your Bibles with me to Acts chapter
15. And while you're turning, I need
to tell you Daryl Hardman's sister, Diane, died this morning. They went last night, called
the family in. And so they're down there. Very sad. It's a very sad time
for them. She didn't last long after they
found out what was wrong with her. And remember them. We certainly
want to remember them. And Jean Harmon, Pastor Jean
Harmon from Rescue Baptist Church in Rescue, California, will be
with us Wednesday night. He's preaching up in Madisonville
this morning. And then next weekend, they have
a meeting up at Kingsport. Clay Curtis, Frank Tate, who? Cody. Cody will be up there preaching. You all remember Darryl. Him
and his sister, I mean, it was obvious that they were brother
and sister. It's just so obvious. I don't care how old you get,
it's still tough to lose. Every family just gets a little
smaller and a little smaller. And one of these days, it's going
to be we're the last one left. I've got a brother named Bill,
got two nephews named Bill, got Dougie. And one of these days,
the last Bill's going to be in my family, my immediate circle. never know what a day is going
to bring forth that's what the scripture says all right i'm
gonna read these first 11 verses and certain men which came down
from judea taught the brethren and said except you be circumcised
after the manner of moses you cannot be saved when therefore
paul and barnabas had no small small dissension and dispensation
with him they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain
other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and
elders about this question. And being brought on their way
by the church, they passed through Phenicia and Samaria, declaring
the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great joy unto
all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders.
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which
believed, saying, that it was needful to circumcise them and
command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and
elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there
had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men
and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice
among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. That was Cornelius. But I want
you to notice that. Should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, which knows the hearts,
knows the hearts, looks on the heart, bear witness that they
heard the gospel and believed the gospel, giving them the Holy
Ghost, even as He did unto us. And God, that bear witness, put
no difference between us and them, Jews and Gentiles, purifying
their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved
even as they. the Word of the Gospel. Please
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
then after they heard the Gospel, that's when they believed. You
got to hear the Gospel. God sends men to hear the Gospel.
And God, He knows the heart. Knows the heart. He bore witness
Himself that God Himself saved these people. And you know, if
we receive the witness of men, how much greater is the witness
of God? If men say, I believe the Lord
saved them, how much greater is God's witness to your own
heart? The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that
we're the children of God. And he put no difference. Here's
the thing. He put no difference between
the Jews and the Gentiles. And here's how God purifies a
man's heart. Man can't do it. God's got to
do it. Purifies the hearts by faith. And this is what happens
when man tries to bring somebody back under the law, tries to
tell them that their cleanliness, their holiness, and their righteousness
will be by circumcision. He said, why tempt ye God? And
that's what he said, you're tempting God doing this. To put a yoke,
not the yoke of Christ that's meek and lowly and learning of
him, but the yoke of the law. Why put you a yoke upon the neck
of the disciples which neither we nor our fathers were able
to bear? But we believe, but we believe,
me and Peter and Paul and James and believers, we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved,
just like God saved them Gentiles. Now look in Acts 18 with me for
a moment. And this is the title of my message
this morning, is the description of a believer. description of
a believer. Peter just gave us the description
of a believer and here we're going to have another one. And
it says in verse 24, Acts 18 verse 24, And a certain Jew named
Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in
the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the
way of the Lord, and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught
diligently, the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism
of John. And he began to speak boldly
in the synagogue, whom, when Aquila and Priscilla had heard,
they took him unto them, and expounded unto them the way of
God more perfectly. Now listen. And when he was disposed
to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples
to receive him, listen to this, who, when he was come, helped
them much which had believed through grace. A description
of a believer, what is it? He's a grace believer. Can't
be anything else. If a man don't believe the grace
of God, he's not a believer. We use terms that most religions
and religion doesn't use. We use the term sovereign. We
love the term sovereign. Sovereign grace, sovereign God,
sovereign power. We love that term particular
redemption. That when Christ died, he died
particularly for a people. that was given to him in a covenant
of grace. We use the term total depravity. That means that a man is from
the top of his head to the sole of his foot, from inside and
outside, he is dead, lost, a sinner from every ounce of his being,
is without God, without hope, without Christ until God opens
his heart. And we use the word Arminian.
What does that mean? It means that a man that believes
in free will for his salvation. We're the opposite of free will. People ask me what we believe
sometimes. Whatever free will is, we're the very opposite of
that. Dramatically opposite to that. And we use these terms
and we want to use these terms to distinguish what we believe
and other people believe. We want to be distinguished in
our message. want our message distinguished,
we want our methods distinguished, we want our manner distinguished,
we want our songs to be distinguished, we want everything about our
worship to be distinguished and set apart. But that's what happened
to these fellas. Paul said, you know, Peter says,
we went to Cornelius's house and I began to preach the gospel.
And God saved them. How did He save them? Through
grace. Through grace. And why do I want to make this
distinguish? Why do we want to distinguish
our terms and our words and our message from others? Because
we want to tell men the truth. I want to tell men the truth.
I don't want men's blood on my hands. I don't when I face God. I don't want your blood on my
hands. And I tell you, God's glory is revealed in His truth.
in his truth, in the truth of this blessed book. He gets no
glory from a man telling a lie. And he gets no glory from a lying
preacher who coddles people and tries to get along with people
and entice people to be something they're not. And I'll tell you
another reason why we distinguish these things and we describe
a believer. is because the worth of a man's
soul. Do you know how important it is that men care for their
soul? You know, if a man don't care
for his own soul and he's here, I care for his soul. And there's
other people here who care for their souls and we care for their
souls. You see why? Because we care
for a man's soul and they should care for their soul because the
soul is the very breath of God. Man was just an inanimate object
made by God, created by God, but he never became a living
soul until God breathed in his nostrils the breath of life.
So our life comes from God. He holds the breath. The scripture
says he holds the breath of every living soul in his hands. And
so the breath that's in your soul, that thing that makes you
a living creature, that thing that makes you a conscious creature,
that thing that makes you a rational human being with an intellect
and an ability to understand and to reason, God put that in
you. If you got a conscious, God put
that there. So that's why it's important
for a man to care for his soul because it's the breath of God.
It's the breath of God. And I tell you another reason
why, because that soul, once it comes into existence, it becomes
eternal. It never goes out of existence.
And that soul is capable of knowing God, worshiping God, fellowshipping
with God, communing with God. and enjoy in God or else that
soul has the ability to have exquisite bliss with God or exquisite
misery forever in eternity without God, without God, a place of
outer darkness where the worm never dies, that worm of conscience,
that worm of reason, that worm of intellect, that worm will
never die, never die. Now that's why we distinguish. That's why we tell the truth.
You know, people care for their bodies. It's a sad day. When people care for their bodies,
they dress it. They take such care to dress
it up, take such care of it. Go to doctors and go to, and
take care, very great care of their body. Worry about their
bodies, but they're not interested and don't care about their nakedness
of their soul before God. We're all dressed here this morning.
I tried to dress nice. Everybody else tried to dress
nice. But you know if you're without God, without Christ,
you're as naked as a jaybird before God as the day you was
born. That's what he said, God which knows the hearts. And oh,
when men feed the flesh, just feed the flesh, feed this old
fallen nature and starve the soul, they make provision for
the flesh, what their flesh needs. And I tell you that you know
this well as I do, there's not many grace believers in this
world. Not many, not many. That's why our Lord said, fear
not little flock. God's prepared a kingdom for
you from the foundation of the world. let me give you a description
of a believer. I got four things that I want
to give you about a description of a believer and we know that
a believer is one who's been saved by the grace of God who
said we shall be saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
even as they he went down and helped them much which believed
through how through grace through grace thank God for grace what
is grace That's God, irrespective of what a person is, thinks,
or does. God saves them, not with no consideration
of who they are, or what they've done, or what they've accomplished,
or what they'll ever do, or what they'll ever accomplish. It's
God showing His favor to men and women that have no right,
or no title, or do not deserve the favor of God. That's God
saying, I'm going to save that person right there. Well, if
you know them as bad as I do, they're as bad as you think they
are. Nope, I'm going to save them. They're sorry, but I'm
going to save them. They're a liar, I'm going to
save them. They're a rebel, I'm going to save them. They hate
me, I'm going to save them. They're deceitful, I'm going
to save them. Their imagination's evil, I'm going to save them. I'm going to save him. Huh? Well,
let me tell you a description of a believer. The first thing
about a believer is that he has seen God. He has actually seen
God. Now, I mean, he hasn't seen a
vision because God is a spirit. No man has any time seen him,
but he has seen God. and God is the God that he has
seen is not like they thought he was or heard like he was all
their life. He's all together different than
what they'd ever heard what they ever thought and what how how
many years did you spend trying to please God? How many years
did you try trying to get on the good side of God? How many
years did you try to make yourself right with God? How many altars
did you get on? How many tears have you shed?
How many prayers have you prayed and you got up just as empty
and just as troubled and just as peaceless as you was when
you started? Huh? Look over in Psalm 50 with
me. Psalm 50. Psalm 50. You know, people always
say, my God wouldn't do this, and my God wouldn't do that,
and my God ain't that way, and my God ain't this way. We're
not talking about my God, we're talking about the God of the
Bible. Not a God that we've dreamed up in our mind. Not a God that
we can hang on our wall. Not a God that we have a picture
of hanging in a calendar. Not a God that you can pick up
in your suitcase and head out when you're on your vacation,
take Him with you and get Him out and set Him on the shelf
and pray to Him when you get done. When I was overseas in
Vietnam, they had pagodas everywhere. Buddha was everywhere. Buddha
was everywhere. Go down to Mexico and they've
got little statues and little alcoves of Mary everywhere. And
you can stop and pray anytime you want to at any one of those
shrines. And they put incense in there and burn it. They burn
a candle in it. They put all kinds of rigmarole around it.
People count beads when they're praying. That's their God! But
a believer, description of a believer, is that he has seen God and he
is the God of the Bible and he's not like they thought he was
and he's absolutely different from anything that they ever
dreamed that God would be. Look what he said here in Psalm
50 and look in verse 18 with me. It's God talking now. When thou sawest a thief then
you consented with him and you've been a partaker with adulterers.
You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own
mother's sons. These things hast thou done,
and I kept silence, though thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. But listen to it, but I will
reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Oh my. When you see God, you know what?
You really, really know. that if you have anything to
do with him, he's got to first do something for you. Let me
tell you about this God. He's the God of predestination.
That's a term men don't like, but in the Bible, God's a God
of predestination. Before he ever created Adam and
put him in the garden, he had a savior provided for Adam before
Adam ever sinned, before we ever existed. He's the God of predestination. He predestinated men to the adoption
of children. He predestinated us to be conformed
to the image of His blessed Son. He predestinated us to believe,
for as many as He were ordained to eternal life, and that word
ordained is the same word as predestined. He predestinated,
for ordained us, everyone they believed, He for ordained us
to believe. That's what the Scripture says. And if you don't believe
me, read it, Acts 13, 48. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, predestinated to eternal life, but they knew, they believed. He's a God of predestination.
You know what predestination is? Every one of us is left to
go on a trip and we leave our house and you're going to end
up at one particular place. That's predestination. I'm going
to leave here and I'm going to get there. But there's a thousand
things that can happen between time you leave and you get where
you're going. But when God predestinates something, there ain't no way
in the world that it's not going to happen. He ain't got no contingency
plans. You don't have to figure out
how he's gonna do it. He just wills it and it's done. And not
only is he the God of predestination, but he's the God of all power.
He said power, all power belongs unto me. And you know what kind
of power it takes to take a heart of stone out and put in a heart
of flesh? Do you know what kind of power
it takes to take a dead man and give him life? Do you know what
kind of power it takes to create a new creature in Christ? It
takes the power of God, huh? And the same power that raised
up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead is the same power that
raised us up from the dead. He said, Lazarus, come forth.
Did he come forth? The mother with their only son.
He stopped, he met the funeral procession on the way out of
town while he was coming into town. He stopped the funeral,
said, son, I'll send thee arise. Got him by the hand and said,
here, mama. And that's the same power. All those things tell
us that it's the power of God. The power of God is what saves
us. Our faith stands in the power
of God. Let me tell you something else
about this God that we've seen. He's a God of purpose. This is
how God taught me the gospel. I've seen that God is a God of
purpose. That everything He's ever done,
He's done on purpose. No accidents, no chance, no luck. Everything God does, He does
on purpose. Ain't that right? You ever look
at that word purpose? He has purpose and who shall
Purposed and who shall hinder God who has saved us and called
us with the holy calling which he given God who gave us grace
in Christ before the world began hath called us with the holy
calling according to his own purpose Everybody that loves
God they love him because he said I love them on purpose They'll
love me on purpose and everything God does he does on purpose I
tell you, this is hard for people to take. It really is. It's even
hard. But this is the way it is. God
is the first cause of everything that happens in this world. And
whatever the second cause is, He uses a lot of things to take
people out of this world. A lot of ways. He can take him
out with a gun, he can take him out with a bomb, he can take
him out with cancer, take him out with a heart attack, brain
tumor, but whatever, how we leave this world, God's the first cause. He does everything on purpose.
And that's why we know that all things, all things are working,
working, working. All things work together for
good to them that love God. And why? Because they are the
cause. according to His purpose. And
let me tell you something else about Him, this God we've seen.
He's a God of promise, but there's two sides to God's promise. There's
the promise that everyone that believes on His Son, He'll justify. Everyone that He gives faith
and believes on His Son, He'll justify. He'll receive them.
He accepts them. He makes them accepted in the
Beloved. but the other side of it everybody who doesn't believe
and everybody who doesn't come and everybody who doesn't bow
to his blessed son the opposite of it is he's the god of all
grace and he's the god of goodness but he's also a god of holiness
and righteousness and judgment and punishment his promise to
judge a man and to deal with a man over his sin is just as
sure as his promise is to save And oh, and I'm going to tell
you something else about a description of a believer. Not only has he
seen God, but he's seen himself. Now this is, and he's seen himself
in light of God and His holiness. You know, religion teaches that
you see your sin and then you come to God. But in the scriptures,
men see God and in the light of God's when they see themselves. You don't know what you're like
until you know God. You don't have a clue. Until
a man sees God, he has no guilt, he has no sin. But boy, once
he sees the Lord, like Isaiah did, high and lifted up, saw
his glory, and heard that holy, holy, holy. He's like Isaiah. He backed up and said, oh Lord,
I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man of unclean lips. And I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Woe is me! Job said, I thought I heard about
you with the hearing of ear, but my eye now sees you, and
I abhor myself. Huh? Oh, listen, look over here
in 2 Corinthians with me, 1. I'll tell you something about
a man that's seen God and seen himself. He sees his guilt. He sees his condemnation. And
I'll tell you this much about Himself. I'll tell you this much
about Him. He is absolutely done with Himself. He's done with
Himself. He denies His self. He denies His righteousness.
He denies His worth. He denies His merit. He's like
Paul. He said, I count everything until
I knew Christ and when Christ and be found in Christ. I count
everything before I knew Christ is done. garbage and oh he is
he writes he's done with himself i mean he just absolutely does
not trust himself anymore he knows that his heart with that
god don't give him new heart his heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked and he's done with himself look
what he said here in verse nine of second corinthians one this
is what i'm talking about But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves. Why did you do that? That we
should not trust in ourselves. Is that you? Have you got the
sentence of death in yourselves that you should not trust yourselves?
Are you like Paul when he says, I know that in me that is in
my flesh dwells no good thing? Do you have that struggle that
says when I would do good, evil presents itself with me? That
that I wouldn't do, I do, and that that I would do, I don't.
Huh? but that we should not trust
in ourselves. We have the sins of death, but we do trust in
God. Believe God and trust God who
raises the dead and who has delivered us from so great a death, that
death of sin, that death of condemnation, that death of judgment. And not
only has he delivered us, but he does deliver us. And whom
we trusted, he'll yet deliver us. Oh, he's seen himself in
light of God's holiness. Any thoughts of goodness and
righteousness and free will and strength. I mean, he don't talk
about his strength, he talks about the strength of Christ.
He don't talk about his goodness, he talks about the goodness of
God. He doesn't talk about his righteousness, he talks about
the righteousness of Christ. And his mouth is stopped. I mean,
his mouth is stopped. He quits talking about what I've
done, what I've accomplished. what I'm going, my rewards I'm
going to get when I get to heaven. His mouth is stopped. He justifies
God now. He condemns himself and justifies
God and everything God does. He knows without a doubt, without
a doubt, that man that's seen God, he's seen himself. You know,
Simon Peter said it this way. Our Lord told him, said, dead
fished all night. He said, launch out into the
deep, move on out there, drop down your net. And Peter, being
who he was, He said, Lord, we've fished all night. And he was
exasperated. Lord, we've fished all night,
and we've taken nothing. But nevertheless, and this is
how he acted about it, I believe, nevertheless, that's your word,
I'll let it down. And they began to, it took a
whole bunch of them to start to drag that man in. And you
know what he said? He said, depart from me. Oh Lord,
I'm a sinful man. How can it be, how can it be,
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Have you ever felt that
way that, oh God, how can you stand to even look at me? How
can you stand me? How can you look at me when I
can't bear my own self? I can't bear my own sin. I loathe
myself. And my sin sometimes just seems
like it overwhelms me. It's just absolutely going to
crush me down. And yet, God, you look at me
and you consider me. And when he does this, he sees
that he absolutely has somebody, has to have somebody to go between
him and God. He has to have a substitute.
He can't come to God by himself. You understand that? He has to
stand afar off. And he's like that sinner, that
publican that stood outside the temple, wouldn't even lift his
eyes to heaven. He smoked on his breath. That's where my problem
is. And he said, God, be merciful. Be propitiated to me. Let that
sacrifice on that altar, let it be for me. Be atoned for me. Be misperceived for me. Take my sin away through that
sacrifice. God be merciful to me. The sinner. I don't care about that Pharisee.
I ain't worried about it. It's me that I'm concerned about.
And oh, listen. He sees that he has to have a
substitute. Somebody's got to bear his sin.
Somebody's got to face God for him. And God provided that substitute. He demanded death for sin and
he provided his own self as a substitute as one who would die for his
people's sins. I tell you about this man that's
seen God, this man who sees his sin in the light of God, he's
afraid of himself. He is, he's afraid of himself.
He only trusts one person. one person only one encounter
and that's the lord jesus christ the lord jesus christ you know
our lord said this that no man no man comes under the father
but by me nobody absolutely nobody well you don't know who i am
no but god does god does And I tell you, he trusts the Lord
Jesus with his most precious possession. And you know what
that is? His soul. He trusts him with his soul.
Trust him with his life. Trust him with his family. Trust
him with his home. Trust him with his money. Trust
him with everything he's got. He puts it in God's hands. You
do with me as you will. You give me as you give to me
and you take as you take from me. I'm in your hands. You do
what seemeth good in your sight. Now, you don't come to that quick.
I'm not saying that you come to that like that. But I tell
you what, it happens. I'm describing a believer. And
this man who's seen God and who has seen himself in the light
of God, so trust our Lord Jesus so completely and entirely that
he won't find fault with him. Will not find fault with him
no matter what happens to him in this life. And if he does
wrong, he takes the blame for it. And if anything right comes
out in his life, he says, God did it. Ain't that right? God
did it. Let me give you another description
of a believer. He's a new creature. He's a new
creature. Well, look at it with me. 2 Corinthians
5. You're right there in 2 Corinthians. Look in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. He's a new creation and he's
made that way by God. A man can't recreate himself.
In fact, a man can't create nothing. He has to have something in order
to create. God's the only one that can create
something out of nothing. And he takes nothings, like us.
And that's what he calls us, people that are nothing. People
that the world says are not. He takes nothings and nobodies.
And he makes new creatures out of something that never existed
before. He brings into existence a person that never existed before. You remember when you first believed
and you felt that guilt gone and that shame gone and that
ease and that peace and rest that came to you that cleansingness
that came to you? You remember what that was like?
That was God make a new creature out of you. He brought into existence
in you somebody who never existed before. And I tell you, this
new creation is not by man's power and man's will. Look what
he said here, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. The
old covenant's gone. Our sins are gone. Our old thoughts
are gone. Our old feelings are gone. Our old relationship's gone.
Our relationship with Adam is gone. Old things are passed away.
All the old things that we hoped in, trusted in, that old business
that you know, I'm an old-fashioned, I believe in the old-fashioned,
knee-right way. That's gone! I believe you gotta
pray through. That's gone! I believe you gotta
live right. That's gone! All those things are gone. And
look here, all things are new. Become new. Why? Because all
things are of God. Somebody said one time, said,
boy, that's awful high doctrine. It's just the truth of God. I
don't know if it's high or low or anything. I know that is so.
I know it's so. And oh, why don't you made a
new love? new love. When you talk about loving the
brethren, you're talking about loving Christ and Christ loving
you. You actually believe it and you
actually practice it and you actually put it in in practice,
and oh, our attitude, God, our attitude, our desires, our will,
and our affections, they're all changed, they're all due, they're
all different. I said here a while back, I said,
you know, years ago, all I looked forward to was getting my paycheck
on Friday, and heading out Friday night, taking all day Saturday
to get over it. You know, that's just the way
it was. Now, you know what my desire is? It's the Lord. To
know God, to know Christ, to fellowship with Christ, to have
an intimate relationship with Christ, to win Christ, to be
found in Christ, and to go to my new home. To go to my home. This is not my home. This is
nothing but a place to tarry in and pass through. We're strangers
and pilgrims here. We're looking for a city whose
builder and maker is God. Before, we never looked for that.
Huh? And all our attitude about God
and our attitude about other people, now it's not the other
fellow that's wrong, it's me that's wrong. I wish they could
have heard that message. No, no, I'm glad I heard that
message. That preacher wasn't speaking
to nobody but me today. Oh my. And this new man, this
new creation, it's an inward man, it's a new heart. God said,
I'll give them a new heart. I'll take out the story of the
flesh and I'll put in a new heart, a heart that can know me and
understand me and seek me. And I tell you what, He gives
you a new understanding, an understanding you never had before. He enlightens
that understanding, takes the darkness out of it. And the light
of God's grace and the light of God's holiness and the light
of truth comes shining into your brain and comes into your understanding. You understand things that you
never understood before. You have a new head. Really,
a new brain. God gives you a different understanding.
You think different. You look at things different.
You understand things different. You view things different. And
then he gives us a blessed new hope. Oh, what a new hope he
gives. What a blessed hope it is. And
a new home. Can't get there soon enough.
Honestly, I'm telling you the truth. I don't, you know, I won't
stay as long as God wants me to, but I certainly get homesick. I certainly get homesick. And
I tell you about this new creation, he wants everything out in the
open before God. Before that, he didn't. Before
that, he didn't. He wanted to keep things hid.
He wanted to keep things hid. Now he wants everything. He got to be honest before God.
Old Barnard used to make a statement, God don't send honest men to
hell. How's he honest? He's honest with God and he's
honest with himself. The man's not honest with God
and not honest with himself. He's not an honest man. And that's
why he told Simon Peter when the Lord kept asking him, you
love me? Yeah, Lord, I love you. You love me? Yeah, Lord. Simon
Peter, love is now me. Oh, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest all things. And let me give you the last
description and I'll be done. Oh, this new creation, that's
just something that, if it ever happens, it'll get out of you. It will get out of you. It'll
get out of you. You know where you'll be? You
know where you'll want to be? You know what your desires will
be? You want to be where the gospel is. You want to be where
the Lord's people are. You want the truth, regardless
of what it costs you, what expense it is to you. You want God to
take your heart and just shape it and mold it into His image. Take and shape it and mold it
so that you'd love to lose all your will in His will. You would
really love to lose all your will in His will. And it grieves
you that you can't. It grieves you that you can't.
And that's the next, that's the last thing I want to say. A description
of a believer is he just has to tell it. He has to tell it.
He's like the woman at the well. And she said, I know that when
the Messiah cometh, he'll tell us all things. And our Lord said,
I that speak unto thee am. I'm him. And she left her water
pot. She come to get water, to go
home, to wash the dishes, to get water to drink, to get water
to wash. She left her water pot, left
it sitting right there on the well. Water was probably already
in it. Left her water pot. She runs
down. middle of the day now this is
the middle of the day it was it was noon when our lord jesus
sat down on that well heated the day she run into town started
telling everybody come see a man come see a man what's so special
about this man he told me everything i I became a sinner today. I became
saved today. I got lost and saved at the same
time. I became a sinner and a saved
one at the same time. So come see a man, told me all
things that ever I did. And she began to tell him. And
then in a little while, they went out themselves and heard
him speak. And they said, they believe not because of her, because
they saw and heard for themselves. Oh my! It's like that Gadarean
maniac. Look at Mark chapter 5. It's
like that Gadarean maniac. This is what our Lord said to
do. It's what our Lord said to do. Look back up there in verse
3. There was a man that dwelled
among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains.
They bound him, and chains couldn't hold him. broke him in pieces,
any man could never tame him. Night and day he was in the tombs
crying, screaming, hollering, cutting himself. But when he
saw Jesus so far off, he ran and worshipped him. Now wait
a minute, and cried with a loud voice, what have I to do with
thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High? I adjure thee by God,
I beg you by God that you don't torment me, don't send me to
hell before my time. And he said, come out of the
man, you unclean spirit. And he said, what is your name?
He answered, my name is Legion. for we are many. And you know
how I sent them down into the swine, and look what happens
now in verse 15. And they come to Jesus and see
him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting,
sitting at Christ like Mary did, sitting, resting, but not working
for Jesus, resting, and clothed, and I love this right here. He
did not talk about his clothes he had on his body, but clothed
in his right mind. You'd think they'd just rejoice
in that, but they were afraid. down in verse 8 and when he was
come into the 18 excuse me when he come when 18 and when he was
come into the ship he that had been possessed with the devil
prayed him that he might be with him how be it jesus suffered
him not don't you know you can't go with me but say at the hill
go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the lord
had done for thee and had compassion on me and he departed and began
to publish in Decapolis and how great thing Jesus had done for
him. And all men did marvel." It's
kind of like Cody said, he's surprised, you know. He was surprised. Everybody else
was surprised. And it's like Bartimaeus, when
the Lord gave him his sight, you know what the scripture said?
Bartimaeus followed him, followed him in the way. And Paul the
Apostle, when he was smoked down on the Damascus road, When he
got his sight back three days later, he went into Damascus
and straightway began to preach that Jesus is the Christ. But
what are you going to tell? The salvations of the Lord. Salvations
all of grace. Jesus paid it all. All to Him
alone. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it whiteness. E'er since by faith I saw that
street, Thy flowing wound supply, redeeming love has been my thing
and shall be till I die. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us to have this
blessed privilege to deal with your word. Preach the gospel.
Describe a believer. And I know I described a lot
of people here today. Maybe I didn't describe some.
Lord, you know who they are and what they are. You know what
condition their heart's in. But Lord, we trust you to make
the word. You're the only one that can
deal with the word. If you don't send it to a heart,
and if you don't make it effectual, it just falls flat. But Lord
God, your will be done. Father, we pray again for Daryl,
Joyce, his family. Pray for Stomper and the Bells
as they still deal with the situation there. God, for those who are
weak in body, Those who have heartaches and sorrows and griefs,
God, give them grace, give them strength, give them encouragement.
Keep us, preserve us, and help us to honor and glorify you,
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.