Thanksgiving Day service will
begin at 10 o'clock. That's Thursday. There'll be
no Wednesday evening service because we'll have Thanksgiving
service at 10 o'clock. Also, for those of you here who
are in our services Sunday, we will arrange if you don't have
a turkey, we will give you one. We'll hook that up with Greg.
If you need a turkey, don't go buy one. I think we got 600 today
or 600 before. And everybody on Seneca Street,
aftercare, all of you resident folks are going to get a turkey.
We give turkeys to turkeys here, right? So at any rate, the Lord
is so good to us every time this year. And around Christmas time,
we don't have enough room to put all the turkeys. So we want
you to have one and have a great Thanksgiving. And also, the reason
we're starting at 10 o'clock, because extreme pressure was
put on me because the Detroit Lions play at 12. So I was going
to start at 11, sleep in a little bit, but some of you put the
heat on. Am I right about that? I think
they play. And they're in first place. Is
that right? I mean, that's another miracle. I am so glad and honored, and
this man's always welcome in this pulpit. He taught me the
gospel and didn't even know it. For many, many years, over the
Cincinnati station, I started listening to him when I was 10
years old, and listened to him all from 10 on, all through high
school, all through seminary, and way after. I heard Brother
LeSire Bradley and Her Majesty, Ms. Pam, she told me for years,
do you know LeSire Bradley Jr. because you are trying to preach
just like him. That's what she used to tell
me. Well, we know the same Christ, and we're honored to have him
tonight. He's been in Texas and Arkansas
in the last four or five days and then drove up here to be
with us tonight, and we're delighted to have you, Elder Cumberland. Very thankful to be with you
once again. The visit that I had here a couple
of months ago was just wonderful. I went back home to my church,
preached a message from the Psalms which says, the Lord hath done
great things for us. And I incorporated in that message
the experience of visiting you and some of the great things
God is doing in this church and in this work. The people rejoiced
in it greatly. I then put it on our radio broadcast
on about 85 stations and have gotten a good positive response.
I've preached in churches in West Virginia, North Carolina,
Georgia, Texas, and Arkansas since that time, shared portions
of that experience at each place, and it's always a positive response. I've had people come and say,
that's the most uplifting thing I've heard in a long time. So
we rejoice with you. Just thankful for the great things
God is doing with you and for you. I want to look this evening
at the book of Malachi. My subject is the jewels of God. I began reading in the 16th verse. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make
up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own
son that serveth him. Then shall you return a discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth
God and him that serveth him not." Malachi comes on the scene
saying, the burden of the Word of the Lord. His emphasis then
was not to come expressing his own thoughts and opinions about
anything, but to deliver the Word of the Lord. And obviously
our emphasis must always be on what God says in His Word. That's the only authoritative
source to which we can turn. And then the Lord delivers this
message to His prophet. God says, I have loved you, saith
the Lord. And the people had the audacity
to respond and say, wherein hast thou loved us? Surely there was
abundant evidence of His love. He had brought them out from
Egyptian bondage. He had blessed them to cross
the Red Sea. He had blessed them to come into
the land of promise. Over and over there was adequate
proof of his love and they said, we don't see it. See, the problem
was they had been in captivity and when they got out, they thought
that they'd have a smooth path, that everything would just be
beautiful and fall into place, but it wasn't that way. And certainly,
that's not always the way it's going to be for us. We're going
to have our trials, our difficulties, our challenges, and we must never
question the love of God just because we're carrying a heavy
burden. God loves us even in the darkest
days and the deepest trials that we may ever experience. In fact,
a lot of those trials are sent by His divine sovereignty to
humble us, to teach us, to bring us to greater dependence on Him.
God then emphasizes the fact that He loved them by saying,
"'Twas not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, and I have loved
Jacob.'" He then brings forward the truth of His absolute sovereignty.
God was not obligated to Jacob. He wasn't obligated to Esau.
He hasn't ever been obligated to anybody. He's not obligated
to you. He's not obligated to me. So whatever we receive has
to be by His free and sovereign grace. He says, I chose Jacob. God had the right to do that.
And in the ninth chapter of the book of Romans, we find this
truth confirmed in the New Testament. So it's not some antiquated idea
from the Old Testament that's not applicable today. It's a
truth in which we can rejoice that God is sovereign and dispenses
of His grace according to His own pleasure. If that were not
the case, it really wouldn't be grace. It would just be payment for
what you already deserve. Well, time doesn't allow to go
through all of the things because we want to really get to our
text. But the people were guilty in so many areas. They, instead
of bringing the firstling of the flock, bringing the best
that they had to offer as a sacrifice before God, they looked out there
to see if they could find a sheep that was about half dead and
rush him up to the temple, hoping he didn't die on the road and
offer that to God. And God says, you wouldn't offer
this to the king. How is it you offer it to me?
And then they complained because God wasn't judging the wicked.
Now they didn't see their own faults. If God was going to judge
everybody that was disobedient, they would have been first ones
to go. But they looked at other people
they thought were worse than they were and they complained
about it. Furthermore, they were talking
about God. supposedly behind his back. Now
it's bad to talk about anybody behind their back, but you would
think that anyone would understand you cannot talk about God behind
his back. Because as surely as you try,
he's gonna hear you. He knows every word that you
speak. But they were putting God down,
talking about how unfair things were, and their life just was
not what it should have been. And then the second foolish thing,
God says, you have robbed me. Again, it's terrible to rob anybody,
but to think you can rob God and get by with it. He said,
you have robbed me in your tithes and offerings. You have failed
to bring me what I'm entitled to have. So we see a pretty dark
picture in the first portion of this book. And then we come
to this part that we have just read. Here is the faithful remnant. They that feared the Lord. spake
often one to another. Now the wicked do not fear God. According to Romans chapter three,
there is no fear of God before their eyes. But we turn to the
book of Proverbs. Reading chapter 1 and verse 7,
he says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs chapter
9, verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Oh, there are
multitudes in this culture in which we live today that show
no sign of having any fear of God. And we need not be surprised
about it because we have just quoted from Romans 3, which indicates
that's the condition of fallen man in his natural state. He
somehow feels that he's able to make his own choices, live
his life as he pleases, go his own way, and there is no accountability. In fact, I've talked to people
that said, well, preacher, I just don't believe in God. And they
seem to think that because they didn't believe in Him that God
went away. But the fact is, though you may not believe in Him, God
is still there. and you're gonna face Him one
day, it'll either be the greatest experience that you could possibly
imagine, seeing Jesus face to face and being welcomed to live
with Him forever, or to face Him as the judge, because at
the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. Understanding that we must stand
before our maker, we certainly ought to fear him. But that doesn't
mean that we live in a slavish dread fear. I've talked to people
at times that their whole thought of God was he was just looking
for the opportunity to zap them. They just knew God was gonna
get them any day. That's not what we're talking about. We're
talking about reverencing him, respecting him for who he is,
understanding that he has absolute authority in all things. In Luke
chapter 12, we find these words spoken by Jesus in verse 4. And I say unto you, my friends,
be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have
no more that they can do, But I will forewarn you whom ye shall
fear. Fear him which after he hath
killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear
him. So this is a respect and reverence
for the fact that God has absolute authority. We need not fear man.
All they can do to us is kill us. And if we're a child of God,
we're going to heaven when they finish. So we need not fear man, but
fear him that not only can kill the body, but cast one into hell. Now, seeing this faithful remnant
then were people who feared God. The next thing it says about
them is that they spoke often one to another. The fact is you
cannot live the Christian life in isolation. I've talked to
people who say, well, I went to this church, I went to that
church, and I was hurt, and I was disappointed, and I was frustrated,
and I just don't like people anymore, so I just stay home.
Well, Christians like people. They love people. So you can't
just go home and curl up and say, I don't want to have anything
to do with anybody. I admit, people are difficult. In fact,
you may be difficult every once in a while, and somebody has
to have a lot of grace to put up with you. But the idea that
we can just separate ourselves is certainly not what the New
Testament teaches. Acts chapter 2 verse 46, it says,
and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and
breaking bread from house to house that eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor
with all the people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. These people interacted with
one another. They had fellowship with one
another. What a blessing it is to be a
part of the family of God, of the body of Christ. You can meet
people, first time you've ever laid eyes on them. Think, I don't
know if we've got anything in common or not. We've come from
totally different backgrounds. Everything about our experience
has been different, except if we're a part of this family,
one experience is exactly alike. We've been born into that family
by the power of the Holy Spirit. We now have God as our Father.
And all of God's children are part of that family then so that
we love them regardless of what their particular personal situation
may be. Now it says they spoke often
one to another and so they were not only loving each other, verbalizing
it and saying, I love you or I appreciate you, I wanna have
fellowship with you, but they were demonstrating it. Here in
the book of Hebrews chapter three and the 13th verse, we read about
our responsibility in this regard. but exhort one another daily
while it is called today. Lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin." This gives us a responsibility toward
other people, that we're to be concerned about them. This doesn't
mean you go around preaching to people all the time and trying
to point out every fault and flaw and put them down. Love
covers a multitude of sins, but you exhort by the fact that you
encourage them. And if it's necessary, they may
need to be rebuked from a biblical standpoint. It says, you that
are spiritual, go to such a one. If a brother be overtaken at
a fault, ye that are spiritual, go to him and restore him in
the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
So if you're going to a brother that's overtaken at a fault,
you're not going there to tell him off. You're not going there
to get something off your chest. You're going there because you
love him. You're going to consider the fact that in your weakness,
you could easily fall into the same sin of which he is guilty.
So you're going to be loving. You're going to be kind. You're
going to be patient. Your whole goal is to see him
restored. They spoke often one to another. In the New Testament, there are
about 50 times at least that this expression is used, one
another, one another, one another, one another. A lot of one anothering
going on according to what the New Testament teaches us. And
that needs to be a part of our practice, our daily living as
we seek to serve our Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John
chapter 13 verses 34 to 35, by this shall all men know that
you're my disciples, that you have love one to another. And
I'm writing this new commandment that you love, that you love,
that you love. Had a man come to my office many years ago.
He said, I've come up with something that's going to be just a monumental
thing for Christians everywhere. I've developed this little badge
and it had various shapes and colors. And he explained what
each color meant. Says, somebody will come up and
say, what's your badge mean? So you tell them what the blue
means. This means the royalty of Christ and the red means the
blood of Christ. And it's just going to be a great
preaching tool. It's wonderful. By this, you
can identify Christians. I said, well, brother, I appreciate
your effort, but I said, you're a little behind time. He said,
what did you mean? I said, Jesus gave his disciples a badge a
long time ago. By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples, that you have love one to another. That's
not a button you wear on your lapel. That's something that
you do every day. You demonstrate that love, that
concern for them. And then Galatians chapter five,
verse 13 says that you are to serve one another, serve one
another. Some people have the attitude
that they ought to be served and they're a little hurt because
nobody has served them recently. But the admonition is, you serve
one another. You look for the opportunity
to serve other people. And sometimes a person say, well,
I don't see that opportunity. I don't know. Let me tell you,
you start praying for the Lord to give you opportunity to serve
and to minister and you may be amazed at how many doors will
open. I remember one time I had prayed that prayer in the morning.
I pray it often. I pray this, I pray it. It's a twofold prayer.
I say, Lord, give me people that I can minister to and help them
and save me from those that I can't. The difficulty you encounter
trying to work somebody that you can't help and they don't
want to be helped, that's another story. But what a blessing. But
I remember one morning I'd prayed that prayer and I'd kind of forgotten
it. I was sitting at Wendy's eating my lunch. And a man just
walked over to my table and said, are you a preacher? I said, yes.
He said, I need to talk to you. And he sat down and I talked
to him for about the next hour and a half. I found over and
over again, there are opportunities out there. We are to serve, witnessing,
telling others about Jesus Christ. Sometimes a person will say,
well, I just don't know that much. You don't have to know a lot. Do you know
Jesus is the Savior? Do you know you're a sinner?
Do you know people need the Savior? And you can tell them about what
great things He has done for you. And then Ephesians chapter
two, chapter four rather, in the second verse tells us again
that we are to love one another. And then further in that fourth
chapter, it gets down to the nitty gritty of how we are to
live and how this one anothering really is to unfold in our lives. Ephesians chapter four. We read beginning with the, 29th
verse, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but
that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister
grace unto the hearers. No corrupt communication. Nothing
to put somebody down, to harm somebody, to cause division. Only that which edifies, only
that which builds up. Now that's not talking about
flattery. Flattery is a sin because that means you're telling somebody
something to manipulate them. But edifying them encourages
them, instructs them, builds them up. And grieve not the Holy
Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption.
So the failure to do what's in this section of scripture means
you're going to grieve God's Holy Spirit. If you've been born
again, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. You want Him to be comfortable
and at home in your heart. You don't want to grieve Him.
So then it says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. I was
counseling with a couple not long ago. The man admitted that
he had an anger problem. And every week when it would
come back, it would be evident that it had exploded one more
time. And sometimes he got downright
mad when I was talking to him about it. He said, well, I'll
tell you, preacher, I'm working on it. I said, that's not what
Paul said when he wrote to the church at Ephesus. He said, put
it away. You don't keep working on it.
You quit. You quit blowing up. You quit being angry. Put away. Put away all malice. And be ye
kind, here's the one another, be ye kind one to another. Now you would think it wouldn't
even be necessary to put that in the Bible, that all Christians
would always be kind to everybody. But believe it or not, sometimes
Christians are not kind. I've counseled with people where
the husband was not kind to his wife, and a few times the wife
wasn't kind to her husband. And sometimes parents are not
kind to their children, and children are not kind to their parents.
And sometimes people are not kind to their preachers, believe
it or not. But I can prove that's wrong right here in the Bible.
It says, be ye kind one to another, including your preacher. kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. Forgiving one another. I talked
to a lady one time. As soon as I mentioned the word
forgiveness, she said, just stop right there. Don't talk to me
about forgiveness. I've been hurt too deeply. You just don't know.
If you understood what people had done to me, you wouldn't
even ask me to be forgiving. I said, oh, wait a minute here.
I can guarantee you that whatever has been done to you is not nearly
as bad as what you have done in your sin against God. and
God has forgiven you for Christ's sake. Let me tell you, any person
who has ever been forgiven by God should find it a joy to forgive
others. Now, I admit it's not always
that easy. In fact, I was convicted sometime
back. I thought, how many times I've
sat in council with people and told them, right here it is in
the book, you ought to be forgiving and that ought not to be that
tough, just forgive. And then somebody comes along
and does something harsh and mean and puts you down. And I said, oh my, this is a
little tougher than I thought. Let me go back and read that
text again. Forgive, forgive. Somebody said, well, I can't
do that. I've heard it said, forgive and forget. That's not
what the text says. You can't shove it out of your mind as
though you know it never did exist, but you're to treat them
like it didn't exist. That's what forgiveness is. You
put it away. You don't keep mulling over it.
You don't let the root of bitterness spring up by which many are defiled.
I'm confident that there are a lot of people today who are
physically sick, and they are frustrated and they are in terrible
state spiritually because they've allowed bitterness to dwell in
their hearts. You hold something against somebody
over a long period of time and somehow or another, the person
that's bitter thinks I'm hurting the other person I'm angry at.
They don't even know about it most of the time. It's the one
that's harboring the bitterness that's being hurt. Let all bitterness
be put away from you. And then Colossians chapter three
gives us another one another in text. Verse 16, by him were
all things created that are... That's not the one I want. Chapter
three, verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to
the Lord. Now that's what you all have done here tonight. you
admonish one another in Psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs,
in some beautiful songs that contain the truth and express
the truth about Jesus Christ and his wonderful sovereign grace. And so whether you're singing
songs and admonishing one another or giving a loving admonition
or seeking to instruct someone who needs information and guidance,
This thought is that you're not just focused on yourself, you
are concerned about others. Then, as if it's not enough to
have told us that we are to love one another, 1 Thessalonians
3, verse 12 says that we are to abound in love. Not just have a little bit of
it, but overflow with it, have an abundance of it. And then
1 Thessalonians 5, verse 11 says that we are to comfort and to
edify, to comfort. What does that mean to comfort?
We're to comfort others with the same comfort where with we
ourselves have been comforted. There was a lady in our church
some years ago who operated a dress shop and she told another sister
in the church that I'm just really concerned. My business is going
down and I'm depending on it. It's my livelihood. I don't know
what I'm going to do. And so the one sister wanting
to cheer her up said, Oh, let me tell you, things will be better.
You can just count on it. They'll be better. It's bound
to improve. It'll get better. And then she
got to thinking about that. And she came to me and told me
the story. She said, do you think I told her the truth? I said,
I don't know, unless you're a prophetess and you were able to see the
future and know absolutely that's what's going to happen. She said,
well, I thought about that later. Maybe that wasn't a good idea.
I said, no, I don't think it was a good idea because it may
get worse before it's better. So just to go out and tell somebody,
cheer up, it's going to get better. That doesn't mean a thing. How
are you going to comfort them? He said, well, what should I
have said? You should have said, God's on the throne, and if your
business goes down, He can still take care of you. That all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose. And if that happens, God has
a purpose on it, and He takes care of the sparrows. The same
God that feeds them will feed you if your business goes under.
So if you're going to comfort somebody, don't just say, cheer
up and smile. Tell them what the truth is.
Tell them about the sovereign God who can help them, sustain
them, and has promised never to leave them or forsake them. I was visiting with a sister
in our church in the hospital recently. She said, well, Brother
Bradley, I feel like this is it. I don't think I'm ever going
to get out of the hospital. I believe I'm dying. But she
said, you know the thing that troubles me most? I don't have
any peace about it. I always thought when I came
down to die, you know, there's a little song we sing sometimes,
how sweet to die. As a brother expressed his experience
when he came down toward the end, he had such joy in the Lord.
And she said, I just don't have it. I just, I just don't know.
It just grieves me that here I'm dying and I don't have dying
grace. I said, well, sister, the fact
is you may not be dying. No, no. She said, I know I am. I know I'm dying. Well, she said,
well, one thing I've always wondered, you know, I've been a member,
you've been my pastor over 60 years. And I just wondered, what
would you say at my funeral? I said, well, if you want a synopsis,
I'll give it to you. I said, I would tell people,
I'm thankful for this dear sister. I've been her pastor over 60
years. She's encouraged me many times. She's been an encouragement
to a lot of people. She's a lover of God's grace.
I look out there and see the smile on her face when I preach
sovereign grace and I'm gonna miss her when she's gone. And
I talked about something about the grace of God. I said, well,
that's good. I feel a little better knowing what you're gonna say
at my funeral. But she said, I know, I'm just about gone. Well, I said, in spite of the
fact you feel that way, I'm gonna pray you get better. So I prayed
that if it could be in the Lord's will, he'd raise her up and bless
her to go home. God answered that prayer. She got better and
went home. I visited her at home. I said, sister, the problem was
you wanna die in grace when you weren't dying. God's not gonna
give it to you in advance. When you die, he'll give you
grace to die. Oh, how we get impatient. We
want everything ahead of time. We're to comfort one another,
but we're to comfort one another according to the truth of God's
Word. And then 1 Peter 3, verse 8 says
that we're to have compassion one of another. Oh, to be compassionate. Understand where somebody else
is and their struggles. understand some of their heartaches
and their difficulties. Just displaying compassion can
make such a difference. I was speaking in a prison recently
and When I finished, a group of men gathered around me and
a lot of them had questions and I'd taken little pieces of paper
along that had my name and phone number and church address on
it because I'd spoken there previously. Some of them had asked about
it. Talking to one young man and I said, now, when you get
out of here, if you feel like you still need help, here's my
name and number. I want you to call me. He said,
well, preacher, you live over in Ohio. I live in Kentucky.
You wouldn't drive all the way over here just for me, would
you? I said, I certainly would. I'd be happy to. And I could
tell that that was a new experience for that young man, that he hadn't
anybody show that much interest in him as though they would go
out of their way for him. If we're compassionate towards
somebody, we're sometime gonna have to be inconvenienced. We're
gonna have to sometimes make some sacrifices. And that's what
he's telling us, to be a compassionate one of another. Now, it says
that they then thought on the name of the Lord. They thought
on His name. What occupies your thoughts? The psalmist said, let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight, O God. What about the things that you
say? The words of your mouth, are they acceptable? You know,
you can't back up and say, Lord, bless me while I tell this person
and give them a piece of my mind. Everything that you do, you're
to do to the glory of God. So you think about that before
you get too quick to spout off sometime. And remember, the words
of my mouth are to be acceptable and the meditations of my heart,
what do you think about? What do you think about? Oh,
sometimes that's a real challenge. Your mind wanders. You see things
that stir up thoughts that shouldn't be. You think about past hurts
and disappointments and frustrations. But the apostle Paul tells us
in the fourth chapter of the book of Philippians, verse four, rejoice
all the way in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. How can you do that? Your circumstances
change every day. So if you're rejoicing in circumstances,
you're gonna soon lose your joy. You're gonna be disappointed.
But the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And you can
rejoice in him, in his promises, in his grace, in his mercy. And
after telling us that. It says, be careful for nothing.
That means don't worry. How are you going to overcome?
Worry. The same way you overcome, not rejoicing because you see
His goodness and grace. But ultimately Paul gets to this
in the eighth verse. He says, finally, brethren, wherefore
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any
virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. These
are the things to think about. I had a person say to me one
time, well, I don't know anything in that category. I said, do you
know Jesus? He'll fit every one of you. You think on these things. He's lovely, he's just, he's
a good report. Think on these things. These
people spoke often and they thought on his name. You start thinking
about your troubles. You think about the evils that
are in the world today. You think about all the corruptions
going on. You can drag yourself down, but
you think on these things. You think on the name of the
Lord, what a difference it makes. And then we see the response
of the Lord. These people speak often one
to another. And it says, the Lord listened. Now, Jeremiah chapter eight,
verse six, makes it clear that the Lord listens to everything
that is spoken. He's not turning a deaf ear and
ignoring what's going on. When unkind words are spoken,
when blasphemies are spoken, when there's all kinds of corrupt
language, God knows all of that. But when he said he heard these
people, it meant that he turned to them in an attentive way of
approval. He heard them with joy. He delighted
in their words. He listened to them, listened
with pleasure. They were the faithful remnant
in vivid contrast to these people who were complainers, questioning
the love of God, questioning whether He cared anything about
them at all, complaining that He was letting the wicked be
set up while they were falling back, encountering great troubles.
In this, the faithful remnant, God listened. And then it says,
a book of remembrance was written. Now, does that mean that God
had to write this down lest it slip his mind? No, obviously
God is omniscient. He knows all things past, present.
He's not limited at all. But for our sake, he's putting
it in words that we can understand. I listened and then I wrote it
down. A book of remembrance is written. God hadn't forgotten
about it. God took knowledge of the conversation of these
people. Isn't that a wonderful thing to think about? That if
you are talking about the right thing, You're thinking about
God. You're talking about His goodness
and mercy. You're sharing that testimony with other people.
God is listening and delighting in what you have to say. The
Lord listened with approval. Hebrews chapter six, verse 10
says, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor
of love. And then he says, they shall
be mine, my jewels, my treasure. When he comes back, these individuals,
it's not because of their conversation, that's the basis of their salvation.
Their conversation is the evidence that they had salvation, evidence
that they belong to him. You know, men will twist and
turn the scripture and try in every way conceivable to manipulate
it in some way that they can get a little credit. Talked to
somebody the other day. I said, oh yes, I believe salvation
by grace. All right, I believe that's strong.
But I believe that God is trying to give it to everybody and some
just won't have it. So I said, in other words, when
you get to heaven, you'll be able to say God did the same
for everybody. Even those that are already in
hell, He did the same for them. But the reason I'm here is I
turned the point. I did the right thing. That doesn't
sound good. I said, no, it doesn't, because
it's not so. Anybody in heaven who's gonna pray it up and down,
hallelujah, having you saying, look what I did. I'm glad I did
my part. God did his part, but I did mine.
No, everybody in heaven is gonna be in perfect agreement that
it was all God's grace by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. They're all gonna sing the same
song. Thou art worthy for thou was slain and has redeemed us
to God by thy own precious blood out of every kindred tongue and
nation under heaven. What a multitude that will be.
These are the jewels that he gathers up to carry home to be
with him. In Psalm 135 verse four, he said
he had chosen Jacob for his peculiar treasure. And these individuals
that we're talking about are the peculiar treasure of our
God. First Peter reading chapter two
and verse nine. but ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that you should
show forth the praises of him that have called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Isn't that a remarkable thing?
To think that you and I who were guilty, bankrupt sinners, didn't
love God, fear God, seek God on our road to hell. He rescued
us. He purchased us. He called us.
He didn't just save us, He lifted us up from the dunghill to inherit
a throne of glory and made us kings and priests and we shall
reign with Him. That's God's amazing grace. Oh, how we can rejoice in that.
The way may seem dark here, many tears shed, many sorrows experienced,
but over there, there'll be no tears, there'll be no sorrow.
There'll be no sin. Isn't that wonderful to think
about? Never tempted again, never have an evil thought, never do
anything wrong. Be conformed perfectly to the image of Jesus
Christ. Delighting in his presence forever
and ever. Could you ever have thought of
yourself as being a jewel in God's jewel case? Oh, you might
say, preacher, if you knew the story of my life, you'd know
there's nothing beautiful about me. Well, there's nothing beautiful
about any of us in nature. We're rebels, we're headed the
wrong direction, but by grace, we become His jewels. And so
when the Lord comes to gather up his jewels, he says, these
are mine. These are mine. They belong to
me. I purchased them. Nobody can separate them from
me. May we, as believers in Jesus
Christ, See to it that we display these clear evidences in our
life from day to day, that these people spake often one to another. They weren't isolated. They weren't
selfish. They weren't just thinking about
themselves. They were speaking to one another about the goodness
and mercy of God. They were concerned about others.
And that was to the glory and praise of their Savior. And therefore
the Lord listened as they spoke and was attentive to their words.
If you're one tonight, who observes the joy that so many of these
people here have and might say, I wish I could be like that. I wish I could have that joy.
I wish I could know heaven is my home. But I just, I don't
know. I don't feel right. Let me tell
you, salvation isn't based on your feeling. You may say, I
wish I could, but I don't know if I've got enough faith. It's
not based on the strength of your faith. It's based on the
finished work of Jesus Christ. And the good news of the gospel
is that he says, him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast
out. What does it mean to come to
him? It means to believe on him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He
that believes on the Son has everlasting life. If you've never
believed on him before, may you believe on him tonight. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. I sat there and went back many,
many years listening to my little clock radio. I was 10 years old. And I remember one particular
message that Elder Bradley preached on the kingship of Jesus Christ.
And I listened for years until he played it again. I can remember
also at 10 years old, shouting, rejoicing, 10.30 at night, between
10.30 and 11 o'clock. And you know, I thank God. Boy, when he kicks into that
big, fast gear. It just brings so many awesome
things back to mind. You know, what a miracle. I sit
there thinking how thankful I am to God that in his providence,
I never thought I'd see the man really again. I never thought
he would know and after all these years brought him back here. Our God is such a great God. I want to tell you just quickly
about a little experience I had today. You know, the great joy
of my life is experiencing God every day. I mean, every day. I know he lives and he shows
himself. Me going up to St. Joe's Hospital
and going by telegraph and Oglas was totally off course, totally
off base. But here's what the young man
said to me just before I left. This was a divine appointment. See, I believe that. I don't
believe there are accidents. And I encourage you to look for
God. Look for the Lord. He's there. And the joy of the Lord is our
strength. I've waited 50 plus years to
be in church where the joy of the Lord was manifest. Where
we lift up our hands and we praise Him and there's a thrill about
it all and a holy wonder. Sometimes I just want to go like
this. Hey, hey, hey! I mean, I don't
know what I'm doing. That's kind of the way I feel
on the inside. Elder, we're delighted to have
you. Thank you for the gospel of grace. All right, let's sing
together.