blessed
are your eyes that see and your ears that hear, for lots of people
desire to see what you see and hear what you hear. And then
it said, how are they gonna hear without a preacher? So there's
just something about hearing. And you remember when we went
through Revelations, how many times did it say, he that hath
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
And I tell you what, It matters what you hear. And
here's the thing about it, and I've used this illustration time
and time and time again. You all remember very well when
Herman made a profession of faith, sitting right there on that second
pew. I got through preaching out of John 5.25, the voice of
Christ. And he said, our Lord says, the
hour is coming, the hour is coming, and right now is, when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. Hermon had been under the sound
of the gospel off and on for years, and God began to deal
with him, and he stood up that day, and he said this, he said,
I heard today. He said, I heard today. I heard
something today. I heard the voice today. Our
Lord Jesus Christ said, I have other sheep which are not of
this fold, and they shall hear. There's other sheep that are
not of this fold, and they shall hear my voice, and I'll bring
them into the fold. So it makes a difference what
you hear. Now, what do we hear about Christ?
Now I don't know nothing about a Jesus that loves everybody.
I don't know nothing about a Jesus that wants to save people that
can't. I don't know nothing about a
Jesus that's knocking on hearts doors begging to be let in. I
don't know nothing about a Jesus that was left in a manger and
he was left in a manger and left there in a manger or left on
a cross. I know about a Savior that was
born into this world, born of a woman, made of a woman, come
into this world without sin, lived without sin, died without
any sin of His own, but He died with the sin of His people upon
Him. and he put that sin away by the sacrifice of himself,
his blood cleanses us from all sins, and if you don't hear the
right things about Christ, then you can't trust a Christ that
you don't know nothing about. I'm not gonna trust a Christ
who ain't got the power to save me. I'm not gonna trust a Christ
that can let me be lost again. I'm not gonna trust a Jesus that
did not put away my sin and left me something to put away myself. I'm not going to trust a Christ
that can't speak to me, that can't comfort me, that can't
keep me, that can't teach me, can't uphold me. I'm not going
to trust Him, are you? And that's what Job said, I heard
about you. God said also in Psalm 62, David
said this, I've heard once, yea, twice, that all power belongs
unto you. Now listen, we hear the first
time that all power belongs unto him. In the day of his power,
his people's made willing. And then the next time we hear,
twice, the second time we hear, we are kept by that, I've heard
once, now I know it, I know twice, his power made me willing, and
his power keeps me. Oh, everybody talk about how
powerful God is, But I tell you, it takes a powerful God. It takes a glorious Savior to
come into this world and speak to dead sinners like Lazarus.
Say, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus comes forth. It takes
a powerful voice. It takes a powerful Savior that
looks up at Zacchaeus and say, come down. And then when he come
down, he say, today I must, I must abide at your house. You know
why I must? Because I'm bringing salvation
to you today. He didn't say, I want to, I'd
like to, I intend to, I'm gonna open the door for you to. He
said, I must come to your house. And when Christ must come to
our house, he's coming. And when he comes, we say, come
and welcome. Don't we? Oh, we do, we do, we
do. Oh, my. You have to hear, and
you got to hear the right thing. Oh, listen, we got to hear the
right thing. And I tell you what, you know,
a lot of people talk about God. A lot of people talk about God. They all, everybody's got something
to say about Him, jokes about Him, talk about Him. Talk about
His love, and they talk about His willingness, and they talk
about His inabilities, and they talk about a helplessness of
Him. But now listen, if you hear about
a God like that, I don't want nothing to do with Him, do you?
Oh, you know what Henry used to say? He's a peanut God. He
rolls around like a peanut in a boxcar. He said, and most of
them are, ain't they? But they're like a peanut, like
a peanut, God, rolled around in a boxcar. And I tell you what,
not only did, look, not only, look what else he said. He said,
I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. God comes to our
ear. That's what, you know what you're
hearing with tonight? You're hearing with your ears.
But here's the difference. Once God gets your ear, and comes
to you and gives you understanding through that ear, then everything
you hear from then on, when you hear it there, it affects you
spiritually and emotionally. Don't it? But he gotta get to
ear first. He goes through that ear. And
then when he gets through the ear, you know what he says? He
said, I heard about you through the ear. Now I see. He said, now I see. Oh, what
this is telling us is that he comes to us in the gospel and
he calls us by the gospel and gives us life by the gospel,
by the word of God. And he says, now mine eyes seeth
you. Oh, it's like, it's like our
Lord prayed and said, thou has given him power over all flesh
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given
him. Oh my, and I tell you what, you
know, Job, Job himself, I tell you, God's got to come and bring
himself into conscious contact with us. Now, I've said this,
and I mean it, I really do mean it. I mean, I may go, I may be
a little, I hope I'm not going overboard with this, but I've
said if God don't come and get a hold of you, you ain't coming.
Now he don't get a hold of you by a physical hand, but he gets
a hold of you by that ear and by that understanding, and with
that understanding there, then the heart's open, the heart's
made new, and then you say, I see him. I see him, I see him, I
see him. I've never seen him like that.
We're like those seraphim that Isaiah saw. They saw him at home
and the Lord high and lifted up, he said, Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord our God. I tell you what, now this is
knowledge of God. Oh my, this is God breaking in
on a man. And I tell you what, our Lord
Jesus Christ, He's not everywhere you look, you can see Him if
you got eyes to see. But here's what the difference
is, when he gets here, he gets there. And when he gets in there,
then you say, I see. And every time you come in, right
now, some of you say, I see. You're in your heart and understanding,
saying, I see that, I understand that, I grasp that. You know,
one of the greatest blessings that God gives us, and I tell
people that all the time, they come up and say something to
me about something. I said, ain't it a, and I love
to hear the gospel, our Lord said, four messages last weekend.
And when a man's preaching, I'm zeroed in on what he's saying.
Even if I have to preach after him, I'm zeroed in on what he
got to say. And it's a blessing to me to
be able to sit there and listen to another man preach, and I
understand what he's saying, I love what he's saying, and
I believe what he's saying, and it affects me what he's saying. And that's what the gospel does
for us. What you hear and what you see. What you see. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, no
man's seen God at any time. The only begotten is in the bosom
of the Father. What does it say? He hath revealed
him. He hath told him out. He's made
him known. Oh my, I'll tell you something.
God can only really be known as God as he reveals himself
to you. You know, you can look up, you
can look at the stars and you can't know God. You can know
a creator. You can look at the sun, you
can know there's a God. You can look at the mountains
and know there's a God, but you can't see Him in those. The only
way you can see Him is if He makes Himself known to you. He got to consciously come where
you are and consciously make you know Him. Wouldn't you all
agree with that? Let me show you something in
Psalm 36. Let me show you something in Psalm 36. Look what he said here in verse
9. This is what I'm trying to say. The verse of Scripture explains
it better than I do. Look what he said here in Psalm
36 and 9. This is what I'm saying. You
can't know God unless God comes and makes Himself known. For
with thee is the fountain of life. You with you is the fountain
of life. With Christ is the fountain of
life. And listen to this now. In thy light, in thy light shall
we see light. Only as you give us light can
we see light. Only when you give us light.
And now, look back over here in Job 42 with me. You know, I've got lots and lots
of theology books back there. I've got lots of them. I don't
know how many I've got. I've got Gil's Body of Divinity,
two huge volumes. I've got Stephen Charnak's Attributes
of God. I've got Dagg's Theology. I've got Boice's Theology. I've
got Systematic Theologies. I've got Thomas Watson's Body
of Divinity, and all those things. But you can read every theology
book you can get your hand on and still not know God. Theology
books don't teach you God. You can get an intellectual apprehension.
And I love to read those things at times, and especially Thomas
Watson. I really enjoyed Thomas Watson
because, I mean, he dealt with heart issues, heart issues. But
here's the thing about it. You know the difference in theology
and hearing with the ear and your eyes seeing Him is the difference
in reading a theology book and reading the Bible. The difference
day and night. There's no moral value in reading
a theology book, none whatsoever. It won't even produce a godly
life, it won't do it. But oh my, all it'll do is just
stimulate theological controversy. And oh my, and I tell you what,
when God comes and makes you hear His voice and see Him with
your eye, it shuts your mouth. I don't know how many people
argue and debate. I've lost friends over different
points of theology. It's like justification. Just
take justification. I personally believe that God
in Christ Everything that God done is in the past tense. I
personally believe that before the foundation of the world,
God gave us life in Christ, chose us in Christ, and as far as God
was concerned, our salvation was complete. But we had to EXPERIENCE
that salvation. For whom He did it, for no, them
He also justified. To them we had to EXPERIENCE
that salvation. And so then there's a justification. When Christ died, we were justified. Then in our experience, when
we believe, we're justified. And then when we get to glory,
we're PERFECTLY justified, and all these things are done. But
there's some people that debate, and they say there's only one
justification in the scriptures, and they say that was done at
the cross. And just like I was talking to a fellow one time,
let me give you an illustration of what I'm talking about. This
guy had got hooked up, and I knew this fellow. He used to come
to our conferences all the time. And a preacher used to come with
him. He got to listen to this preacher.
And this preacher, one day I was supposed to meet him for lunch,
and I've been in his church lots of times, lots of times. Fellowship
with him for years. But one day we was going to eat
lunch, meet lunch, and he didn't show up, and I called him, and
I said, what's the matter? And he said, well, he said, me
and you need to discuss what the gospel is. And I said, what? We've been knowing one another
for 15 years, and you said, what? My heart just sunk. Never spoke
to him again. And then this man that listened
to this fella, I was out in Texas one time and he come up to me
and he told me, he says, you know, he said, I've never been
lost. I've always been saved. And I
asked him, I said, well, I said, was you ever, he said, I've never
been lost. I've always been saved. I said,
do you mean to tell me you never was a sinner? No, no, no. I said, then how in the world
could you say Christ died for you? Because he only died for
sinners. And if you've never been lost, you know what that
tells me? You've never been found. I told him that flat-footed.
I looked at him and said, if you've never been lost, you certainly
ain't never been found. And if you ain't never been a
sinner, Christ ain't never saved you. Now wouldn't you all agree
with that? But that's what I'm talking about.
That stuff presents arguments. Fussing and fighting. But when you hear the voice of
God and see Christ, you know what you do? You don't want to
argue anymore. That's why I say folks don't
want to believe what I preach, let them have at it. I can't
change a man's heart anyway. If you don't wanna believe the
gospel, that's your business. You don't wanna believe you're
a dead sinner and Christ's gotta give you life, that's your, but
I'm telling you the truth. Now listen, I'd rather, I'm not
gonna debate and I'm not gonna argue with people. The gospels
are there, Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing among you. I
declare unto you the gospel that I've heard. Oh, one wants to,
people wants to argue about all things all the time. Oh my, it's
like Job and his three friends. That's all they'd done. They
was at one another's throat. One another's throat for 36 chapters. Just back and forth, one another
arguing and debating. Fussing and fighting. Choosing
one another. But Job said, now when I heard
about you, he said over there one day, man, I'm gonna put my
hand on my mouth. I ain't got nothing else to say about you.
I tell you, you know everything there is to know. You know everything
there is to know about me. I'm vile, I'm vile. There you
are in all your wholeness and I thought I know something about
you and I'm just mouthing off about you. And I said, I'm gonna
keep my mouth shut now. Oh my. And I tell you what, they
had all these things and then, oh my, then when it come to direct,
direct hearing what God said, you know what Joe finally said?
Lord, you know everything and you can do everything. You know everything, you can
do everything. I'm nothing. I'm nothing. I'm utterly unable
to stand before you in and of myself. You're absolute. And I'm nothing. And oh, I tell
you, that's experimental knowledge. It's knowledge that you get through
experience, what God does for you. And I tell you what, I know
we don't look back on experience, but we all have experiences with
God continually, over and over and over again in our life. We
really do. You're experiencing God right
in this minute in your life. You're experiencing what the
gospel's doing for you right now. Huh? And ain't that a wonderful? Wouldn't
you rather have that experiential knowledge as to wanna, as me
sit up here with a little stand, and I'll try to teach you something,
and you ask a question, and I'll try to answer your question,
and you ask another question, and you ask, you know, sit here
and debate and argue, and who wants to go through that mess?
No. And I tell you what, when God
shows himself to a soul, I tell you, every mouth is stopped. Oh, my. And I tell you, that
one, that fellow that's a theologian, all it does is puff him up, makes
him feel self-sufficient. And the other one brings you
down, brings you down. And he'll find, oh, who is he
that hideth counsel with knowledge? Oh, Lord. He said, these things
is just too wonderful for me. I've been doing all I could in
all these debates. I've spoken as if I understood
these things. But he said, I found out I don't
know nothing. I don't know nothing. Oh my. That's what he says. That's what
he said here in verse 3 of chapter 42. He said, oh, I tell you what,
I've hided counsel. without having any knowledge
at all. I've uttered things that I did not understand, things
that's too wonderful for me which I did not know, I didn't know.
And I tell you, when God brings a man to where he hears with
his ear and sees with his eyes, the first thing he'll do is say,
Lord, I'm ignorant. I'm utterly and absolutely ignorant.
If you don't take me in hand, and if you don't teach me, And
I'm still that way after all these years. God, if you don't
teach me, I won't know nothing. I can get up here and this Bible
can become as dead to me as a dead man if God don't teach me and
make the Scriptures alive. He's got to be the one to do
it. And then look what else he goes. And this humility, when God does
that, you know what the first thing He does is? Oh Lord, hear
me, please hear me. Please hear what I've got to
say. I'm gonna speak, I wanna speak to you. I wanna speak to
you. Oh my. The man who's really seen God
with his spiritual eyes cries out for more light, more light.
Lord, teach me, declare unto me yourself. Make yourself known
unto me. That's what Job is saying there.
Oh, listen, I demand you declare unto me. Please tell me what
you know about yourself, not me. And I tell you, it's like
Solomon said, I'm just a child. I'm not old enough, big enough
to go in and go out by myself, Lord, if you don't watch over
me. And when we see, if it is hearing ears and see eyes, Oh,
I tell you, this humility, he said, wherefore I abhor myself.
Now that's coming down. That's coming down. It's the
rarest thing in the world for a person to loathe themselves
over their sin, to abhor themselves over their nature, to abhor themselves
over the thoughts they have and the feelings they have and the
attitudes that they have. He said, oh, a profound sorrow
for the sin that you've committed. He said, I abhor myself. I abhor
myself. And Lord, here I am. I'm going
to get down in these dust and ashes. That's what Abraham said. I'm dust and ashes. Who am I
but dust and ashes to speak to you, Lord? Oh, my. That's why Paul said, I want
to know Christ. I want to win Christ. I want
to be found in Christ. And oh, my. It's like Isaiah,
he said when he saw the Lord, you know what he said? He said,
woe is me. Woe is me. When Christ apprehended Saul
of Tarsus on the road, you know what the first thing he did?
He fell. He fell. Oh my. I heard about you. I've heard from a lot of preachers.
Some of the best, but when I hear about you, I also see you. What I've heard enables me to
see you. Ain't you grateful for that? Our gracious, gracious Lord in
heaven, our great and glorious God. Holy, holy, holy are You. And Lord, we're on this earth,
so when we speak, especially in a worship service, we want
to speak the right things about You. We want to speak the right
things of ourselves. We want to know the truth. We
want to be saved by the truth. We want to be taught by the truth.
We want to be kept by the truth. Oh Lord, thank you for bombarding
our ears. Thank you for breaking in on
our minds and our understandings, turning on that light. Thank
you Lord Jesus for coming, calling us out of the grave like you
did Lazarus. Oh Lord, blessed be your holy name for meeting
with us. And Lord, in your presence, we have nothing to bring but
your blessed, blessed son. We've heard about him, now we
see him. And oh God, what a sight it is. What a glorious sight. What a blessed sight. One of
these days, these old eyes will see face to face, no more with
these spiritual eyes, but all face to face with Christ our
Lord. Oh Lord, let us see him. Let
us rejoice in him, let us rest in him. For Christ's sake, amen. Amen. Let's sing that, 511, ain't
it? 511, face to face with Christ
my Lord. 511, I believe it is, ain't it? Let's
stand together and we'll sing this when Houston gets his strings
warmed up. I appreciate him so much. I appreciate
all of you. Face to face with Christ my Savior
Face to face, what will it be? With rapture I behold Him, Jesus
Christ, who died for me. Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory I shall
see Him Only faintly now I see you With
the darkly-filled tree The blessed day is coming When
His glory shall be seen Face to face I shall behold Him Far
beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory I shall
see Him by and by God rejoicing in His presence
In our banished grief and pain When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain, ? Face to face I shall behold Him
? ? Far beyond the starry sky ? ? Face to face in all His glory
? Face to face so blissful Face
to face to see Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, who loves me so. Face to face I shall be poor, Far beyond the starry sky Face
to face in all His glory I shall see Him by and by