Greetings, friends, and welcome
to another broadcast of the Old School Primitive Baptist with
Elder Don Martin, Sr. Stay tuned for another Gospel
message of God's free and sovereign grace. 14th chapter of John's
Gospel, as I said. I want to begin reading there
on the first verse of the 14th chapter. Jesus speaking to his
disciples, and he says this, Let not your heart be troubled.
Ye believe in God, believe also in me." In other words, these
folks were troubled. They were perplexed. They were
confused. And he said to them, he said,
don't let your hearts be troubled. Excuse me. He says, if you believe
in God, And believe also in me, for it is in my Father's house
are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again." Now that's a promise, brothers
and sisters. He said, if I'm leaving here,
I'm coming again. And he did leave here. We have
that record in the Book of Acts. in chapter 1 where they stood
there and they was standing there and Jesus was taken up into the
clouds and ascended up into the heavens and then there was those
angels if you remember standing there amongst those men of Galilee
that stood there and saw him go up into the clouds in a resurrected
body. And the angels of God said, why
do you men of Galilee stand here gazing upward? For the same Jesus,
as you have seen him so like manner ascend into the clouds
and into heaven, so shall come again, the same Jesus. And Jesus
said that if I go away, I'm going to come again. And we're looking
for him to come again, and the church has been looking for him
to come again. And that's why Paul said in the
Corinthians, he talked to the church of Corinth, he said, I
know, there's many scoffers out there that say, well, where is
this Jesus? Where is he? He's supposed to
be coming again. Where is he? From the time of
our fathers and from generations back, they've been saying that
Jesus is coming again. But he hadn't showed up as of
yet. Well let me tell you something
friend, that don't change one iota of the Bible truth. Just
because he hadn't come yet don't mean he ain't coming. Because
what he promises, let me tell you something, he will do it.
And he's coming back again. And I believe more right now,
in 2012, we see more of the signs of the times of the return of
Jesus Christ than in any other time. All you've got to do is
look at East Asia. Look at Israel. Look at Gaza. Look at the Islamic world and
how they hate Israel and hate Christians and anything that
has to do with Israel. And they even want to take and
wipe them off of the face of the earth, Iran has said. This
is getting to be, it's a bloodbath over there. When a place like
Syria and Turkey and Egypt and Iraq and all them countries that
are Muslims believe in Islam and in the Koran and yet kill
their own selves, their own brethren that they call brethren. There's
factions over there, the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds, and
they all claim to be Muslim brothers, but they don't agree. on the
Koran and what it says interpretation-wise. And they'll kill each other over
their own personal interpretations. And one thing about them, buddy,
Christian folk who believe the Bible or profess to, we ain't
killing each other over disagreements or over doctrine. I mean, the
missionary Baptist folks are out here trying to get the lost
saved and bringing them in the church house and trying to get
lost folks to worship a holy God. I mean, I ain't angry with
them. I ain't bitter. I don't hate
them. If they believe in the scriptures as far as Jesus Christ
seeking to save sinners, and they have a hope in that redemptive
work on the cross of Calvary, then hey, they're my brother.
And though we may not agree on something, I mean, I better love
them. If they be Christ, we have the obligation to love them,
and I believe the Spirit of God in us will cause us to love them. And some folks will disagree
and say, well, that's a false doctrine and how could they really
be true God's people if they're preaching a false doctrine? Well,
who has arrived in their initial experience of grace to all truth
at one time? When you become a believer in
Christ, did you know everything you know as you know it today?
Of course not. None of us here are at the same
level of spiritual maturity. No, just as if we're not here
in the same level of mortal maturity. Brother Earl, and folks that
have been here and have generations of past that have had folks here,
who's 80 years old or so, Brother Clyde, I'm 68, are we at the
same age in maturity? Of course not, we're at different
ages, mortally, and so are we spiritually. I have been shown
some things in the scriptures I believe that possibly some
of you have not been revealed as yet in the scriptures. I have
found that when I read the scriptures that I'm revealed things in it
new all the time. And it's inexhaustible. You cannot
exhaust the Bible. And any man who thinks he knows
it all and regarding the end times and the book of Revelation
and has it all nailed down, he is a deceiver. He cannot determine
the things that are written in that book completely. Because
some of it is literal, some of it is spiritual, some of it is
the secrets of God which no man is to know. And the secret things
belong only to God and not to mankind. And we only know what
we know because God has been pleased to reveal it to us. And that's all there is to it.
If you don't reveal it, you ain't gonna know it. They that be of
God, heareth God's word. They that be not of God, heareth
not the words of God, and neither can they know them. Oh, there's
many that hear, Jesus said, but they don't perceive. There's
a difference between hearing something and perceiving what
it really means into the heart and mind and soul. Many hear. How many have heard the gospel,
radio, television, been to church most of their life, but never
really heard it in the spirit of their heart and mind to where
it transformed their lives and caused them to have Christ as
a priority in their life and they want to walk after His way
and His truth and be amongst His people and praise His name? Jesus said that if I go away,
which I'm going to, he says, if I prepare a place for you, he says, I'm going to go away
and I'm going to come back again and receive you unto myself.
And that where I am, there you may be also. What a wonderful
blessing promise that is. He says, if I go again, I'm coming
back, and where I am going to, you're going to be there with
me. Now that, brother, is what I'm looking for. It's when he
comes back and takes me to where he's at. And we're going to be
like him. Now what is going to be like
him? Well, number one, it's going to have a resurrected body. It's
going to have an incorruptible body changed in the twinkling
of an eye, the Bible says. When that glorious day comes
and the trump of God sounds and the voice and the shout of God
is manifested and the dead in Christ rise and are caught up
from the graves and then we which are alive, if we are at that
time, are going to be caught up with them in the clouds and
to be carried up into heaven's glory and so shall we ever be
with the Lord. And the Bible says the last part
of that in the first Thessalonians 4 is comfort one another with
these words. There's great comfort in the
fact that Jesus is coming after his people. That's the only comfort
I really have in this life. They don't comfort in this life. I mean, people say, well, I've
lived a long life, and I'm on Medicare, and I'm on Social Security,
and I'm cruising along here. Well, let me tell you something.
There ain't nothing in this world sure. There's nothing in here
sure. You know, Social Security and
Medicare are on the brink of falling apart. I don't think
it's going to touch us that are probably 55 and over, but I'll
tell you what, to those younger generations, it's going to be
a whole different deal if the Lord tarries and they're still
around. But the Bible says that Jesus
said that if I go, I'm going to come again and receive you
unto myself. And he says in verse 4, and whether
I go, ye know the way. You know and the way you know.
And he says in verse 5, listen to what Thomas said. Now this
was Thomas, the one who was absent when Jesus Christ was raised
from the dead, come out of the tomb on the third day, and then
was in the upper room and manifested himself to the disciples at that
time. Thomas at that time, if you recall, was absent. And then
when Thomas was told about Jesus was seen raised from the dead
and came amongst them and stood in the upper room when the doors
were locked and he came through the wall, through the door and
stood in their midst and scared them to death almost. That's
just a saying, scared to death. They didn't die, they were scared
because Jesus stood there in their midst and he said peace
be unto you. At that time Thomas wasn't there. And that's why they call him
Doubting Thomas, because when they told Thomas about Jesus
had come and stood in their midst and had talked with them in the
upper room, Thomas said, oh well, you guys must have seen some
kind of an image or a mirage or something. And then, you know,
later on, it was a matter of a few days later, the Bible said
Jesus appeared unto them again, and Thomas was in their presence,
and Thomas said, Oh, oh, my Lord and my God, and Jesus said, Thomas,
Thomas, Come and put your hands further into my palms or my hands
and feel these hold. Come and feel my hand and take
your hand and thrust it into my side, Thomas, and feel the
wounds that I've encountered here." And Thomas said, Oh my
Lord and my God. Let me tell you something, doubting
Thomas didn't doubt no more after that experience, did he? But
Thomas here, he says in verse 5, before Jesus Christ now was
taken and crucified, and he was ministering to the disciples,
Thomas here, he says unto the Lord, he says, Lord, we know
that whither thou goest, and how are we going to know that,
and how can we know the way? In other words, he didn't understand
fully what Jesus was saying about that he was going to go away,
and he didn't understand how the way was. And Jesus spoke
to him and taught him one of the most common scriptures in
John 14 is this one right here, verse 6. And Jesus said unto
him, I am the way. He said, I'm the way. Tarver says, well how do we know
the way? He says, I'm the way. It ain't a road, it ain't a path,
it's not a designated way geographically, it is through me. The person,
the God-man, the Savior of sinners is the way. He says, I am the
way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No man, now keep in
mind here, He said, I'm the way, no man goes to God besides through
Jesus Christ. No Muslim that believes in Islam
and the Koran is ever going to be in the presence of God as
a child of God as long as he believes what he believes because
he denies that Jesus is the way. He believes that Jesus is deity.
I mean he denies the fact that Jesus is deity and he denies
the fact that Jesus is God. That's the problem. They believe that Mohammed is
the successor to Jesus Christ and he is the final great prophet
and that Mohammed was the great prophet
of the Islamic god Allah. And they hate Israel and they
hate Christians. There is some Arab Christians
in Egypt, six of them this past week, that are been sentenced
to death because they believed in Christ. And there's more over there that
believe in Christ than what people know about. But sad to say that
many of them have to remain secret and isolated and they meet secretly
among themselves for the sake of persecution and dying. But
let me tell you something, when the Bible says that God has a
people from every tongue, kinship, and nation in the world, He does. From the islands of the sea,
I'm an amateur radio operator, I talk all over the world. I
talk to a place called, you may have heard about it Clyde, and
some of you other folks, as you did in the Navy, and maybe even
traveled down in the South Atlantic, down to a place called St. Helena
Island. Ten miles long, five miles wide,
4,000 people inhabit that island. It's a British Commonwealth island. I talked to them by radio this
past week. That is 800 miles from the African
coast and about 1400 miles from the South African coast of Brazil. That is out in the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean and they have a ship that comes there once
a month, buddy, to bring them things that they requested before
and ordered for sustenance and food and whatever they need.
If it ain't on the ship and you didn't order it, you ain't getting
it out there. They don't even have an airport.
They're building one right now, according to the internet, and
it started in 2010 and won't be finished until 2014. They
can't fly a plane in there. Shit, that's the only way you
can get there. And so, you know, the Bible says, Jesus said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man come to the
Father but by me. If any man acknowledges God Almighty,
Jehovah God, as Father, But Jesus said earlier in the chapter of
John here, He says that you can't know the Father unless you know
Me. And if you know Me, you know
the Father. Because they're inseparable,
and Jesus is deity, meaning he is God, and equal with God, because
the Bible says, as Paul wrote, I believe it was in Ephesians,
he said, for he thought, Jesus, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. In other words, he thought it
was nothing less to be equal with God, for he is God. and manifested in the flesh of
man. And he is the God-man, Jesus
Christ. Now listen to what happens here.
So Thomas was straightened out about how the way is and how
the truth is established. Not only the way, but the truth,
but what life is about. Because Jesus said, I am all
of those all in one. And he goes on down here and
he says that, as he said, that no man cometh unto me except
to the Father by me. Verse 7. If ye had known me,
ye should have known my Father also. For from his forth ye know
him and have seen him. Jesus said from henceforth, from
this very moment forth, it says that from henceforth, he says,
ye know him. From henceforth, to the disciples,
he says, from this moment now, you know God. And he said, you
know God and have seen him. Whoa! Did that ever take him
a step back? They said, what could this man
be saying? Now they didn't have the full
revelation that Jesus was God, but they're being revealed it
here as Christ is teaching them about it. But yet even then,
They didn't fully understand it totally until after his death,
burial, and resurrection. And then the Holy Ghost came,
and they said, when the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, the
Comforter, he shall want, he shall teach you, and lead you
in all truth. That's when they really had their eyes opened,
was after his resurrection. But before that time, he was
saying, if you've seen me, he says, you've seen Him. Now, listen to what happened.
Now, here's Philip. We heard about doubting Thomas. He was
straightened out as to the way. How do we know the way? Jesus
said, I am the way. Now, here comes Philip, and he
speaks up, and he says this. Philip saith unto Jesus, Show
us the Father, and his sufficeth us. In other words, you show
us the Father, Lord Jesus, and we'll be satisfied. That's what
the word sapphitis means. It means to satisfy us. It will quench our curiosity.
It will satisfy our longing to know. And the Bible goes on to
say, listen to this now. Jesus said unto him, Philip,
have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
me? Philip, question mark. Have I been so not long with
you that you don't even know me, Philip? He that hath seen me, Jesus said,
he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou? Show us
the Father. That was one of the most marvelous
revelations penned in the scriptures. One fellow said, how long is
it going to be before you show us the Father? Jesus said, if
you've seen me in this mortal body, I'm the God-man. I am God, and I've come down
here, born of a virgin, and I am God in the flesh. I have come
to be as one of you mortals, tempted in every way, the Bible
says, yet without sin. And the Bible goes on to say
that if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. How saith unto
me, show us the Father. And look at verse 10. Believest
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father
that dwelleth in me. He doeth the works. Jesus in a mortal body. that
he was given in that birth of the Virgin Mary to be a man,
to dwell amongst the mortals down here, and to teach the gospel
of the kingdom of God. He says, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. He says, because the Father and
I are one, and he dwells in me. That's why he was sinless. Because the Father was in him
and he could not sin, because he was the God-man. Christ Jesus. The Bible says that in verse
11, believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or
else believe me for the very works sake. In other words, you
either believe that I'm in the Father and the Father is in me
or just believe it because of the works sake. The works I've
done. I've raised Lazarus from the
dead in the 11th chapter of John. We're in chapter 14. You go back
three chapters into the 11th chapter of John, and Jesus raised
up Lazarus that was dead three days. They said, roll back that
stone of that sepulcher there. And when they did, and he said,
Lazarus, come forth. He came out. He wrapped up in
grave clothes, but he was raising the dead. And he says, if you
don't believe what I'm telling you, just verbally, as I'm expressing
this to you, he says, believe it for the work's sake, for the
raising of the dead, for making the blind see and the lame walk. A man that laid at the pool of
Bethesda had been crippled most all his life. And Jesus went
up to him and said, take up thy bed and walk. And the one that
was blind from his mother's womb all of his life, he'd never seen
the light of day. the ninth chapter of John's Gospel. And he heard that Jesus was coming
his way. And Jesus took him and told him
to go make some spittle and some clay and put it upon his eyes
and then go wash in the river. And as he did that he began to
see and he saw for the first time in his life. And he came
back and his own mother and father could not believe what had happened.
And the Jews, they said, Well, what is this that's going on
here? How is it that this man who was blind from birth can
now see? And he said, I don't know. I
don't know what had happened, but we had known him since the
day he was born, and he was blind, but now he sees. And the Jews
got a hold of him, and the chief priest said to him, who is it
that did this unto you? He said, I don't know, but he
told me what to do, and I went and did it, and I'm able to see.
Whereas I was blind, now I see. And later on this revealed that
he was found in the temple praising God, and Jesus was revealed as
the one who told him to do what he did to get delivered from
his blindness. Now, here's an interesting thing
about that chapter 9, about that blind man born from his mother's
womb. The chief priests and Pharisees,
as smart-aleck as they were, and know-it-all about these things,
they said to Jesus, after he was made able
to see, they said, Well, who was it that caused this man to
be blind? Was it his sin? Or was it the
sins of his mother or father that caused him to be blind?
You know what Jesus said? He said it was neither. That
he was blind, that the glory of God would be manifested in
time. He was blind. Born blind! And made able to see. By the
miracle hand of God. By the Spirit of the Almighty.
as a miracle, displaying the almighty, sovereign work of God
Almighty. When Lazarus was in the tomb
three days, dead, his own sister said, Lord, if you roll back And when you wrap someone in
grave clothes, they're totally wrapped up, face, everything.
People say, well, he was in a coma. He was kind of unconscious. If
he had the grave clothes on him, he was wrapped up from the tip
of his head to the bottom of his feet. His mouth was covered
over, his nose, his whole face. He couldn't have breathed if
he was alive. So it would have killed him anyway,
wrapped in grave clothes. He was dead. In the purpose of God, they said, if you had just been here
three days earlier, he would not have died. And Jesus even
told them, he said, for he had to die, that the glory of God
would be manifest. And those that saw him raised
from the dead, they went out to all the regions around about,
and they spoke about the works of God's miracle working power. And I'll tell you what, they
started flocking around Christ. Oh man, did he have a start up,
he's had a following then for sure. But the Bible goes on to
say, it said that in verse 11, believe me that I am in the Father
and the Father in me, else believe me for the very work's sake.
If you don't believe what I've just told you verbally, believe
me for the miracles that I've done that no man has ever done
before. And no man has ever done after
that as far as the number of miracles that were done and signs
and wonders. There has been signs and wonders
done since then during the apostolic establishment of the church in
the Book of Acts. But after that was established
in a new covenant and the church was established, the signs and
wonders ceased. They were no longer needed. It
was established. They authenticated who they were
and who sent them and from then on the church was established
and from then on it was built on the premise of Jesus Christ
and Him alone. And there wasn't a need of signs
and wonders to prove anything. The Holy Spirit proved all things
to those who were blessed to believe. Now, in verse 12 it
says this, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on
me, the works that I do, shall he do also, talking to the disciples. He says, and greater works than
these shall ye do, because I go to my father. He's fixing to
leave. They didn't understand what he was talking about and
when he was leaving. But he says, greater works, sir, are you going
to do as well. In other words, you're going
to be blessed with the ability to do miracles. to prove that
you are from me, that I sent you out with this gospel message,
and it will be authenticated and proven and evidenced by the
signs and wonders. But it says, and whatsoever ye
shall ask in my name, that will I do, and the Father may be glorified
in the Son. But ye shall ask anything in
my name, and I will do it. He promises this to the disciples.
Now people say, now I want you to keep one thing in mind. In
my study of the Scriptures, in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John especially, I want you to keep in mind this. Please,
if anything you get out of my message attempt this morning,
may this ring true in your mind and heart. that Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John were written records of those disciples and what they
saw and heard in the public earthly ministry of Jesus Christ himself. And what he taught them and told
them to do in regarding preaching the gospel to the Jews only first,
and then he sent them out to the Gentiles, and these things
that Christ had commanded them, the disciples, in that period
of the gospels when they were written, is not applicable or
pliable, it is not applicable to us today. He didn't tell us
that we could ask anything in his name and he's going to do
it. If that's the case, I can go out there and in all sincerity
bow my head and say, Lord, please give me a new a Cadillac Escalade
to drive home today. Now, some folks of the higher
Eschalon of the Charismatic Church believe that these things that
were told to the disciples in the public earthly ministry of
Jesus Christ are applicable and are in in working today as well
as then. That's not so, because it's not
seen today as it was then. It was a record of what Christ
taught and told his disciples, but it was not speaking to me
as a New Covenant, New Testament Christian. It was told to the
disciples. He commanded them to do certain
things that people are trying to do today that ain't working. It's just like go out and preach
the gospel to every creature. Who'd he tell that to? He told
that to the disciples, the apostles, publicly and personally, to them
to go do thus and so. He didn't tell it to me. He told
it to them and it was recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John to go preach the gospel to every creature. If
I'm supposed to preach the gospel to every creature, buddy, I better
get busy. Now that's where the missionaries
now, bless their hearts, forgive me, but that's where the missionaries
have run off to the left side of the railroad track. They've
taken that literally, that is meant for us today, to do what
Christ commanded only the disciples at that time to do. And if I'm going to preach the
gospel to every creature, and then Jesus later on, he says,
don't throw your pearls out before swine. In other words, don't
take that which is precious to you of the gospel that I have
brought to you, that I'm the way, the truth, and life, and
cast it before swine, in other words, those who don't want to
hear it. But yet, then again you say, well, didn't they say
preach the gospel to every creature? What about those who don't want
to hear? Oh, we're supposed to preach it anyway. No, no, no.
If they don't want to hear it, don't cast your pearls out there
where they'll just gobble them up and just go all about their
way and have no use for the gospel of Christ and don't want to hear
it. As I said earlier, Jesus said, many shall hear but not
perceive. I mean, the gospel is preached
in many areas of the world, but many can't perceive it. And what
I mean by perceive, they can't understand it. Because understanding
comes, as Brother Buddy said earlier on, it comes by only
the revelation that God causes by the quickening of His Holy
Spirit. Verse 15, If ye love me, keep
my commandments. And I will pray the Father, verse
16, and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide
with you forever." Now, that's the promise right there of the
Holy Spirit. He says, if I'm leaving here,
which I'm going to do, I'm going to give you another comforter.
Now who was the comforter at that time? Him. He comforted
His disciples. He comforted His apostles. He
comforted those that were given of Him, of the Father, to believe
upon Him at that time. He comforted those. But He says,
if I'm leaving here, I'm going to send you another comforter.
And He says in that, that He may abide with you forever. How long? Forever! Not temporarily, for a short
time. Not if you just do good. Not
if you're perfect in every way you walk and do things in this
life. But he said, this comforter is going to be with you and with
you forever. No matter what you do, if you're
God's elect, he's going to be with you forever. And he's going
to be that which causes you to have remorse and causes you to
repent when you do things that are wrong. Because that's the
work of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God. And the Bible
says in verse 17, even the Spirit of Truth is what this comforter
is going to be, whom the world cannot receive. Listen to this
now. The world out here around about
that cares nothing about church, religion, the Bible, and Christ,
it can't receive the revelation that this comforter is going
to bring forth. For the Bible says that The spirit
of truth, the world can't receive it because it seeth him not neither
knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall
be in you. That's the second time that Jesus
has said that he shall be in you. And He is in you, you that
believe. And the Bible says in verse 18,
I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because
I live, ye shall live also. And that day ye shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." In other words,
there is going to be a oneness of the Father, and Son, and Holy
Spirit in the believer. Because if you have the Holy
Spirit dwelling within you, which all those that are born again
in the Spirit of God have, you have the Son and the Father in
you as well. For the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit are inseparable. They are one. That's the Trinitarian
teaching of the doctrine of the oneness of God. The Bible goes
on to say, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself
to him. And Judas said unto him, not
Iscariot, but another Judas, said, Lord, how is it that thou
wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world. And look
what Jesus said, Jesus answered and he said unto them, if a man
love me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings. Now there's an evidence right
there. If you love Christ, you're going to keep His sayings, you're
going to want to please Him, you're going to walk in a way
that is honoring to Him. You're going to want to speak
things that honor Him. You're going to want to do things,
go places, and live a life that is honoring unto Him. He says,
He that loveth me, and keepeth not my sayings, and the word
which ye hear is not mine, but the Father which sent me. In
other words, I'm not just speaking from my own self as a man. I'm speaking to you as the God
man, because the Father is in me and speaking through me. And
the Bible says in verse 25, these things have I spoken to you,
being yet present with you. Listen now, verse 26. But the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, there he defined it right
there. People say, what's the Comforter? I told you earlier
that it was going to be the Holy Spirit. Here's where he defined
it. He says, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, He says,
Who the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all
things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever
I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I will give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let then be afraid. He started off this chapter,
he said, let not your hearts be troubled. I'm going to conclude
this sermon message here by here on verse 27 where it says, let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Why? Because
the peace of God, he's going to leave with us And he said,
the peace of God is what I'm going to give to you. And it's
not going to be the peace that the world can try to offer you.
It's a peace that passes all understanding, Paul wrote about.
He said, and it's going to be joy that's unspeakable that the
world When you're sick and afflicted
and you're laying there on the bed and begging death is knocking
at your door and there's a peace that comes over you and overwhelms
you, that ain't a peace in the world. That's a supernatural
peace that is of the grace and the favor of God upon His people. And He'll be pleased to do that
to us. Oh, I heard a list of this and I'll close with this.
An elder up in Mississippi, had known a deacon that was in another
state. I think it might have been, I
don't know where it was at. Anyway, he was talking to this
deacon and he says, you know my brother, he was in the hospital
and he had cancer. And it was quite evident that
he was dying. And the deacon said to this elder,
he said, in fact I just heard this this week, He said, I went to see my brother.
And he says, I went in there and he was in bad shape. He had
oxygen on his face and he was very pale and very weak, intravenous
lines all over his body and trying to keep him going. And he went
in there not knowing really what to say. Evidently the brother,
possibly from what I gather, was not one who could give evidence
of being a believer. But the brother said to him,
he said, well, the weather is so and so outside. And the brother
that was laying there in the bed, who was toast to death,
he spoke up and he said, what does a dying man care about the
weather outside? And the deacon thought a minute
and he thought about maybe what else he might be able to say
to him. It might be of some conversation. And he said he thought about
what he might say and then it rang back in his ears. He said,
what does a dying man care about that or this? What does a dying
man care about anything that don't know Christ? He's in misery. He's hopeless. Helpless. He's decaying away. The deacon said that he said
he just kind of welled up in tears and he turned around and
he walked out of the room. Because his brother had closed
his eyes and kind of went to sleep and he was sedated quite
heavily. And he said he went home and
as he drove home he thought about it and he says, what does a dying
man care about the weather? What does a dying man care about
anything? But I'll tell you one thing,
friend, a dying man who knows Jesus Christ, or a dying woman
who knows Christ, they care about wanting to hear about more about
that blessed hope that they have been given in Christ. Oh yes,
yes, I wrote Brother Michael, and I sent him that little clip
of that story. And Brother Michael wrote me
back. He says, you know something, Brother Don? He says, I hope
that if I'm ever in that situation where I'm laying in a hospital
bed and I'm dying of some disease and somebody comes in there and
wants to talk to me about something, I want them to talk to me about
Jesus. And I hope they come in there and they bring a hymn book
with them and they just open it up and just start singing
an old hymn to me about Jesus and His glory, His salvation,
His rich, red, royal blood. Oh, dear folks, what does a dying
man want to hear? Oh, if you don't want to hear
about Christ, then oh, how sad, how sad. But yet, you know something,
like Brother Buddy said, there will be those that will take
that same man that died without a hope and now be at a funeral
home or at a church funeral, and there will be those that
will preach him into heaven every time. trying to be solace and
trying to be comforting to the family, and they'll try to preach
him into heaven. I heard a man one time, an old Baptist preacher,
had somebody in the neighborhood around the church house that
hadn't been to church in 25 or 30 years, that had a family that
used to be part of the church a generation or so back, and
they had died. And they asked for the preacher,
during their last few hours of life, to come over and visit
with them. And he went over and visited
with them. And the dear lady, who was dying, who hadn't been
in church, like I said, in 20, 25 years, and had no interest
in the things of the Lord or spiritual matters, she said,
would you pray for me? And he said, well, certainly
I'll pray for you. How do you pray for somebody
like that? What do you say other than Lord, Lord may you have
mercy and if not may we that remain be reconciled to whatever
your will is. We can't pray them into heaven. We can't save them. If God don't
do a work of grace on their heart, and it's evidenced by a profession
of the mouth, that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, there
ain't a thing in the world you can do. And that same preacher,
at the funeral, two or three days later, said that because
she asked for prayer, that she was a chosen elect of God, and
she had winged her way to heaven's glory. And I can't do that. I can't say things that I have
no confidence in that is the truth. But the preachers try
to, they'll do that. And I know that they're trying
to comfort the grieving and so forth, but you don't comfort
people by lying to them and telling them things that ain't so. It
may sound good for the time and period, but But you know, and
I know, there's folks out there and family out there that knew
different than what that preacher was saying. They knew he was
a scoundrel, he might have been a drunk and a foul-mouthed God-cursing
man, and yet the preacher's up there saying that they winged
their way to heaven. Now, them people out there that
knew him real close as family and friends, they're saying,
ha ha ha, something wrong with this picture here. But yet, it
happens all the time. I don't really relish going and being involved in a
funeral of someone I don't know. I have, but I'm very careful
to preach the Bible, Christ. And that He is what I told you
this morning, the Way, the Truth and the Life. And no man come
to the Father but by Him. That's the only message I know
how to preach at a funeral where I don't know the deceased and
their spiritual testimony or any evidence of their spiritual
life. I'm not going to try to give false hope. I'm going to
just preach the gospel and leave it in the hands of an almighty
sovereign God who only can seek and save a sinner and transform
a life and make him fit for heaven. So may the Lord bless the observations
that we've made this morning of His Word. May the Lord cause
it to ring in our ears. What does a dying man care about
the weather? They don't care nothing about
it. Because they're just one breath away from eternity. Which
may be in the dregs of hell fire. God only knows. But there's one
thing about it, He does. And to those whom He's chosen
to seek and to save, they're going to come. Jesus said, my
sheep hear my voice and they follow me. They'll not follow
another, they'll follow me. Why? Because they know the voice
of the Good Shepherd. because they've been given hearing
ears to hear it. And when He calls, they come.
May God bless you. Let's pray. Dear Father, our
God, in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom
we have to do, we thank you, Lord, for the Word of God that
you preserve for us. We thank you for the Gospel and
the riches therein. We thank you Lord that the word
of God is unsearchable, meaning that it cannot be searched out
into its totality because of the mysteries and of the revelation
of it that God is only pleased to reveal to whom he will. And
who is it that knoweth all of the things of the spiritual kingdom
of God? For there is none. none but knows
all. So what we do know our God, may
we be confident that if we share it, it will not return void. It will accomplish what you've
sent it to do. I believe that's even so today.
That what has been set forth here today, what has been sown
here today as seed, it shall purpose what you've sent it to
do. It shall be that which shall
be reaped in time. for the glory and the praise
of thy dear name. We pray these things in Christ's
wonderful name for such so great salvation he has brought about
upon a people who knew not the way that was made able to see
Christ as the only way, the truth, and the life. Amen.