Well, it's certainly been a wonderful
night. Last night was wonderful, and tonight so far has been absolutely
wonderful. As we often say, we who are the
sheep of God, we just desire to hear more and more about Christ,
more and more about our Lord. Brother Drew Dietz will be coming
to preach again for us next. Again, just a quick overview,
Brother Drew faithfully proclaims the gospel in Jackson, Missouri. And he's been there preaching
it for 27 years. And just getting to know him
in the last couple days has been absolutely wonderful. As I said
last night, I'm looking forward to a long friendship. And it's
just been a great blessing to meet you and Melinda. And we just look forward tonight,
right now, to hearing about Christ. Come and preach Christ to us,
brother. Well, here we go. Wonderful, wonderful message,
Joe. And I know you don't take any credit. You're just a mouthpiece.
But my, oh my, I heard, I guess I'll say it, I heard somebody
say years, it's been a long time ago, pastor's dead, he's a lovely,
lovely sovereign grace man, Tommy Robbins, I don't know, maybe
some of you may remember him, just a dear brother. He heard
the gospel preaching, he said, he turned to me and said, he
said, I wish I could preach like that. And now I know what he
meant, how he meant. Well, and the last hymn, I Was
a Wandering Sheep, beautiful hymn, we have that in our songbook.
And that, I told Wayne, don't put it in there before I preach
because I'll start bawling. That's my favorite hymn. And I found that hymn 20-something
years ago. We got it in our songbook. And we sing it, and every time
we have a preacher, they're like, well, they never heard that.
Well, did you see who wrote that? Old Lord with glowing heart,
did you see who wrote that? Francis Scott Key. Now ever since
I've heard that hymn, when I go to a sporting event, and I look
at Old Glory, I'm not thinking about the song he wrote for the
Stars, but I'm thinking about, I can't wait to get the glory
of fellowship with that brother, because those words, just, they're
wonderful. Brother Francis, Joe, brothers
and sisters, if God has shown you His self this meeting or
before, if you don't know Him, if you don't think you know Him, I hope this will help. But if
you know Him, I believe it will. There are some things that the
believer knows. Turn to Psalms 56. There are
some things that the believer is most assured of. And I told
one of our, actually Joe's son, Nathan, is with us in his wife
and family. And I told him when I was looking
at this, and I love this about the scriptures, and I love this
about the Holy Spirit. You read and you read, and then
it's like somebody stuck a verse in there. It's like, what's that
doing in there? It just didn't fit. We're going to look at it,
but we're going to read the whole psalm. Psalms 56, this we know. If we are called by His grace,
I believe we know a few things. And David will help us here.
He says, be merciful unto me, O God, for a man would swallow
me up. He, fighting daily, oppresses
me. Mine enemies would daily swallow
me up. For they be many that fight against
me, O Thou Most High. What time I am afraid, I will
trust in Thee. In God will I praise his word.
In God have I put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can
do unto me. Every day they rest my words. All their thoughts
are against me for evil. They gather themselves together.
They hide themselves. They mark my steps when they
wait for my soul. Shall they escape by iniquity?
In thine angst, anger cast down the people, O God. Thou tellest
my wanderings, put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not
in thy book? Stop. We'll stop right there.
So what we've read in the first eight verses is a man in anguish,
a man in sorrow. Well, look at the title. It's called A Golden Song. It's
one of those that the writers say, David, it meant everything
to him when he was writing this down. Because look at where he
was writing this. David, when the Philistines took
him in Gath. Gath, you remember the lesson.
We won't turn there. It's in 1 Samuel chapter 21.
Write it down. Look at it at home. Look where
he's at. David, he's a long way from home. He's a long way from
the tabernacle and the worship of God. He's a long way from
familiar friends, Jonathan and his brethren, his beloved brethren.
He's among the enemy of grace and he's fleeing from Saul. So
he's got, and he's in Gath. He's far away. Look at verses
10 through the end. In God will I praise his word. In the Lord will I praise his
word. In God have I put my trust. I will not be afraid of what
man can do unto me. Thy vows are upon me, O God. I will render
praise unto thee. For thou hast delivered my soul
from death. Wilt not thou deliver my feet
from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the
living? There's a little different singing
going on there. The melody is a little bit brighter.
But he's still in gap. How can that be? How can that
be? Verse 9. This is what happened. This is what's sandwiched in
this situation, this difficult time of David. When I cry unto
thee, then shall my enemies turn back. And this is the phrase
I want us to look at. It looks like it's almost out
of place. This I know, for God is for me. Can you say that? Can I say that? Can we stand up understanding
what was just preached to us about the preacher and about
the people that are being preached for or towards sinners saved
by the grace of God, but sinners still? Can we say this in a time of
danger, a time of trial? I know, and this is what every
believer, sometime in the darkest hour, in the morning, in the
afternoon, at night, you can say, and if you can't say that,
sue for mercy. What the old timers said, sue
for mercy, cry for mercy, beg for mercy. If it doesn't come
today, keep coming where the gospel, the good news, of Christ
and him crucified is preached. Because I know this, if it's
a genuine cry for mercy, God has never turned down a genuine
cry for mercy, because he's put it in there. But here's David,
a long way from home, a long way from the place at the time,
the place of worship, amongst his enemies. He makes this unwavering
declaration as do Every believer does every believer. Now I may
make it now and you see me and then tomorrow you see me and
I may be bummed out. I may not be able to say this.
That's just the way we are. We're up and down. But I want
to encourage you. These are not super saints. They're
men afflicted with, just like we are, sins and temptations
and trials and difficulties. And yes, this world has kept
on spinning and spinning. And David's trials were not maybe
the technological trials that we have now, but his trials,
trials of the believer. So he makes this declaration.
I know. He's saying, without fail, God
is for me. He's for me in danger, as he
was here. He's with me in promise. He's
for me. He's not against me. He's for
me as a friend, a guide, a sovereign protector. And as Paul states
in the New Testament, if God before us, who can be against
us? Can I say the same? Can you say
the same? This I know. This I know. God is for me. Now I got to looking at this
and step back and Brethren, if this were the only
verse that you had in the whole Bible, it would be enough. Because Christ is enough. For sure. So, it would be enough. I tell you, I encourage you and
I encourage myself, keep it. Tuck it away. Cling to it. For
such a promise is always yes and amen in Christ. And I'll
digress just a little bit here. If there's a book that I could
recommend, it would be Charles Spurgeon's According to Promise.
As I think we as believers skim over, and this book is for us.
God is for us. This I know. God is for me. That's a promise. And Spurgeon
in that book, he said, take the promises. You read something,
well, that was written. No, this is for the believer.
You take that promise right there, and you lay hold of it. And you
spend it, as he said, at leisure. So what I do in my Bible, I've
got a bunch of dates, times, and sometimes places. It's like
the Lord spoke that to me about my wife. Get out the pen. I'm going to date it. And I may
not need it right then, but then When I need it, I'll go back
and find it. It's a good thing you can do.
You got big margins on your Bible. Date them, write them down. Cling
to Christ. Cling to the promise because
they're yours. God, this I know. God is for me. Let's look at another one. Job
chapter 19. This isn't just an isolated incident. Job chapter
19. Job chapter 19. In verse 25, this familiar language. Job says, for I know, I'm persuaded,
I'm convinced, this is, without fail, I know this, that my Redeemer
liveth. My Redeemer liveth. His acknowledgement is our acknowledgement. I know, I am sure of this, says
Job, my. Now, the grace of God is, we
just heard, we preach to all men. But the promises and Job
is, he's saying, it's almost as though he's saying, he's all
mine, he's solely mine. And I'm not gonna, he's all mine. It's as though, personally, He's
all mine. He's all I need. I know my Redeemer. And this Redeemer, he's confessed. He's confessing that I'm a sinner,
yet he by himself hath freely and singularly and fully bought
me back. It's redemption. Bought me back.
And this particular word, Redeemer, is G-O-E-L. And it's a kinsman. Job knew
about the kinsman. He knew that his Redeemer had
to be man and had to be God. That's what he's saying when
he's saying, I know my Redeemer. He's going to come and take my
place because I couldn't do anything to merit salvation. And he's
going to come as God. He's going to fulfill God's justice. He's going to honor God's law.
And so God is satisfied. The God-man, this is what he's
saying. Job knew of the essential qualities of a near kinsman.
This Redeemer, by price and by sovereign power, accomplished
my reconciliation to Jehovah," one writer said. And he said
the last thing in here, he says, I know my Redeemer lives. None but a living Savior can
redeem dead sinners. And the beautiful thing about
this is in John 14, we see that if he lives, We must also be
alive in Him. We don't worship a dead Savior,
we worship a living Savior, a living Redeemer. 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy
chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Paul says he was appointed a
preacher in verse 11, an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles, for
the which cause I suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not
ashamed, for I know. There it is again. Old Testament,
New Testament, it's a scarlet thread throughout the whole scriptures.
You know, Joe made a comment about the Redeemer, you know,
Old Testament and the New Testament and so on and so forth, and I
heard it described this way. In the Old Testament, in Genesis,
where's the Lamb? Where's the Lamb? In the Gospels,
behold the Lamb. And in Revelations, worthy is
the Lamb. Lamb, Lamb, you can't go wrong. He's just, He's everywhere. And
He's for you. He's for you. But Paul says, I know. I know this. Whom I have believed and am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. He says, I know whom, not what. OK? I know whom, what we heard. Redeemer. Salvation is a person. Salvation is Christ Jesus. And in my simple mind, the way
I think about it in the passage of Scripture, you remember Simeon
when he was waiting for the fulfillment of these different prophecies
and whatnot and types? He's got this baby. He's got
a person, a human being. He's got the God-man and he's
looking at this Human the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said I've
seen Thy salvation he's calling Christ our salvation I Know whom and a lot of us know
what we believe I But like Joe said, it's doctrine, theology,
this and that. And I've said something to both
of these men. There's a phrase, a quote from George Whitefield
that I love and I try to emulate. He said, I dare not preach an
unfelt Christ. Come up here, check, check, check,
this, that. I dare not preach an unfelt Christ. I know, and you know, whom you believe. It's not what,
it's whom. It's a vital union with the Son
of God. Whom? In the triune perfections of
His character and glory. And it's all due to the fact
that He has graced us to behold His lovely face, rest upon His
unwavering sacrifice and atonement for every one of His elect. We
are kept until the end. And the scripture says that the
same that endure to the end shall be saved. We'll be kept to the
end because he's doing it. And the whole thing is, is that
he says, I know, the Lord knows, he knows them that are his. He
knows us that are him. And I got to thinking about this.
And it was started out as a joke 20, 30 years ago. A little, a
friend of ours is, you know, pretty, he's grown now, he's
40 something years old. He was just kind of joking with
me and kidding me. And he says, you know, I was giving him a
hard time. He says, you know, when you get in the wheelchair,
he says, I'm going to thump you. And you ain't going to be able to do
nothing about it. And I got to think about that. I thought,
you know, and I kept thinking on a more personal level, because
I know I get scared of getting older and the processes and all
this kind of stuff. What happens if I end up in a nursing home?
What happens if my loved ones are gone and nobody comes to
see me? What happens if I'm drooling all over myself and I don't know
who I am? That's not my confidence. My
confidence is God is for me. That's my confidence. It's always our confidence. It's
nowhere else. And that passage where he says,
you know, those who endure to the end, the same shall be said,
that's Matthew 24. And it's true. But we'll endure to the end because
God is for us and nobody can be against us. Turn to 1 John
chapter 5. I love this one. 1 John chapter
5 and verse 19 and 20. And we know,
there we go again. that we are of God and the whole
world lies in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God
is come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him, that
is true, and we are in Him, that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Now, it sounds pretty big, but he causes his people, he
writes his laws in our hearts, we know him. And it's not presumption
to think so. We know what we are, we know
what we're capable of, in us is no good thing, there's none
good, no not one, our throat is an open sepulcher, we understand
that. And so we flee to Christ, we look to Christ, not to ourselves.
And he gives us certain things that we know, and this is one
of them. Let me read you something. Let the reader further observe
the confidence which John speaks of the Son of God being come.
John knew that Jesus Christ of Nazareth would come, for he had
been his disciple, following him in his ministry. But he must
have learned from a higher teaching than common knowledge that this
Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the Son of God, or he could not
have spoken with such confidence. Yes, God's children are all taught
of God. Isaiah 54 tells us this. And
sweet is this evidence. If you are taught of God, you
have the same evidence as John had. He hath made you also sensible
of your loss of state by nature. He hath taught you who Christ
is and what he is able to perform. He has taken you out of love
with yourself and put you in love with Him, and you are coming
up out of the wilderness of this world, leaning upon Christ. Is
it so with us? Then hath He given you an understanding
to know Him that is true, and then you are in Him that is true,
even in God's dear Son, Jesus Christ. And then will you subscribe
with full consent of soul and heart that Jesus Christ is the
true God, yea, the only visible Jehovah, for he and he alone
is come forth from the divine essence to make known the otherwise
unknown God. That's one reason why we preach,
that you may know even as you're known. Now this one has particular significance
with me. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. In a time of much distraught
in my own life, physically, spiritually, I didn't know what was coming
or going. I didn't know where I was going
to end up. All I knew is that I had my wife beside me, and
then out of nowhere, like Joe said, just imprinted in my mind, Romans 828. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Why? It's according to His purpose. I know God is for me. Why? It's according to His purpose. Sometimes we ask too many questions
and we don't hear anything. It's according to good pleasure
of His will. In a time, like I said, of great
consternation, I thought I was having a heart attack because
of stress and pressure from church situations. Fearful, I was getting
ready to get excommunicated and thrown out, didn't know where
our family was going to go. We were going to have to go somewhere
moved to go hear the gospel. And then all things are working together
for good. That time, that situation, that moment, working together
for good. Well Mr. Hawker has this to say
and I can't say it any better so I'm just going to read what
he says. And we know that all things work together for good.
God himself in his threefold character of persons and in all
his covenant offices and relations, the Father in his everlasting
love and purpose is working all things together for good. The
Son of in his fullness, suitableness, and all sufficiency, is working
all things for good, and the Holy Ghost, in his operations,
graces, and influences, all minister to this end, to good, in every
department of nature, providence, grace, and glory. Now, In Romans 8, I got to thinking
about this. It's one thing to know, and we gotta know. But if you
know, if you've been enabled to trust and lay hold upon Christ
and His righteousness, and you know, you know, you say, I know
these things, Pastor. I just didn't know to connect
all the verses, but now I appreciate that, and I thank you for showing
me this. I know this. Knowledge, faith without works,
what's the scripture say, is dead. So you can talk all you
want to. If you don't have love, if you
don't have, if you don't have the products of the new nature,
the products of somebody who says they understand the gospel,
it's dead. So it's a beautiful thing to
know these things. But knowledge without persuasion
is futile. Look with me. Romans chapter
eight. Verse 37, all things work together
for good. I know this. Nay, in all these
things we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded. I am persuaded. That word means
I am convinced that neither death nor life nor
angels, principalities, powers, things present or things to come,
nor height or depth or any other creature shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. And in that passage over in Timothy,
says, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded. This is what
I think, this is what I believe to my heart, Joel was alluding
to. Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, and I love doctrine. But I've talked to a lot of people
who agreed with me and didn't walk with me. What's Amos 3,
3 say? Unless two are agreed, they can't
walk together. David says, I know, this I know.
God is for me. How can he say that if he's still
got the matter of sin to be dealt with? It was done, it's paid. We sing that song, it's all taken
away, away, my sins are all taken away. Indeed they are, my brethren. So I say to you, we most assuredly
know him and his gospel. But knowledge without persuasion
is just as futile, just as dead. But knowing such truth as we
have noted, just as we've been talking, must also lead his people
to persuasion in life, service, and obedience to our great God.
And I know we waver, we go up and down, but our desire, his
love constrains us to gather together. His love constrains
us to help and encourage one another. His love constrains
us to speak to somebody If you can't speak, and that's why I've
said the same thing to my folks, just invite them. Just tell them
to come. Because I know, standing up here, and if you want to come
to Jackson and we can find out, but I know for certain, I've
been in Jackson 30-something years, the gospel is not being preached
anywhere there. Matter of fact, I only know of
two places in the whole state of Missouri, but that's just me.
I have limited knowledge. But Cape Jackson, no. I don't know about Almont. Probably
the same thing. The believer knows and is persuaded
what he knows. So I pray that we know such glorious
things where we will also be persuaded and convinced in heart
and soul of these things as well. To know our Redeemer, to know
God is for us, to know all things are working together for good. Christianity, it's really easy,
you know, but it's not. There's the contradiction. We just look to Christ. That's
the answer for everything. Look to Christ. But it's so difficult
to do. May God enable us to know Him
and be persuaded to live and love Him. Lord bless you.