Good morning. If you would turn with me to
John chapter 3, verse 14. Merciful Lord, thank you for
gathering us today. Please deliver us from our foolishness. Please give us hearts to receive
your word. Teach us, Lord. enable us to worship you in spirit
and in truth. We thank you for your grace,
for your free sovereign grace. Please give us ears to hear and
hearts to rejoice in your faithfulness. For you alone are good and faithful. Through Christ's name we ask,
amen. So in John chapter 3 verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. I've read that verse so many
times, especially as a young man. What hit me is the Lord says
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so the
Son of Man must be lifted up. Usually we read in the New Testament the old is in the new revealed
and the new is in the old concealed. But in this occasion, the Lord
tells us to go back to the Old Testament, to Moses lifting up
the serpent in the wilderness, which is found in Numbers 21,
4 through 9. And that is the picture of Christ
being lifted up. So I want us to look really at
Numbers 21, 4 through 9. Numbers 21, we're starting at verse 4, "'Then they,'
that is the children of Israel, "'journeyed from Mount Hor by
the way of the Red Sea "'to go around the land of Edom. "'And
the soul of the people became very discouraged "'on the way.
And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have
you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For
there is no bread, no water. And our soul loathes this worthless
bread." Or in a King James, it's light bread. So the Lord sent
fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and
many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came
to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set
it on the pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone who
is bitten when he looks upon it, shall live. So Moses made
a serpent of brass and put it on a pole, and it came to pass,
if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent
of brass, he lived." What a sweet story of redemption. And the
Lord says in the same manner, As the serpent in the wilderness
was lifted up, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. So I
wanted to look at this a little closer, because the Lord points
us back to this story. So I'll start with verse five.
And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have
you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For
there is no bread and no water. And our soul loathes this, and
to King James it's light bread. It can be translated worthless
bread. They're complaining against the
Lord. Now is it true that they had no bread? They had no water? Well, next to this 1615 When the children of Israel saw
it, they said to one another, what is it? For they did not
know what it was, speaking of the manna. And Moses said to
them, this is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.
Again in 31, and the house of Israel called its name manna,
and it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was
like wafers made with honey. So the Lord certainly had given
them food to eat and He gave them water out of the rock. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
10. Corinthians chapter 10, "'Moreover,
brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers
were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized
into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual
food, and all drank of the same spiritual drink, for they drank
that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ,
So when Moses smote the rock and the water came out, the Lord
says that was Christ following them. And here it is. Israel is a picture of us, how
we complain. You know, the Lord feeds us.
The Lord feeds us all the time with the knowledge of Himself.
He is our bread, He is our sustenance, and He is our drink. You know,
the Lord says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink His blood, you have no part in Him. And when we gather
together, we get to partake of the Lord. We get to eat of his
flesh and drink of his blood as he teaches us and delivers
us from ourself, from our sin, from our foolishness, from our
death, from our flesh, and shows us his righteousness, shows us
his mercy, his love, his kindness, his long-suffering. And we see
ourselves in the children of Israel complaining and murmuring
when things go wrong, when our hearts are just cold and indifferent,
when we look at the things of this world with an evil eye and
long after this world and lust after the things of this world.
And we are complaining, just like Israel. I remember reading
this years ago when I was young, saying, wow, look at those wicked
people. I don't want to be like that.
But as you get older, the Lord shows you that we are that way. And that's why we are ashamed
of ourselves. That's why we are encouraged to look to Christ,
that he would cover us with his righteousness, because we have
nothing to boast. We are ashamed and pathetic. So they even said our soul loathes
this bread, this worthless bread. It just makes you stop and think. you know, how evil we are, you
know, our complaints. He not only feeds us physically,
but more, more than that, he, he's opened our eyes to show
us what we are, gathers together to sing to him and to seek him. And, um, when we see this, we're reminded
of ourselves. Um, and that rock was Christ. But
with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies
were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples,
to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as
they also lusted, and do not become idolaters, as were some
of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink,
and rose up to play. nor let us commit sexual immorality,
as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell, nor let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents,
nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed
by the destroyer. Now all these things happened
to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him
who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall." So the Lord warns us in His love
and His kindness, and He turns us to His Son. And that's what we're going to read
about now, the hope, the mercy that Christ for His people. So, the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people and they bit the people and many of the people
died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, ìWe have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He take
away the serpents from us.î So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord sends His Spirit to
convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and He convicts
us of sin. He gives us repentance, and He
turns us from our complaining, from our grumbling, from our
unbelief. And that's His mercy, that's His great mercy, to send
the Spirit to convict us. I suppose that the fiery serpents
As the Lord sent them, they came and they judged Israel, and they
killed some, and the others they made sick. And so, he sends a
spirit to judge all men, and some he judges, and some he warns
and delivers, and turns them towards his son. And so, the same spirit of Christ
that's sent out into the world to convict the world of sin is
the same spirit that the Lord tells Moses to make a serpent
on the pole and look to for salvation. God is not only the judge, the
righteous judge, he's also the savior. And so Moses is seen
here as a picture of Christ interceding for the people of Israel. And
Moses hears the cry of the people, and he goes to the Lord, to the
Father, and he tells the Father. And Moses prays for the people.
In verse eight, then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent
and set it on a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone
who is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. Now, for me, growing up in a
lot of free will religion, I was told that we're all bitten, we're
all sinners, and if I look to Christ, I'll be saved. But that's
not what it says here. It says if a man was bitten,
when he looks, he'll be saved. It's the exact opposite. It doesn't
say all men are sinners in that sense. It says, if a man is bitten,
when he looks, he will live. That's the exact opposite of
what I've always heard all my life. It was always conditioned.
Salvation was conditioned upon my faith, upon me looking. And
when we read Numbers, it's clear. If a man was bitten, when he
looked, he should live. Not if. So the true gospel is
the exact opposite of what man's gospel is. Man's gospel is if
you look, you'll live. It's dependent upon you. It's
up to your will. It's your decision. But that's
not what the scripture says. It says when he looks, because
he will look. God sees to it that he bites the man and convicts
him of his sin and makes him to look. Salvation is sure. It's a sure thing for sure. And
here are some testimonies of the scripture of men that were
bitten. David says, David cries out, have mercy on
me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to
the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions,
wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For
I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight,
that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when
you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." He was born in
sin, and we're all born in sin. When the Lord bites you, He shows
you that we are sinners. We sin because we're sinners. We don't sin and become a sinner.
We sin because we're sinners. Job says, after the Lord rebuked
him, Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do
everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from
you. You asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?
Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things
too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and
let me speak. You said I will question you,
and you shall answer me. I have heard of you by the hearing
of the year, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I abhor myself
and repent in dust and ashes. Peter says, when he saw the Lord
Jesus, he said, he fell down at his feet and he said, depart
from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord. And Paul says, O wretched
man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? This
is the testimony of those who are bitten. When the Lord breaks
our heart and brings us low, we're caused to cry out to Him.
And then it's not If we'll look to Him, He makes us to look to
Him. We have no place to go. He causes us to cry out to Him
because really salvation is of the Lord. And all the lies that
we hear on the radio, on the TV, all around us is that salvation
is up to you if you were willing. If you want to make a decision
for the Lord, salvation is up to you. But that is a lie according
to the Scriptures. Salvation is of the Lord. that
the Lord says, this is the will of the Father who sent me, that
of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up at the last day. The brethren asked the Lord,
what shall we do that we may work the works of God? And Jesus
answered them and said, this is the work of God that you believe
in, whom he sent. Our faith is the work of God.
All of salvation is the work of God. And man is not to touch
any of God's work. God's work is a holy work. It's
a good work. And the truth is, when the Lord
breaks the heart of His people, that's what we want. We need
a sovereign Lord. We need someone to deliver us.
We need someone to give us faith. We need someone to give us repentance.
We need someone to soften our heart. The religious, like I
was for most of my life, just walk around reading the Bible
and trying to do good works and hoping that they'll do enough
to please God in the end. But the truth is that we're evil,
that all our righteousness is a filthy rag. So every good thing
that we can possibly do is evil in God's sight. Our prayers,
our Bible reading, the best works that we could possibly do is
evil in God's sight. Our only hope is to be covered
in His righteousness. The only thing that ever pleased
the Father is the death and the life of His Son. Christ is the
only one that can please the Father. We could never please
the Father. But the good news is that He's
shown us this. He's shown us what we are. He's
caused us to cry out to Him. And God's people, they can't
have anything less than Christ alone for all their redemption. And so when they hear this, when
we read this, when the Lord's people read about if a man is bitten, when he looks,
he lives. It's good news for God's people.
It gives us hope because if he's begun the work, if he's bitten
us, if he's shown us our complaining, our wickedness, our unbelief,
even our dead religion, our fleshly religion, if he's shown us this,
then we know that he'll finish that work because he's faithful. It's all about when we look,
not if we look. They shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people. Not all men, but his people.
And he shall, because he's faithful, he shall save his people from
their sins. The religious say, if I, then
God. But the truth is, if God, then
I. One of the poor men in the scripture
said, Lord, if, I think it was a leper, Lord, if you are willing,
you can make me clean. It's up to the Lord's will. We're
beggars, and we're thankful to be beggars. We're thankful to
be able to beg, because we deserve hell. So to beg is a good thing. It's a merciful thing that the
Lord gives us. And we look to Him for all our salvation, for
all our righteousness. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Jesus spoke these words in John
17 in his priestly prayer. He lifted up his eyes to heaven
and he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that
your Son also may glorify you, as you have given him authority
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that
they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you
have sent. I've glorified you on the earth,
I have finished the work which you have given me to do, and
now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory
which I had with you before the world was. I have manifested
your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world.
They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept
your word. Now they have known that all
things which you have given me are from you. For I have given
to them the words which you have given Me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they
have believed that you sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray
for the world, but for those whom you have given Me, for they
are yours, and all Mine are yours, and yours are Mine, and I am
glorified in them. And last, I wanted to read something so sweet. In Deuteronomy
8.16, it says, Now, obviously, it wasn't testing us to see what
we would do. Really, it's a demonstration. The Lord humbles us to demonstrate
His mercy and show us what we are to ourselves, to make us
cry to Him. Because in our pride, we don't
want to cry to Him. In our pride, we want to show
Him how good we are. We want to do good works. We
want to bargain with Him. We want to make deals with Him,
just like in this world. We're always trying to cut a
deal. So man thinks that he can bring himself before the Lord
and make a deal at the table of salvation. It's not that way. The Lord is the King of kings. The Lord is sovereign. The Lord
is good. The Lord is righteous and holy and pure. We are exactly
opposite of everything that God is. He's done this. Like he said to humble us, and
then he might test us or demonstrate to us what we are, to do good
in the end, just like he did to Job. He brought Job low to
show Job what he was so that Job would cry out to him and
look to him alone for all his mercy and all his righteousness.
Job wouldn't look to himself at all. And the ending of Job
was better than the beginning, said the Lord, gave him double
what he had. All I can say is the Lord is
so good. He is so good. He is so merciful. His ways are
so wonderful. His long-suffering is... The
older I get, I just can't, I can't even speak of the wonders of
the Lord. They are so wonderful, He is so great. You know, when
He shows you what you are, and He gives you a little glimpse
of what you are, a little glimpse of who He is, it's just unspeakable. Like Mike was saying, today we're
talking about, you know, a morsel of bread. I think it's in Psalm,
or not Psalm, Proverbs 17. It says, better is a dry morsel with quietness
than a house full of feasting with strife. So here is the,
we're in a house of quietness, that is peace. We're calling
out looking for the Lord. There's peace here. God has brought
peace. He's shown us what we are and
together with one accord we're calling out looking to the Lord.
And the Lord is saying better is a dry morsel, just a little
something that the Lord would give us because it's real, it's
life. It's from God himself. Better
than a house full of feasting with strife, that is the flesh.
That is the fleshly knowledge of man, getting together with
all his philosophy and religion, having a good time, whipping
it up. So I pray that today would continue
to be a house of quietness and that
the Lord would continue. Maybe the Lord would bless Mike
to bring a morsel and continue to bless us this morning. It is a great blessing to receive
from the Lord and a man can't give to others anything that
he has not received himself. You never see a poor man giving
another poor man bread to eat, because he doesn't have it. But
when the Lord gives a man bread, He said, cast it upon the waters.
And it's the Lord that gives the increase. And I was thinking
there, as Brother Tim had spoken about that more so as we'd spoken
about this earlier in the meeting while just he and I were here. John Warburton Many of you are
probably not familiar with John Moore Burton. I would encourage
you if you ever get an opportunity to read any of the works of John
Moore Burton or to read his autobiography to do so. He was a man that the
Lord blessed and taught some very simple lessons but very
profound lessons throughout the course of his life. about the
grace of God and the fact that he had no power at all. I remember one of those instances,
I'll share this with you before I share with you the one that
I was talking with Brother Tim about. John Warburton was a very
simple man. And he didn't have an education. But he felt like the Lord had,
by His grace, saved him. And he felt like he ought to
speak. And he had heard many preachers
stand up and eloquently and profoundly present for things. And so he
got to thinking about that. In his first few attempts at
preaching the word, he felt were just very plain. Of course, people were blessed
by it, but he didn't think so because he didn't speak in those
flowing terms like the learned men did. And so when he would
be called upon to speak, he'd just get up and say a few things.
because he didn't have a whole lot to say, but he just spoke
from his heart. And so he got, the more he got
around places where men preached, you know, great, eloquent sermons
and whatnot, he got to deciding, well, I need to work on me a
sermon. And so he got up, and he studied
up all week, and he figured him up something he was going to
say. And so he got up in front of the people, to speak and he
couldn't say a word and so he finally he sat down and one of
the old deacons got up and said well what the Lord opens no man
can shut and what the Lord shuts no man can open and so he learned
from that experience that it's not by might it's not by power
it's by the Lord and so As we come to meetings, we gather together
with one another, we often think that, well, this
is a time when we would come together to listen to somebody
speak. Now, I've got the gift of gab. I can talk, you know, about most
anything. for a while and you know I could
fool you into thinking that I'm really smart sometimes but unless the Lord gives a man
a message it doesn't make any difference what he might say
because you can say a lot of things and not say anything and
you can say a few things and it'd be a great thing And so
when we come together week after week, I often feel like that
we come here thinking that somebody's going to tell us something. That's the wrong reason we ought
to be coming. The reason that we come together
is that we might edify one another. Now the Lord gives different
gifts to people. Some people He gives speaking
gifts, more so than He does to others. Some would be terrified
to stand up in front of somebody and speak. But He gives to all of God's
people. When He awakens them by His Spirit,
He gives to everyone something that is beneficial to the brethren. And we need not to be reluctant
if the Lord lays something upon our heart to set that forth. We need not feel, on the other
hand, somehow less than a true saint or whatever if we don't
have the gifts that somebody else exhibits. Because all gifts
are given by the Lord to profit the body. They're not given to
profit the man. Now there's a lot of preachers
in the world today that they don't understand that. And they
think they're God's gift. They think themselves to be God's
gift to the church. But the gifts that God gives
are simple gifts that He profoundly blesses. and brings unto men. Just like we think in scripture
of the multitude that was gathered and the time came for them all
to eat and the disciples said Lord, we don't have that. The
people were complaining, because they wanted something to eat.
The disciples said, well, Lord, we don't have anything to give
them. The Lord said, well, feed them. And they looked around. They
said, well, the only thing we've got is that there's a little
boy here. And he's got five loaves and
two fishes. But what is that? I mean, there's
nothing to this. We can't feed all these people.
But the Lord fed those people, did he not? He blessed that.
And he fed it. Now that's a very simple lesson.
I learned that when I was probably seven or eight years old going
to Sunday school. I heard that story. And unfortunately,
it was often misapplied. And the glory was often given
to the little boy for doing what he could. We're not here to see
what we can do, or to impress somebody, but rather to feed
the sheep. Remember when the Lord told Peter,
when Peter had denied him? And the Lord singled Peter out.
Peter was brokenhearted. Peter did not feel like he had
anything that he could possibly do for the people of God. He had denied the Lord. Peter,
who had stood up and said, Lord, when all of these Yahoos have
departed from you, I will be right there with you. I am going
to stand with you to the end. But who was it that cowered before
a young maiden? They said, well, you were with
him, weren't you? And he denied it with an oath,
the scripture says. No! I don't even know him. The Lord broke the heart of Peter.
And Peter went out and wept. And he still was carrying that
with him day after day. And the Lord told the women as
they came to the to him and he met him and he said go and tell
Peter or the angel did actually said go and tell Peter or he
said go and tell the disciples and Peter because you see he
knew Peter was that one who was broken hearted downcast more
so than all the rest because while the others were sad that
he had gone that that he had gone away and they didn't know
what had happened You know, they knew it did, and now, here they
hear that his tomb's been robbed. Nobody's in there. And so, the
Lord sent that message to Peter, and then when he got with those,
his disciples, and he fed them there, beside the seashore. That's a beautiful account. When the Lord, they fished, they
went fishing, Peter said, let's go fishing. That's all he knew
to do. They went fishing, they didn't
catch anything. But you see, all the while they were toiling
and laboring there on that sea trying to catch fish, the Lord
was watching over them. He was standing on the shore.
They didn't see him, but he was there. How do we know that? Well,
the scripture says that he was, but then the scripture says that
when they had caught the fish that the Lord said, cast your
net on this side of the boat, And they were thinking, you know,
we've already done that. The Lord said, do that. And they
did that. And they caught more fish than
they could bring into the boat. And so the Lord made provision
for them. And as they were doing their
work, at some point in time, he prepared a fire. with some
fish already on it. Now, where'd he get those fish?
I mean, did he cast a line into the water and catch the fish? I don't know how he got the fish,
to tell you the truth. I don't have any understanding.
I don't know how he made the fire. I don't know if he rubbed
two sticks together or what he did, but he made the fire, and
there was coals there already burned down, and the fish was
prepared when they came Because the Lord makes provision for
his people. They didn't have anything to
do with it. And then he took Peter aside and he asked Peter
this question. He said, Peter, do you love me? That was a question Peter did
not want to answer. You know many times we're in
that same situation. And we don't want to answer that
question. Not because we don't love the Lord. Not because we
don't delight in hearing things about Him. But because we say,
well, you know, we're not equipped. We're not ready. We're not able. Lord, we're not worthy. Peter, do you love me? Yeah,
Lord, I love you. Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, I love you. Feed my
sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yeah, Lord, I knowest all things
thou knowest. that I love them. Feed my sheep. And so the Lord
raises up men out of the world. Men that really don't have any
business being here. I mean, you know, left to ourselves,
we wouldn't be here. I wasn't planning to be here. But I'm here. Now, why are you
here? I'm going to tell you why you're
here. Because God ordained for you to be here. You couldn't
be anywhere else. If you could, why aren't you?
Now, people think, oh, well, I can do anything I want to.
Well, can you? Well, then just why don't you
do it? If you can do anything you want to, do you want to come
up with a cure for the COVID pandemic thing that's coming
around? Well, why don't you do it? Because you can't. You see, you can only do what
it is that the Lord gives you to do. And he gives to his people
gifts. Every person in here, if you
belong to Christ, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, He's given
you a gift. I don't know what that gift is,
but He says to each one, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Now, he didn't
just say that, he said that specifically to Peter, but he says it to all
of God's people, because every joint of the body is to supply
that which the body stands in need of. And the body stands
in need of that which every joint supplied. So if the body stands
in need of that which every joint supplied, then it is incumbent,
is it not, upon the joints to supply that which the body needs. And so, I say all of that to
exhort you to not consider what you have
and know to be insignificant. Because if the Lord teaches you
something, it's beneficial not just to you. See, the Lord doesn't
teach you things just to so you can consume it and say, oh, man,
glad I learned that. No, he teaches you things so
that you can help the brethren. See, you learn lessons every
day that other people don't learn. And only by the grace of God
did you learn those things. But he teaches you those things
so that you might teach others. Now, I've gone on the roundabout
journey to come back. to John Warburton. And John tells in his autobiography
that he had been on a several days journey, and he finally
got back home. When he got home, nobody was
there. He was hungry. He didn't have anything to eat.
He didn't have much money. And of course, the only way he
had to travel was to walk. And he had walked for miles,
and he was famished. He didn't have anything to eat
or drink. He got home, and he was hoping to have a meal when
he got there. And when he got home, there was
no food. And he got looking around, and
he found up in one of the old cupboards, he found an old crust
of bread that had inadvertently been placed there. And it was
dried out, and he said it was even a little moldy. But he said
he took that crust of bread and he got him a glass of water and
he sat down and he thanked the Lord for what he gave him. And he said he'd never had in
all of his life a greater feast than when he ate that old piece
of dry bread. The Lord does give us morsels
from time to time. And I'd rather eat those morsels
than I had to sit down at the most sumptuous feast that's ever
been supplied by men. Because you see, it is those
morsels from the hand of God that feed our soul. And only
he can get it. Only he can send it. May he do so in us. Because you
know the script says let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
And so I encourage you, every one of you, the church is not
a place that we come to listen to somebody preach. Now we do
hear men preach and it's a good thing. We glory in the preaching
of the gospel. But that's not what the sum total
of what the church gathers together for. The church doesn't gather
together simply to hear somebody preach. The church gathers together
to minister one to the other. Now we don't have to each one
preach in order to minister to one another. See that word has
become in our religious society, the word minister. has come to
designate a man or a function. Well, he's a minister. Well,
dear brethren, all of God's people are ministers. See, we've been
called to the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry is not
something somebody's paid to do. The work of the ministry
is that which every joint supplier is involved in. And so we encourage
God's people in that, to know that the ministry of the saints,
one to the other, is a needful thing, a good thing, and it's
certainly not something to be considered a light thing. I've
shared this with you before, but when I was growing up, there
was an old gentleman that was kind of considered to be an eccentric
in the community. And he did have some hard ways
about him, you know, there wasn't any doubt about it. But every
now and then, he would stand up in the congregation.
And this was a thing that didn't happen very often because, you
know, in most churches, I mean, that's kind of an unusual thing
for somebody to just stand up and say something because the
only people that are supposed to say anything is the preacher.
I mean, you know, you can't just have people saying stuff. I mean,
that's gonna disrupt the order of things, is it not? But anyway,
he would every now and then stand up and say, I've got a song that
the Lord gave me. Now, he couldn't sing, at least
in what men would look at. Some men look at others and they
say, oh, he can really sing. Well, he couldn't really sing. He wouldn't be somebody you'd
call on to sing at your funeral or your wedding or something
like that. But he stood up and he would sing his song. And I know most people probably
thought that was kind of quaint, or they thought it was kind of
strange. You know, we'll just get through
this best we can. But I remember even as a kid,
that though I wasn't really caring that much about the gospel, that
had an effect on me. to think that here's a man that
because of some reason unbeknownst to most men wanted to exalt and
praise God in the midst of the congregation. Because see, that's
why we come together. And so that is a ministry. There
was another old gentleman that they would call on to pray from
time to time. His name was Mr. Stroller. I don't know much about Mr. Strawler
because he was an elderly man and I was just a kid. But I remember
that the one person that they didn't want for the preacher
to call on for the benediction was Mr. Strawler. Because you
know, most of the time, when they got ready for the benediction,
I mean, it was at the end, everybody was ready to get out. And the
smokers, they couldn't wait to get out and light up, you know. And all that kind of stuff. And
so they were, so they wanted the preacher to call on somebody
that was just gonna get up and pray the little prayer, you know.
Bless the missionaries and all that kind of stuff. And dismiss
us with your care and keeping and out the door, everybody go.
but not Mr. Strong. But sometimes I call
on him to preach and I can just, you know, as a kid, of course
I was along with them, I said, oh no, you know, because I knew
he was going to pray. He wasn't going to just say some
little old something. He was going to pray. I knew,
even as a kid not knowing anything about the gospel, I knew there
was a difference between what most men did when they got up
and called on to pray and what Mr. Strawler did. I don't know
how I knew it. But I knew there was something
different about that. Now, I didn't necessarily like it. I wish I
could go back and hear it, you know, with greater understanding. But I do know this, that he'd
spend a more time addressing the Lord and extolling the glory of God
than he did in the praying, what men would call asking the Lord
or putting his petitions before God. Oh, that the Lord might work
in our hearts and minds to praise the Lord. He's worthy of praise.
And I know that in every one of God's people that have been moved by the Spirit
of God to look upon that serpent and live. He's given gifts. May the Lord stir our hearts
and our minds to extol and praise the name of Christ. It's a name
which is above everything. It's a name before which every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. He's the Lord
of glory. He's the Savior of sinners. He's
the only one worthy of praise. That's why we come here, is that
we might praise His name together. May the Lord give us a heart
and mind to do so. May the Lord help us, guide us,
lead us, because if He If he does not, brethren, we're
in a mess. Because if you're depending on
me to tell you something that's going to get you into the presence
of the Lord, you're going to be sadly mistaken. I can't do
it. I can point you to him. But only the Lord can open a
man's heart and give him a love for Christ, give him a desire
to walk in the way of God. I pray that He might perform
that work in us. That He might break our hearts
and humble us before Him.