Welcome. It's a great delight to have our friends from America here. We're just so thankful to our Lord for sending you all this way. And we just pray that this morning is a time when we'll go from here and we'll have our eyes fixed on the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We'll go away rejoicing, Donny Bill. We'll go away rejoicing. There are some people that are unwell. Simon and Jenny would appreciate your prayers and trust that they can find a way to, the Lord will find a way for them to join us pretty soon. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Revelation chapter seven.

We're going to sing in a minute. And I love the fact that as we're singing here, they're singing in heaven. And if we're going to get to heaven, we're going to get to heaven the way they got to heaven. And when we get to heaven, we'll have exactly the same view of the singing people have. Revelation chapter 7. And we're going to be singing the same songs, and we're going to be singing the same songs for exactly the same reason that they're singing their songs in heaven. I like singing. I like the fact that God God, on the night he was betrayed and just before he was crucified, he sang with his disciples. That's a remarkable thing. What a voice he must have had. And that's the voice we want to hear this morning. So turn with me to Revelation chapter 7. And there was a question asked. It's interesting you can ask questions in heaven. And one of the, verse 13, verse 13 of Revelation chapter seven.

And one of the elders answered and said unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they? What are they and where have they come from? And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore, because of that, therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat. For, because the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and we turn back with me to Revelation chapter 5 just over the page and this is a song they're singing in verse 9 And they sang a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

We're gathered here because of the blood of the Lamb. They're gathered there because of the blood of the Lamb. There's one reason they're singing in heaven. There's one reason they're there, the blood of the Lamb. What a lamb. What a lamb. What blood. Not a drop of that blood was shed in vain whatsoever.

Therefore they're singing, and we're going to sing, How Great Thou Art. Number six, How Great Thou Art. O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul.

Thank you. I am I Isn't he great? He's great and he's glorious and he's good and we're just so thankful that in his goodness and in his providence and in his sovereign mercy to us he sent you to all this way and you've come with good news from a far country and we're a thirsty and dry land down here and at the moment we're a cold and thirsty and dry land so We're just so thankful of knowing Donny Bell, maybe for 10 years. I think it might be a long time, isn't it?

And Donny Bell is, God's people, blessed means happy. One of the other words for blessed is happy. And I was just so happy and blessed when Donny said he'd be willing to come. I've invited so many Americans and it's a trial. One of the things that we are hoping that when Donny goes home he'll be able to say to some other Americans, it's not so bad down there. You can survive the flight and you can survive the company of these Australians. especially amongst the Lord's people.

So we're thankful to the Lord for you. Donny Bell has pastored Glantana Grace Church for 47, nearly 48 years. And so the Lord has kept him and that congregation faithful. And it's good for us to be mindful of the fact that when the Lord raises up a pastor, he raises up a congregation. They just fit together and they're kept together and they're nurtured and they're nourished by the Lord God. in a way that he alone does and in a way where he gets all the glory.

So we want you to pass on our thanks to your congregation over there for allowing you to go. They're going to miss a few services while Donny's here. So that's a big deal. That's a big, big deal. So we want to pass on our thanks to them and our thanks to the Lord.

We're going to sing again. I love the fact that we're singing. That one that we just sang, I used to, when the Lord first began to work in my heart, I used to be driving around with a tractor and I could take my tractor all the way down to the bottom of the farm and I could rev it right up and I could sing that song as loud as I could. And I didn't disturb the cows or the birds or anyone else who was singing. One day we're going to sing, aren't we? We'll be singing songs like that in heaven. Singing forever. What a glorious day.

Okay, come now fount, number 33, come now fount of every blessing. Thank you. you. We're going to sing again number 71 in our songbook and then I'm going to ask Donny Bell after that hymn to come up and preach the Lord Jesus Christ to us. That we might know that we're a blessed people. Thank you. Number 71.

So be still my heart and doubt no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love and truth and power combined to make me blessed. Thanks Norm. you Well, it's a delight to be here and very, very grateful to have the opportunity to be here. And I hope the Lord will make me a blessing to you. I hope he will. Turn to John chapter 3, John's Gospel chapter 3.

Y'all know the story of Nicodemus. Came to the Lord by night. And every time he's mentioned after that, it says he came to the Lord by night. Always refers to him, one came by night. And our Lord, he said, he's just a good teacher. We understand you're a good teacher. We really believe that. God sent you. And then our Lord just stopped him and said, oh, listen, you must be born again. You have to be born again. And he said, oh, how in the world is that gonna happen? And our Lord said to him, he said, art thou a master of Israel? You're somebody that's somebody in the nation of Israel. You're a teacher from Israel. You're a master in Israel. And you don't understand this new birth. And the Old Testament's full of the new birth.

But except this man be born of water and the Spirit, he can't even see the kingdom of God, much less enter into it. But the one that I want to start at is, is that verse 13. No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven.

Now figure that now, how he can be in two places at the same time. He's on the earth and he's in heaven too. You know how he can do that? Because he's God. God's everywhere. Can't go any place to get away from him. Can't go anywhere to get away from him. And who wants to get away from him?

I don't, I don't. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent his Son not into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world. Men loved darkness rather than light. And here's the reason why, because their deeds are evil. And everyone that doeth evil hates the light, won't come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved or discovered.

Discovered. Now I wanna deal with John 3, 16. John 3, 16. And you know, this is one of them, there's some preachers down home, they advertise on the radio, advertise their churches on the radio, and they always use John 3, 16, and say, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in them should not perish. But their interpretation of it is that God loved everybody in the whole world. And Christ died for everybody in the whole world. But the key to it is, is you. You. You have to do something to make Christ's death effectual for you. But that's not what he's talking about.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him. And I wanna talk about God's love. The love of God, how rich and pure, measureless and strong. It shall forevermore be the saints' and angels' song. And there's a hymn, the last verse of the hymn of the love of God that we sang at home. Could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment made? for every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Oh, the love of God, how rich, how pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forever be the sage and angel's song.

And let me say this, it's not the severity of God. It's not catastrophes that brings men to God. It's not something bad that happens in your lives that bring men to God. You know, it's not something bad that God has to do to you to get you to come to Christ.

You know what it is? It's the love of God. It's the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. And it's the love of God and the love of Christ that wins a sinner heart and soul that conquers his will. The love of God does it. And it's a glimpse, it's a glimpse of the love of God manifested in Christ crucified. As Moses lifted up that serpent, the will of Christ was lifted up. Christ was lifted up. And when you see the love of God, manifested in our Lord Jesus Christ crucified, bearing our sins in His own body on that tree. That's what wins your heart. That's what crushes it. That's what makes it willing in the day of His power and come to Christ on His terms, not on somebody else's terms. We'll come on His terms.

You know, the only people that know anything about the love of God is people that experience the love of God. You know, the love of God to most people does not mean anything to them. It has no effect on them, no power on them. But those who have experienced the love of God, those who God has shed and brought in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, they're the only ones who can appreciate and know something about the love of God, even though their appreciation is imperfect in itself.

But there's seven things I wanna get out of this John 316. Seven things, seven blessed truths about God's love here. And I pray that the Lord would cause it to be a blessing to you. And the first thing I wanna look at is there in verse 316, is the tense of his love.

It said, God so loved, God so loved. You notice that's in the past tense, It doesn't say God wants to love, God would like to love, God loves you particularly. No, it says He loved. That means it's in the past tense. When Christ came, He came not to make God's love acceptable to us. He come because He did love us. That's why He came anyway, because He loved us.

He loved us, and you know, he said this in Jeremiah 31, three, I've loved thee with an everlasting love and with the cords of a man. I've drawn you to yourself with cords of a man. And oh, and it says in another place, he said, I will love them freely, freely. And oh my, you know, for God to love us, You know, David laid before God, looking up at the stars and sun and the moon, and one night he looked up at that and he said, oh God, what is man that you're mindful of him? Even the son of man that you would consider him. And then God turned around and said, he loved us so that he gave his son. He not said he wants to love you, he gonna try to love you, and he will love you someday, but he come because he did love us in the past tense.

Look at, keep John chapter three and look over Romans chapter five. Look at Romans chapter five. Oh my. This is what we're talking about here. And you know why He loved us? Because we were His. We were given to Christ in an eternal covenant of grace. But look what it says here in Romans 5, 6.

When we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died. For who? Ungodly. Ungodly in our thoughts, ungodly in our ways, ungodly in our speech ungodly in our walk, but when we did not have any strength at all. And we still, and I'll tell you something else, we didn't have it then and we still ain't got none now. If he's not our strength, we ain't got any. But he said, oh, when we were yet without strength in the point in time, Christ died for the ungodly.

And then look what he said in verse eight. Oh, I love this verse, I love it. But God, he said, do you wanna know how much I love you? I'm gonna show you what love is. God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, sinners, Christ died for us. God said, I want you to understand my love. You're still a sinner and didn't even know it. Christ died for us. Oh my.

So the tense of it, God so loved. God so loved. Loved, He loved His people. Having loved His own, He loved them to the end. And then look at the second thing back over here in John 3, 16. The tense of His love. He loved, so loved. And then the magnitude, look at the magnitude of His love. Look at that word, God so loved. Now, how do you measure that word love, or soul? How do you measure God's soul, love? How do you measure that S-O, that soul? How do you do that? How do you define and measure that little word soul?

The magnitude of God's love, oh my. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ just said over in Ephesians 3.20 says, that the love of God He said, I want you to understand the love of God that's without past this understanding. He said, I want you to know the love of God. But he said, it's without measure. He said, I want you to measure, but it's past measurement.

You can't go to the height of it, you can't go to the depth of it, you can't go to the width of it. And oh my, now we can measure. the love we feel for our families. It waxes and it wanes. Sometimes it's real hot, sometimes it's real cold. That's the way it is. And I'll tell you, it runs hot and it runs cold, but God's love, the love of God, He's so, how do you measure it? How do you measure it? You know, it's a bottomless, bottomless well. You know, it's unsearchable.

And here's what I love about the word so. How could God so love? How could He so love? And His love is immutable. We didn't do anything for Him to love us. We can't do anything to stop Him from loving us. We can't do anything to keep Him from loving us. You know, he loved us when we were sinners and he loves us now. He always loved us and he always will.

And God's love is immutable. Immutable, it never changes. That's what I love so much about the love of God. I love waxes hot and it waxes cold. Sometimes we are hot as, you know, we love, but it waxes and it wanes, it goes, but God's love never changes. No matter what we think, what we say, what we do, any way we act, there's no way in the world that we can make God stop loving us!

And that's what's so sad about Arminianism, that's what's so sad about pre-realism. People think that the love of God's conditioned on their obedience, on their WORKS, on what they're law-keeping. They think that God only blesses them and does for them because of what they can do or give to God. But no, no, no, no! Absolutely not.

What could we possibly, what could we possibly give to God to cause Him to love us? What could we do? And then look, the third thing is, is the scope of God's love. He so loved the world. It was the world He loved. The greatness of His love, so loved. How do you define it? The word so. And the scope of it is, God so loved the world.

Now this is where people really have a hard time with it. You know, in John chapter one, there's three worlds in one verse. You know that? Three worlds in one verse. He was in the world, the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. You figure that one out. Three different worlds right there in one verse. So what does the world mean when you're talking about the world?

You know, our Lord Jesus, and this says about Him so many times, and the world went after Him. And then, you know, He's talking about where He's at, whether He's in Capernaum or whether He's in Galilee, wherever He was, the world went after Him. That's what upset the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The world went after Him.

But now, the world did not, the world that was there, those people that were in the world, that's who He's talking about. And then He said in another place, the whole world lies in wickedness. So which world are you gonna decide this word world means? Because there's so many different meanings of the world in the scriptures. But when he talks about the world here, he's talking about, it's not the whole world, but it's the world of Israel.

He even prayed not for the world. He said, I pray not for the world, but for them that has given me out of the world. So I'll tell you, when we talk about the world, He's talking about the people of His elect, a world within a world, if I can say it that way. You know, when God does something back in the Old Testament, He done it for one people, the Israel, His elect, His people, and there was an elect within that. And so when He talks about the world, He's talking about, listen, the Jews said, He just came for us. There's nobody but us.

And then Paul went to the Gentiles, but it says, and he read it tonight, out of every kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue on this earth. Here you are, I come halfway around the world. I live at the top, you all live at the bottom. But I come around to the bottom to be here, and here we are, we're still in the earth, we're still in the world, we're still on this earth. But here God's got out of every kindred, tribe, and nation on this earth, he's got a people. And that's what this world means right here. It means, if I can say it this way, his elect and his elect only.

He don't care who you are. He don't care how educated you are, how poor you are, how rich you are, how intellectual. He makes no difference between a PhD and a fella that's got a posthole digger and makes a living with it. He makes no difference to God.

God does not look on somebody and say, listen, that fellow there, people say like Paul said, God said, God would see Paul would make a good apostle. No, no, no. He made a good apostle because God chose him and made him what he was. And that's what he said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And all the world was guilty. That's what he says.

You know, he came not to condemn the world. Why didn't he come to condemn the world? The world was already condemned. Why did he come? He was light. And men loved darkness rather than light. And so they didn't want to come to the light because it would expose them. It would expose them. And that's the difference between having the love of God in your heart, shed abroad in your heart, because you know that God's already exposed you.

And you know what? That's one of the most blessed things that we have in this world, that God knows us. He knows us and everything about us. And yet, what we think, what we say, what we do, how we act, and yet, yet He loves us. And so here we go. This world that was in the world was the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. But blessed be His glorious name. Oh, blessed be His glorious name. God wasn't limited to just one kind of people in this world, but all to every center out of every nation, out of every tribe under heaven, to every class, to every kind of people without distinction.

You know, when I first started learning the gospel, I didn't think anybody, that was anybody anywhere that understood, that knew what I was learning, what I was preaching. And I found, I thought, I listened to a message by Roth Barnard one time, got it out at a meeting in Georgia, and I listened to that message, and they mentioned Henry Mayhem. And this was in, it mentioned the church he was preaching at in Texas, Jackson, Texas. Pastor Jackson was his name. And I thought that Brother Henry Mahan was dead, but I went up to a meeting up in West Virginia, and somebody said, no, he's not dead.

Said, I know exactly where he's at, and I know his church. And I went straight as a marten to his gorge, and went right straight to Henry's office. Met him. And I tell you what, to come to find out, I didn't know anything when I thought I knew a lot. But I wanted to find somebody that knew something like what God was teaching me.

You think a liar said, Lord, I'm the only one left. They tore down your altars. God said, I've got 7,000. They ain't bought Anita Bell yet. And I tell you what, this is what's so wonderful about, you know, I told our folks down home, they said, now don't come home speaking a strange language, you know. You know, just joking, there's laughing, you know. But when I go home, I'll be able to tell them. And I told them when I got ready to leave, I said, I'm looking so forward to meeting the Lord's people down where I'm going. There would be no reason for me to be here without somebody to preach to and to fellowship with and be around in the gospel. And so here we are, here we are.

You know, here we are, people without any distinction. And this shows us that God is no respecter of persons. If he respected a person and what they was, he'd have never ever done anything for me. Stupid, ignorant, no education, no abilities, nothing, not nothing, absolutely nothing. And oh, God's no respect of persons.

I mean, he don't look down somebody and say, well, he's a good fellow. I believe I'll do something for him. I believe that fellow right there make a good preacher. I believe I'll do something for him. They say he looks down through time, see what people's gonna do. And so he choose them on that basis.

But no, no, no, no. He don't care who you are. Nothing that anybody says, thinks, or does impresses God. The only thing that God does anything for anybody is sinners, and He makes them to be sinners. He makes them to be sinners. Oh, my. And oh, there's a river that flows from the heart of God that reaches into the deep recesses of black-hearted, hard-hearted, cold-hearted sinners and wins them to his blessed, blessed son.

God does that. And then look at the nature of God's love. Here's the fourth thing about God's love. Back here in our text, God so loved the world, and this is what gets me, that he gave. He gave. He gave. Look with me in 1 John 4, 16 for a minute, if you will. 1 John 4, 16. He gave. He gave. Our Lord gave. God gave. And when God You know, love gives the best it's got to the people that it loves. It seeks the highest good to the best of the others. Love is unselfish. It gives. And look what he said here.

And we have known and believe the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in God, God dwelleth in him, and God in him, and oh, here we are. And this, God sent his son to be the propitiation. And you know, God's love by its very nature, by its very nature, has to be expressed.

Just like us, if we got love for somebody, it has to be expressed, it has to be expressed. A man sees a woman, he falls in love with her, and he expresses that love. A woman falls in love with a man, he expresses that love. We have children, we express love to our children. Our love expresses love back to us. If you've got love, it has to be expressed. And God, by His very nature, because He is love, He must express that love. He must, that love must come out. And how did it come out? He gave, He gave. Oh my. He said, Jacob have a lot. Jacob have a lot. And you can tell how much the love of God is because of whom he loves, who he expressed it to.

First Samuel says this, that he raises the beggars, the beggars off the dunghill and sets them among princes. God picked us up off a dumb hill. And you know what he did? He sent us among all these princes. He sent us among the Lord's people. And here's the thing about it. His blood washes away the stink. His blood washes away the filth. His blood washes away and makes us clean and precious in his own sight. And oh my.

And here's the one, here's the one, here's the kicker right here. Look at verse 16 again. God's love, by the nature of it, he gave. But God's love was so sacrificial, he gave his only, only begotten son. Oh my. God spared not his son. Spared, didn't spare him. Didn't spare his wrath, didn't spare his judgment, didn't spare his hatred for sin, never spared his holiness, never spared his justice. God spared not his own son, but freely delivered him up for us.

Freely said, I'll give you something. Let's see if I can express this this way. God chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the world. But before He could save any of those people, He has to have someone. His wisdom, His truth says, listen, I cannot justify them people, can't save them people. I can't do it. Mercy says, cries out and said, oh, I want to, I want to, I'd like to, I'd love to show mercy to them. Justice jumps up and says, we can't do it unless I'm satisfied. Wisdom stands up and said, I found a way. I found a way.

And he said, our Lord Jesus stood and said, I'll be that way. I'll be that one that'll go. I'll be that one that'll go. I'll be that one to go to and do your wrath. Satisfy your justice. Bear sin to my old body on the tree. You give them to me, I'll go and guarantee that every single one of them you give to me, I'll save them. I'll save them. Oh my.

God gave his son, called the son of his love. He was in the bosom of the father. Our Lord said in John 1 18, said he that was in the bosom of the father, in the heart of the father of God. He's right in the bosom of his father. And he come out from his father to do one thing, to declare God. How did he declare God? Because he was God. Everything that you've seen in Christ come from God. It was God. He is the son of God. Look what he said back here in our text again. Oh, this is the gospel right here.

John 3, 13 and 14. No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. This was the son that when he, John baptized him, he said, God spoke from heaven, said, this, this is my beloved son.

And the only person that God ever said this about, he is well pleased with him. Oh my, and our sons are sons of flesh, sons of sin, but he was the son of God. Isaiah nine says this, unto us a child is born, a child is born, Under us, under us, a son is given.

What are we gonna call him? We're gonna call him wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And guess what? He said the government gonna be on his shoulder. This is one of the most amazing things. You know, it said shoulder. It didn't say shoulders. You know why?

It got the government on one shoulder, the government of his people. And the government of God got on his shoulder. And the scripture says that he finds his sheep and he puts them on his shoulder and carries them. How can he carry all the government on one shoulder and all his people on the other shoulder?

You know why? Because he's God. He can carry all of us at the same time. He can hear all of us talk at the same time. Understands every one of us. Because he's God. You just imagine that. I got a sheep that's over there somewhere in the wilderness. Hey sheep, sheep, sheep, come on, come on, come on. No, no. The scripture said he goes and finds it. And when he finds it, he lays it on his shoulder. He carried the government over on his side. We're on this side. And He carries all of us at the same time.

Oh, what a Savior, what a Savior, what a Savior. What a glorious Savior. Can we exalt Him enough? Can we magnify His name enough? Can we uplift His holy name enough? Can we describe how glorious He is, how mighty He is, how powerful He is, how wise He is? No, no. And how did our Lord give Him?

He said God so gave that He gave sacrificial love. He gave Him to a virgin's womb to unite with perfect manhood. And he started in this world as an infant. The same infant that was held in his mother's arms was the Ancient of Days at Daniel's home. And he gave him, when he got grown, he gave him to labor. He labored.

And then he gave him to be among men who hated him without a cause. And they said, we despise him. And we reject everything about him. And he gave him to hunger, gave him to poverty, gave him to thirst, gave him in his back to the smiters, gave his cheeks to those who plucked off his beard, gave him to the betrayal. And not only that, but the denial of his closest disciples. the closest to Him, they denied Him. Gave Him into the hands of His enemies to scourge Him, to mock Him, to slap Him, to spit in His face.

And finally, finally, finally, He gave Him to a cross and put Him on that cross, had Him nailed to a cross. And the blood flowed so fully and so freely down that cross, even to the ground. And oh my, instead of a crown of glory, they put on a crown of thorns. And oh my, and he put him there on that cross. And he cried out, my God, my God. He said, he's my God. But if my God has forsaken me, can't look on me, can't look at me, why? Because God was punishing his elect in that man on that cross.

And sin has to be put away. And he, by the sacrifice of himself, he put away sin by that blessed cross. Oh my, bless his holy name. And oh, this just a little bit. Just a little bit of what our Lord gave when he gave his son. He was the just for the unjust. And when he gave his son, it was a complete giving of his son. His son held back nothing. God held back no wrath. God held back no judgment. God held back nothing from his son.

And he treated him like we should have been treated. Oh my. And our Lord did it freely. And why did he do that? We was held ransom. Held ransom by sin, held ransom by the justice of God, held ransom because of our relationship to Adam. And our Lord Jesus Christ said, I'll pay the debt that they owe. I'll pay the ransom. to set them free. And when they pay the ransom, the person gets to go free. Now what are they gonna do? They go free. Go free.

And he set us free from the bondage of sin. Set us free from God's wrath. Set us free from God's judgment. God will never judge us again. God will never forgive. We'll never ever face the wrath of God. We'll never have to deal with the justice of God. You know why? Because Christ already did it. God will never be angry with me, never be angry with you. He'll never judge you because he's already judged Christ. He'll never find any sin in you because he's already put it all on Christ.

And here's the design of it. Here's the design of it. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believeth in him, that's the key. The design of his love that so whosoever believeth in him, believes in him. To as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, which were born, not of the will of the flesh, not of blood, not of generations or the will of man, but born of God.

And oh my, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will not perish. Oh no, no, you won't perish. Will not perish. That's what he did for us. He's done it to keep us from perishing. And you know, You know what it takes to come to Christ? Once you start coming to him, you're already there. You can come to him without moving a muscle. That's what's so precious about coming to Christ. You don't have to get up and come to a front and do anything. You come to Christ without moving a muscle. You come to Christ with your heart. You come to Christ with your soul. And you always come to Christ as a needy person.

And once you ever come to Him, you never stop coming. Once you ever come, you just never stop coming. You just keep on coming. I always say that old song, I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, Lord, let I need thee every hour. I need thee, oh, Son of God, I need you. I'm 76 years old. I've been preaching down there. I started preaching when I was 27, 28 years old, 25, somewhere in that neck of the woods, I started preaching.

And I come to Christ, and I come, and I come, and I come, and I come, and I keep on coming. I'm gonna come till he comes and gets me. I'm gonna keep coming to him till he comes to get me. I'm gonna keep looking to him till one day I see him face to face. You know, I can't tell you, I can't tell you how desperately I need the Lord Jesus Christ. I needed him yesterday, I need him today. And if he lets me live tomorrow, I'll still need him tomorrow. And I'll still keep coming to him.

They asked his disciples, and a whole bunch of them walked away from him. They said, this is a hard saying. Who can believe it? Who can hear it? And our Lord turned and looked at the 12, and he said, I guess you all gonna leave too, ain't you? You's gonna go all leave too. And they said, Lord, oh Lord, to whom shall we go? You, you, you have just exactly the words I need. The words that I need, the life that I need, the hope that I need, the foundation I need. I need you, Lord. I need you every hour. I need you every moment. I need you.

Don't you? And that's when you believe on Him. What you believe you cannot not believe, can you? Stop believing if you can't. Stop coming to Christ if you can't. Start embracing Christ if you can. But I tell you what's precious to me is him embracing me more than me embracing him.

The fact that he takes me and embraces me. That's more precious to me than anything. Well, I'm gonna do this again in a little while. I appreciate you very much, appreciate your attention. Okay, thank you. Let's have a break and a cup of coffee and have a chat to each other, that'd be lovely. Share some of those sweet words, as we heard. Thank you.