Okay, thank you. Clay, thank you for that message
and all the other messages. You know, it's nice to be around
family and real family. I know what it was like. I lived
in North Carolina for over 50 years. It's hard to believe I've
been in West Virginia almost five. And Sandy said the other
day, when we went back, we went to see one of my granddaughters
for her birthday party. And it's just not the same. It's
not the same. West Virginia's home. That's
West Virginia's home. Yeah, we love it. We love it. You know, the Lord's good to
us, isn't he? I'm glad, Walter, I thank you for inviting me.
Invite me into your home. And we can come and we can sit
and talk about our Lord. Thank you for everything you've
done. Thank you for the meals. Ladies, I know it's a lot of
hard work and men for everything you've done for the preparation.
Thank you for your generosity, your kindness. Thank you for
the rooms. It's just amazing. I just, I feel humbled to just
been here. My heart is rejoicing. It was
preachers most of the time. I heard Henry say this one time,
we're preparing the meals. He said, it's nice to come in
and sit down where somebody else has prepared the meal. And you
can just feast. Always remember this, your pastor,
he needs to hear preaching as much as you do. He does. It's amazing, isn't it, how God
chose the foolishness of preaching to save them which believe. Not
just in the initial act of regeneration, but he keeps saving us. We've
heard Ephesians four how many times? Never hear it again? Because
we forget. We forget, we forget. I want you to turn with me to
the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11. And I hope I can just kindly
pick up where Clay finished. I'll begin reading in verse two,
but before I do, I want you to think about something. Can you
imagine what it was like before John the Baptist came on the
scene? God kept him in obscurity for years. And I can't remember,
maybe someone can help me afterwards, how long his ministry was, but
it probably wasn't real long. But you know, he served that
purpose for the body. He had one purpose. He said,
I'm a voice crying in the wilderness. But you think about this, man.
Here's the man over here in the Jordan River putting people under
the water. This has never happened before. Don't you know people
were talking about it? What's he trying to do, drown
them? But you imagine, you think about it. I got to thinking about
this. I'm going, it would have sure got people's attention.
I know that God has always had his elect, and there's always
been believers, and he's never been without a witness. We know
that there was Zacharias and Elizabeth, and there was Mary
and Joseph, and there was Simon in the temple, and others. But
as a whole, it was just dead religion. You think about this. God had not spoke for 400 years. And God's getting ready to break
in on the scene. Yeah, that's what he said back
in Malachi. He said, behold, I will send
my messenger. I will send my messenger and
he will prepare the way before me. He prepared the way. Christ
didn't just come on the scene. God was preparing these people.
And John's standing there in that river that day and he said,
there he is. There he is. He's not taking
you to the temple. John's not taking you to the
temple, offering up sacrifices. He's not preaching the law. The
law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
He said, there he is. That's the lamb that takes away
the sin of the world. And that's what preaching is.
Pointing those people to him. But what I want you to think,
can you imagine when people begin to hear this? I've never heard
anything like this before. It's all being do, do, do. Now verse two of Matthew 11, and
when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent
two of his disciples. And he said unto him, art thou
he that should come, or do we look for another? And I've heard
people explain that away. Only John knows what he meant
in the spirit of God. But he's just like us. He's a
sinner. You sit in a prison cell and you know your head's getting
ready to be cut off. You would have probably had some
fears and doubts and said, Lord, I need some reassurance. Are
you the one or do we look for another? Lord, in his grace,
he said, Jesus answered and said, go show John again. Those things which you do see
and hear, and Walter mentioned this the other night, the blind
receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have
the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me. And when they departed, Jesus
began to say to this multitude, now think, watch this, this multitude
of people concerning John, He said, when you went to here,
John, what did you go out for to see? Now, I thought about
that this morning. He didn't say what did you go out to hear.
What did you go out there to see? What were, you think about
this. God's got people's curiosity
up. You think what's going, well, Sandy, what are we gonna see
when we go out there? What are we gonna see? He said, a reed shaking with the wind. A
compromiser, just whichever way the wind blows? But what went
you out for to see, verse eight, a man clothed in soft raiment?
He wasn't wearing soft raiment. Behold, they that wear soft raiment
are in king's clothes, or clothes are in king's houses. But what
went you out for to see, a prophet? I say unto you, more than a prophet.
You know, he was the last of the Old Testament prophets. More
than a prophet. For this is he of whom it was
written, behold, I send my messenger before thy faith, which shall
prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, among
them that are born of women, there is not risen a greater
than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he. And from the days, now I want
you to see this, this is our text, and from the days of John
the Baptist until now. He's saying from the time that
John began preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, let me
just tell you what John preached. If you would turn over with me,
just bear with me. I think it's Mark chapter one. It's amazing how the gospel of
Mark, it just moves right into. Verse three, Mark one, the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness.
and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And
there went out unto him from the land of Judah, and they of
Jerusalem, and they were all baptized of him in the river
Jordan, confessing their sin. Now you're seeing all these people
that are being, God's showing them mercy, and they're confessing
him in believer's baptism. Identifying with his message. And you know, the word's gonna
get out. And John was clothed with a camel's
hair and with a girdle of skin about his loins, and he did eat
locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, There
cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchets of whose shoes
I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I have indeed baptized
you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets in the law
prophesied unto John. And if you will receive it, this
is Elias that was for to come. And he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. Our Lord is saying that from
the time of John the Baptist until now, men were in earnest
to pray us into the kingdom of God. You imagine, I've never
heard anything like this before. All I've ever heard was the law
condemn me. The law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ, and it served its purpose. But these, you think
about this, all this multitude, a multitude of people, And I
know a lot of them maybe came for the wrong reasons, but they
came. When you came, you come for the wrong reason, too. I
think about Rebecca when Abraham sent the servant to get a bride,
remember? And the servant, he prayed and
said, Lord, I don't know which one she is, I don't know which
one your elect is, and I'm just standing here by the well, and
here comes Rebecca. You know what she was going to
the well for? Just to get water. But that day, God crossed her
path. In Luke 12, verse one, it said,
in the meantime, when they were gathered together, an innumerable
multitude of people, insomuch that they trolled one upon another. You know what that word innumerable
means? Myriads. A myriad was 10,000. Imagine the picture. All these
thousands of people, they're gathered around. They're not,
they gathered to hear John, now they're gathering around our
Lord. Around him. And it said they trod one upon
another. That word trod means to trample. The violent take
it by force. Here's the parallel passage in
Luke 16 verse 16. The law when the prophets were
until John and since that time the kingdom of God is preached
and every man presses into it, same word. Presses into it. What does that word mean? It
means to seize, suffer violence. Luke 13, 24, strive to enter
in at the straight gate. Like you said, it's labor. Strive
to enter in at the straight gate. I say unto you, many will say unto you, seek
to enter in and shall not be able. You know what the word
strive means? It means to agonize. It means to labor. Fervently,
it means to fight. To enter into straight gate,
the word straight means narrow, constricted, closed. Be diligent, what he said, be
diligent to use the means that God has given you. I've heard
several men say this weekend. You see people that they're inquiring
about the things of God. You hope that God's beginning
to do a work of grace in their heart, and you say, what am I
to do? Come, sit down, or listen to
God's preacher, and just sit and listen. You know, I heard Henry say one
time, said we're guilty of saying, well what can a sinner do? We
say a sinner can't do anything. Now hold on now. You can get
you a Bible. We live in a day where you can
get on the internet and download any message you want, free. There's not any generation before
that that had that ability. We do. That's what he's striving. He said, use the means that God
has given to us. Here our Lord is showing us our
responsibility. I thought about preaching a message
just on that responsibility. You know where man's responsibility
began? With the sovereignty of God.
That's where it began with. That's it. Our concern must not
be what other people do or even what may happen to other people.
Our responsibility is to seek the Lord ourself whether nobody
else does or not. That's my responsibility. I'm
responsible for it. I know people say, well, all
this just works. That's just legalism. No, that's
just the scriptures. Like I was telling somebody,
we should never be afraid to speak the plain statements from
God's word. I know it's just like this. You
can give a man a rope and that same man can take that rope and
hang himself. And you can take that same rope
and save a man. And I know this, when God does
a work of grace in a person's heart, there's a difference.
He's not trying to work to earn something. It's because God's
done something for him. And it's manifested, it's visible. The Amplified Bible reads Matthew
11 verse 12. Now listen, and from the days
of John the Baptist until the present time, The kingdom of
heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force
as a precious prize. A share in the heavenly kingdom
is sought with the most ardent zeal and intense exertion. They are violent men. They must have him. If you knew, if you pulled up
to your house and it was on fire, and your wife and your children
was in that house, would you just nonchalantly walk around? You know what I'm saying. The
violent would take it. You would kick the door down.
To get to them, that's what I'm talking about. Let's look at
these violent men. They were not like this by nature. There's none that seek after
God. So why are these people gathering
around our Lord? Why are they? Something's beginning
to happen. A grokker grace has begun in
their heart. I heard Maurice Montgomery, he made this statement
or I heard it in an article or read it in an article. He said,
if men saw themselves sinners and saw Christ as their only
hope, they would be a stampede of people trying to get to our
Lord. You don't have to beg people.
You don't have to prime them. If you ever see yourself as a
sinner, God ever opens your eyes and makes you see who you really
are, not what you do, but who you are, and you see Christ,
you'll run to him. Draw me and we'll run unto you.
That's what I'm talking about. I wanna show you some examples
from the scriptures. that illustrate this point. You
remember the woman with the issue of blood? I'm gonna turn there,
you can mark chapter five, verse 22. And behold, there cometh
one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and when he saw
him, he fell at his feet. You ever notice in the scriptures
how many times the Lord uses children or somebody to bring
those people to Christ. Jairus come because his daughter
was saved. My daughter lies at the point of death. I pray thee,
come and lay thy hands on her that she may be healed and she
shall live. And as Jesus went with them, much people followed
him. Now what's that? It says they thronged him, pushing
upon him. And a certain woman which had
an issue of blood, this woman's defiled. This woman can't go
to the temple. And if she touched a priest,
he would be defiled. And a certain woman, which had
an issue of blood 12 years, we can't imagine the horror of that. And had suffered many things
of many physicians. She had went to every doctor
she could find. Every doctor has his own prescription. These are pictures of false preachers.
She went because she was needy. She was probably sincere. I can
see one of her neighbors said, well, that didn't work. There's
this guy over here. You need to go see him. You need to do
this, or you need to do that. And she spent all that she had.
She spent her last dime. And don't you know, when they
got all of her money, they had no more time for her. You think
about what's going on in her mind, you think she's desperate.
Where am I to go? What in the world am I to do?
How in the world, and the next statement says when she heard
about Jesus, she heard of Christ, how's she gonna get to him? I see our Lord as he walked,
I see him, he can't even hardly move because all these people
are just thronging him, just crowding up against him. How's
she gonna get to him? They're just not gonna open up
just like the Red Sea and let her just walk in. Now watch this. When she heard of Jesus, she
came in the press behind and touched his garment. For she
said, if I may touch his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway
the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her
body that she was healed of the plague. And Jesus, immediately
knowing that virtue had gone out of him, he turned about in
the press. He said, who touched me? And the disciples said, what
do you mean who touched you? Everybody's touching you. They
touched him and never touched him. You think about that. And never touched him. And this
woman, I can see her hand just a trim there. Could this really
be true? If I touch this man, I'll be
healed. And she just touched His clothes.
And she's healed. Immediately. Can you imagine
how she felt? But what I want you to see is
she had to press through. She's striving. She's pressing.
The Biola, take it by force. You couldn't stop that woman.
You couldn't turn her away. She had to have Him. And that's
like it is for a believer. We have to have Him. We have
to have him. It's not dry doctrine, it's him.
I was reading that article about Henry. I don't want to be guilty
as a preacher to just preach about Christ and never preach
Christ. It's in a person. A person. He said, who touched me? And
he looked around about to see her that had done this thing,
but the woman fearing and tripling, Knowing what was done in her,
she came and fell down before him and told him all the truth.
And he said unto her daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace. And behold, thy plague the best
word she ever heard. Amen. Not going to the law. Yeah. And she touched him. Amen. I remember another one, and Clay
made mention of this. I thought he was going to preach
my sermon when he made it. It spoke about Jacob. You remember
old Jacob, the old trickster. He's a conniver. But you think
about this one. Even when he was a baby, he wanted
the birthright. His mother said, why do these
babies struggle in my womb? Why is it this way? And when
Esau's born first, Jacob reaches out and grabs him by the heel.
That's what he did. Why? He's wanting the birthright.
Then he fixes a bowl of beans or something and Esau comes in
and he said, sell me a birthright. He said, what's it gonna do to
me? And he's making light, the birthright is Christ. That's
what he's making light of. He says, shoot, it ain't nothing
to me. It was something to Jacob. Now we know maybe he may have
got it by the wrong means, but he got it, didn't he? He got
it. Then the Lord takes him over
to Laban's house and he's gonna teach Jacob some things. He's
gonna be the worst man in him. Changing his wages 10 times,
well then God brings him back. And one person that Jacob's gonna
have to face is not just facing God. I think God met him when
he revealed to him in the ladder. But Jacob's going to have to
face Esau. Your flesh. And Jacob sends all of his servants,
all of his wives in front of him, and he's left alone. God got him alone. And God come
to him in Christ and wrestled him down. There's no match here. He wrestled him down. But you
know why he wrestled him down? He wanted Jacob to grab hold
of him. And he did. Now I picture this, I picture
our Lord, he's wrestling, he's got him wrestled down, he's got
him pinned right where he wants him. He can't scheme out of this. And he acts like he's leaving.
Acts like he's pulling away. And Jacob just reaches and grabs
hold of him. He said, please don't go. You can't go till you
bless me. And he says, what's your name? My name's Jacob. That's who you
are. He said, your name's no longer
gonna be Jacob. It's Israel. Did he get what
he wanted? But what I want you to see is
God brought him to this place. God's doing this work of grace.
This is his child. Jacob have I loved. and he pinned
him down so he would grab hold of him, and he did. The violent
take it by force, I've got to have him. You remember those two walking
on the road to Emmaus? Their hearts are broke. They
thought that he would be the one to redeem Israel. They're
just so confused, they've heard that he's alive, they don't believe
it. and their heads are hung down and they're talking one
to another. And he shows up. And they don't know who he is.
He can walk right in our midst and unless he opens our eyes,
we will never know it. And he said unto them, O fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and entered into
his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And as they drew nigh to the
village, now watch this, where did they went? It's like they're
walking up the road. He's walking, they don't know
who he is. Not yet. But they know he opened up, he
read the scriptures and he's showing, who is this man? And
they come to a fork in the road, and he acts like he's going on.
And it said, but they constrained him. Constraining the son of
God? You know what they said? Please don't go. Would you come
into our house? You know what we ought to pray
before we come to the house of God. Lord come abide with us. Come meet with us. And they said
abide with us for it's toward evening and the day is far spent.
He went in and tarried with them. And they still don't know who
he is. And it came to pass as he said it meet with him. He
took bread and he blessed it and he break it and he gave it
to her. You know what I think about here, you remember when
Ruth came to Boaz's field, she just happened upon his field,
you know what says Boaz did? She was sitting there at the
table, he dipped it, and he gave it to her. And he gave it to
them. Isn't that worship? He takes
his bread, his word, and he gives it to you. And it came to pass
at me that he took bread, and their eyes were opened. And they knew Him. And He vanished out of their
sight. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within
us? If you're a believer, you know
what that is. Your heart burns within you. While He walked with
us by the way, while He opened unto us the Scriptures. We as
preachers, we study, and we try to prepare, and we try to make
notes, but I can tell you it's only the Lord that can open up
this book to your heart. And you see Him. You see Him. Spurgeon said he's like, he's
wrapped up as that little baby, and all you do is just begin
to unfold it. There He is. There He is. But that word where it says they
constrained Him, Let me say this before I give this. You know,
after he opened their eyes. Now, this is the day's far spent.
And this was about a seven-mile walk. That's a pretty good walk. You know what they did? They
walked right back. Didn't they? Why did they do
that? Just like what you said, for
the edifying of the body of Christ. You ain't gonna believe this.
He sat down and he ate with us. He's alive. Does that not stir
your heart? He's alive, he's not dead. The word constrained, it means
to compel by the use of force. You know what's used one other
place in the New Testament, in Acts chapter 16, you remember
Lydia? Whose heart the Lord opened. What's amazing, Paul wanted to
go to Asia, and God said, no, you're not going to Asia. He
goes, if you're in Macedonia, in a vision, he saw a man said,
come over here and help us, so he goes over there, and guess
what happened? There's a woman named Lydia, she's a seller of
purple from Asia. Just so happened to be there
just on business. And God opened her heart. He
opened her heart. And she attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized at
her household, she besought us saying, if you've judged me to
be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained them. I can see Paul said, we need
to go. She said, please don't go. Why do you think she wanted him
to stay? Would you tell me some more about him? About him. What do we see here? We see a
work of grace in that woman's heart. And she wants him more
than anything else. Why did God cross her path? She's
not looking for the Lord. She's there on business selling
purple. And God crossed her path. As I think
about that, I think about those that Lydia and the ones on the
road to Emmaus. I think about the Shulamite and
the Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon three verse one.
Now listen to this. By night on my bed I sought him.
whom my soul loveth. A bed should be a place where
you lay down and rest. But in her mind, she's seeking
him whom her soul loves. I sought him, but I found him
not. I will rise now and go about
the city. She didn't lay there in the bed,
did she? She got up. And she went into the city and
the streets and into broadways, and she said, I will seek him
whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him
not. The watchman that go about the
city found me, of whom I said, have you saw him whom my soul
loveth? Like, they're the preachers of the gospel, the watchman of
the city. And it was but a little that I passed from them. She
used, or she did not rest in the means. Now God has chosen
the foolishness of preaching to save them which believe, but
don't rest in the means. It was a little that she passed
from them, just a little, but I found him, whom my soul loveth. And you
know what she did when she found him? What do you think she did
when she found him? I held him. and would not let
him go. And I brought him to my mother's
house and into the chamber of her that can save me. Why? It's the one that my soul loves. Now, I know we're not going to
stand up here and sing, oh, how I love Jesus. But I can tell
you this, if God has done a work of grace in your heart, you do
love him. There's no rivals. Like you said,
everything revolves around him. Everything, everything. Everything's for his honor and
glory and for the salvation of his people. Those who earnestly love Christ
and know their need of him do not cease to seek him and seek
him diligently. Notice it says she sawed him
up on her bed, she sawed him in the streets, she sawed him
in the broadways, she sawed him from the lips of the watchman,
and she would not quit. Because she'd just say, well,
I can't never find him. It'd be like you coming in and
reading, and you say, well, I don't see nothing. You come hear Walter
preaching, well, I didn't hear anything from that. And just
go on. That's your own fault. Your unbelief
is your own fault. I'd say God gave me ears to hear. Lord, make yourself known to
me. And then another one. You remember
blind Bartimaeus? Sitting by the wayside begging.
He's not only just a beggar, he's a blind beggar. He has nothing. And I can see him take him out
there every day, and you know he's begging for alms, and maybe
somebody will show him a little mercy, give him a little money.
But one day it was different. And it came to pass as he was
come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside
begging. And hearing the multitude pass
by, he asked, now what the, you imagine all this multitude, he
can't see it, he can't see Christ. He cried and he said, what does
all this mean? And they told him that it was
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth, can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? Oh yeah. And when he heard that, he must
have heard something about this man. He had to. This is not just
any man. And he cried saying, Jesus, Thou
son of David, the Messiah, the Prince, the King, have mercy
on me. And they which went before rebuked
him that he should hold his peace. You need to be quiet. Be quiet. Can you imagine this? You ain't gonna make this man
be quiet. But they told him, you know, they're just trying
to hinder you. You're making too much noise. Make too much noise. You know, you think about this.
There's a man in my church, he blesses my heart. He said, you
know, he said preachers sometimes when you preach, he said, I don't
mean this wrong, but he said, you know, you see men when they
score a touchdown on TV and everybody runs up, want to just hug and
everybody, he said, I just want to run up and hug your neck. I bless my heart. He's excited. Everybody get excited about everything. This man said, tell me to be
quiet. But he cried so much some more.
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He said, well you
didn't have to scream. I know I didn't, but I want him
to hear me. They tell me to be quiet, I'll
show them. I mean, this is it, this man, he's got to have him.
He's desperate. He may never walk my way again.
I've heard about this man. Nobody's gonna take me to him.
He came to where he was at. And don't you see this? He's walking among all these
people. He's walking. And he doesn't stop. But he stops
for the cry of a sinner. Jesus stood still. You remember what was it in Joshua's
day? He was fighting the battle and the son stood still. You mean the son of God would
stand still at a cry of a sinner? He did. And he commanded him
to be brought to him. And he was coming near, he asked
him, he said, what would you have me to do? I'll ask you a
question, do you need him this morning? What would you have
him to do for you? What would you have me to do?
And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.
And Jesus said unto him, receive your sight. By faith has saved
him. How do you know he has faith?
Well, he didn't stop crying out. Faith without works is dead.
James is very clear about that, isn't he? Faith without works,
he said, I'll show you my faith by my works. And immediately received his
sight and he followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when
they saw it, they give praise unto God. There's many others,
but you remember the Canaanite woman? Like I told you many times
in the scriptures, God uses afflictions, he may even use children to bring
them to Christ. This woman comes for her daughter,
and she's a Canaanite woman. And the Lord, you know how he
deals with this woman? Well, first he just ignores her. How would you like somebody to
ignore you? It reminds me of Naaman the Syrian when he come
to Elisha, come to be healed, and Elisha don't even go out
on the front porch and meet him. Man, that makes him so mad he
can't stand it. You know why? Because he thinks he's an important
man. He's got a reputation. And here comes this woman, and
Lord just ignores her. And then she says, he said, it's
not meat to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. Could you stand to be called
a dog? A dog? Don't call me no dog. I do some bad things, but I'm
no sinner. And she says, now this is it. She said, truth,
Lord. But I'm your dog. And the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the master's table. Sandy has taught me to love dogs.
First thing, first present I ever got her when we got married for
Christmas, I bought her a boxer bulldog. And I aggravated her
all the time, I said, what was I thinking? But it's so funny,
that little dog, she'll come in there when we're eating and
she'll just lay her head right there on mine. And never say a word. She said,
yeah, I'm your dog. But the dogs eat at the crumbs
which fall from the master's. He couldn't drive her off. Election
couldn't drive her off. And she got what she came for.
You see what I'm saying? But this violent does not end
when a man finds Christ or Christ finds him. The man who is pardoned
and knows it then becomes, now listen to me, violently in love
with Christ. I said me and that girl will
be married eight years this Wednesday. I've learned not to forget her
anniversary. Just be honest, there was a lot
of people that tried to discourage me from marrying that girl. and I'd sought the Lord and I
had peace that it was God's will. And I can tell you this, all
hell would not have stopped me from marrying that girl. I had
a lady in our church, when I announced we were getting married, she
got mad, got up and walked out. Then another lady shows up at
my office the next morning with a whole list of scriptures saying
this is why you can't marry that woman. We're married, ain't we? You know what that is? Can you
explain love? You know, when you're too mad.
You fell in love. Can you explain it? You love
them. They want... Never fails, does
it? And it's what this is. Christ
said, Heath has been forgiven a bunch. Loveth much. I think about the
woman with the alabaster box of oil. Our Lord said she done
what she could. Most people think that she got
this money to buy this laying on her back. She may have had
it for a long time, but you think about this, this is precious
perfume. You know why women wear perfume?
It's not because they can smell it, it's so everybody else can
smell it. Don't you smell good? You know what she's saying? This
is too costly for me, but it's not too costly for him. And when
she broke the alabaster box and poured it on his head, now all
the attention is on him. And some believe, you know, he
said, she come to anoint my body for the burial, you leave her
alone. Even Judas said, oh, this is such a waste. We could have
took this and sold it and give to the poor. Now, doesn't that
sound so good? He said, you leave her alone. She's come to anoint
my body for the burial. And some believe when our Lord
stood before Pilate, He still has that smell upon Him. It's
in His hair. When He hangs upon the cross,
He still has that fragrance. The tension is on Him. You know
why she did it? She loved Him. She loved Him. Nothing's too
costly. God enable me to love you with
all my heart. No rivals. No rivals. Spurgeon said the violent man
is always successful. Here's what he said. He said
only the violent are saved. And all the violent are saved.
We're not trying to put everybody in a box. Everybody's, when God
saves them, He saves them by grace, but you can't compare
your experience to somebody else's. And don't think, well, this has
to happen before God saves me. But I can tell you, it's something
violent. It is. God's saving a sinner? God walks
by you and He says, live, and you live. And how do I know you
live? You will give everything for
Him. Everything. And it's a continual,
because everything else, it's like the crowd, it's like the
flesh, everything tries to hinder you. It's like you said, coming
to church, your flesh says, well, I just don't feel like going
this morning. How many times would I just like
to lay back down in the bed? Let's just be honest. But why didn't you? Because greater
is He that is in you. than he that is in the world.
That love that's in your heart, you didn't generate it and you
don't keep it. You know what he does? He fans the flame. Why was that woman seeking him?
Why is it when you lay down and you think about him? That didn't
come from you. That was him. When you think
about him, his mercy, his grace. Something else. You remember
those four lepers in 2 Kings 6? Let me tell you this story. The city was shut up. There was
a famine. And the prophet, I think it was
Elisha, told them, said, 24 hours from now, bread's going to be
cheap. And somebody said, you're crazy. You're crazy. But they
were starving to death in that city because the Assyrians had
the city shut up. But between the Assyrians and
the city were these four lepers. They're not accepted anywhere.
And here, they're thinking in their mind, well, what are we
supposed to do? If we stay right here, we'll die. If we don't
do anything, we'll die. They say, well, we can't go into
the city. And the city is a picture of religion. It's just death. They can't help us. And they said, well, why don't
we just go to the Assyrians? Maybe they'll show us mercy.
If they kill us, well, we're going to die anyway. You see
what's going on in their mind? They said, if we sit here, we'll
die also. Now, therefore, come, let us fall into the host of
the Assyrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if
they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose in the twilight
to go to the camp of the Assyrians. And when they come to the uttermost
part of the camp of the Assyrians, behold, everybody's gone. Everybody's gone. I love that
story. You know, then they're sneaking
around. They go into the tents, and they
carry something out. And it's like they're afraid somebody's
going to come get it from them. And they're over here hiding it.
Then somebody says, what are we doing? Why should we keep this to ourselves?
And they'd run out to that city, and they said, the Syrians are
gone! And they opened the gates, and that one man that told Elisha
said, you're crazy. The meal's not going to be cheap. He's standing there opening the
door. You know what they did? They trampled him. Why did they
trample him? The violent take it by force.
They've heard that there's food out here and they're going to
get it. They're starving to death. And if you're dying in religion
and you hear about Christ, you'll run from it. I heard Henry say one time, he
said, how long will a man go to a table where there's no food?
He says, when he gets hungry, he'll leave. Blessed are those which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled. You see
what I'm saying? I can but perish if I go. I am
resolved to try. For if I stay away, I know, I
know I must forever die. If God ever makes you willing
in the day of his power, you will seek him with all your heart. You will seek him while he may
be found, and you will seek him where he is to be found. Amen. Thank you, Walter.