Open our Bibles to Acts chapter
17. Acts chapter 17. We'll begin reading with verse
16. Acts 17, verse 16. Now, while Paul waited for them
at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the
synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the
market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers
of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some
said, what will this babbler say? Others some, he seemeth
to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him unto Eripegas, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know therefore what
these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time in nothing else but either
to tell or to hear something new. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things you are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription. to the
unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare
I unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is he worshiped
with men's hands, as though he needed anything. seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the
bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord. If
happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us, for in him In him we live and
move and have our being. As certain also of your own poets
have said, for we're all his offspring. For as much then as
we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art
and man's device. In the times of this ignorance,
God winked at, but now, commendeth all men everywhere to repent,
because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men in that he raised him
from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked, and others, said, we will hear thee
again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them,
albeit certain men claimed him and believed. Among the witch
was Dionysus, the Arape guide, and a woman named Damaris and
others with him. What a miracle, some believed. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
we thank you for this opportunity to gather together. Lord, to
read thy word, Lord, to hear thy word, to sing hymns of praise
unto thee. Lord, to hear a message from
thee, oh God. Lord, how we thank you that you
brought us here to this place, and Lord, we desire that you
would indeed give us a heart of worship here this morning.
Lord, we thank you for our brother that you've brought our way,
and Lord, we pray that, Lord, as he stands in this place, Lord,
that you would uphold him by your might, and Lord, that indeed
you might be pleased to speak through your servant here this
morning to the hearts of your people. And again, Lord, give
us an ear to hear, a heart to receive thy word, faith to believe,
to believe and rest in thee, to rest in Christ our Savior. Lord, again, we thank you for
this day, this opportunity to worship. Lord, for your many
blessings upon us. Thank you, especially for the
young ones you've given us. And Lord, it's, Lord, we pray
that you'd protect them. Lord, that you'd keep them, that
you'd hedge them about. Lord, above all things, that
you would be merciful to them. Lord, that you'd reveal your
son to them, that you'd reveal the Savior to them in grace and
truth. And again, we thank you. Thank
you for your word. We thank you for our savior.
Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach us more of him. Lord, here this morning, set
aside the thoughts and cares of this world. Lord, those things
that so easily beset us, those things that so easily take our
mind, Lord, set those aside just for a little bit. Lord, let us
see Christ. For it's in his name we pray
and give thee thanks. Amen. I can't tell you how many people
who were here last night have made this comment to me, how
much they love the simple, plain preaching of Christ. And that's
a large part of the reason why I invited our brother David to
preach to us here this weekend, because that's the way he preaches.
So David, I pray the Lord bless you preaching and bless us in
hearing the same way he did last night. So you come bring a message
of Christ to us. Good morning, everyone. Turn
with me to the gospel of John chapter six, please. I'm thankful for the worship
we've already had this morning. I just worshiped in that text
that our brother just read. It's amazing that our God is
an unknown God to most. The God of heaven and earth.
is unknown to so many. My story is pretty much like
every man and woman that's been raised in religion. From the
time I can remember, you know, it's Sunday, it's time to go
to church, and I was put in the Sunday school classes, and proselyted at a very young age. And I can pretty much all I can
remember about preaching growing up was that I needed to straighten
up and fly right. My mother used to tell me that
quite often. David Lee, you need to straighten
up and fly right. I remember there was a poster
in the Sunday school class there in which I grew up that said
the way to heaven is turn right and go straight. One problem
with that, I can't do it. I've tried. I remember as a young
boy sitting under a tree, said a bad word, felt convicted about
it. Lord, I'm never gonna say that
bad word again, and boy, was I wrong. And after a while, you
get embarrassed to even ask God to help you with your problems
because you pretty well know when you do that you're not gonna
keep any promise that you make. So we just say, Lord, help me.
Isn't it the simple prayers that get the Lord's answer? Lord,
help me. Peter's sinking in the water. He said, Lord, save me.
And the Lord Jesus reached out his hand and pulled him up out
of the waters. That's what I'm talking about. I can't. When I got old enough and physically
big enough to say I'm not going to church anymore, it was simply
because I didn't have any fear or respect of the God whom I
heard preach. He was always wanting. He was
always trying. He was on heaven's portals begging
for someone to allow Him to save them. Now, I'm just not exaggerating
here. That's what I heard. Many of
you heard that. kind of message going up. He
loved everyone and just wanted somebody to love him back. That's
pathetic. That's not my Lord. He never
wanted to do anything. He's never tried to do anything.
He does what he wills in the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? Are gods in the heavens? He's
done whatsoever he pleads. That's what God's doing, whatever
He pleases. What's the Lord doing? I had someone ask me that a while
back. You know, things get bad. What's the Lord doing? Whatever
He pleases. I watched the debate the other
night. I was just sitting there thinking, you know, it really
don't matter. The Lord's already got the candidate picked, the president.
I'm not going to worry about it. It's in the Lord's hands.
We get all upset and then we go, well, it's in the Lord's
hands. Don't worry about it and say it at the beginning. It's
in the Lord's hands. We have to leave a tear, don't
we? Then God one day providentially
crossed my path with a gospel preacher. That's a God-ordained
means to say. I was ignorant. Ignorance is
not an insulting word. If you really know what it means,
it means to be unlearned, untaught in certain things. By nature,
birth, and practice, you and I are ignorant and we're religious. I was untaught and unlearned
in spiritual things. Brother Mayhem once said, religion
is as much a part of man's nature as any other emotion. Now you
think about that. All men, anywhere and everywhere,
are religious to some degree about something. Religion is defined as a belief
or practice forming someone's thoughts about worship. Religion
can entail the worship of the true and living God, or it can
entail worship of a tree stump. I have a friend of mine that doesn't know God, but he had
an experience and he was out on a golf course standing next
to a tree and said the Lord spoke to him. And now that's where he goes. He doesn't even play golf. He
lives close to a golf station, walks the golf course. And that's
where he goes to talk to God. You know what he's doing? He's
worshiping the trees, all he's doing. A lot of folks today worshiping
trees, worshiping the cross. And I'm not going to get on folks,
you know, about wearing a cross or whatever. I'm not going to.
I was telling Frank last night, talking about this beautiful
pulpit that Brother Cecil made. And I said, well, we finally
just painted ours white. The wood grain was long gone.
It didn't have any luster to it. But we had a little cross
on the front. Never noticed it before. All
those years I watched Brother Montgomery preach the gospel.
I asked the guy painting the pulpit, he was a friend of mine,
I said, can you take that cross off front of that and he goes.
How would you want to do that? Well, I told him why I won't
say why, but I gave him the reasons why and we took it off. We don't
worship a tree. We don't worship a piece of wood. We worship the Christ of the
cross. It can worship religion, can
worship God. Anything of man's own imagination,
it's amazing the things that we can make our God and worship. Men imagine themselves to be
God. That's the worst of it all. In all reality, when it comes
right down to it, man has made himself his own God. He's gonna
have his own way. He's gonna do his own thing.
He thought that he was all together, that God was all together, such
a one as he was. God's gonna show you that you're
not, if you're one of His. Or He's gonna let you believe
that you are all the way to hell. The Jewish people in our Lord's
day, I better get to my message, I'm sorry. The Jewish people
in our Lord's day pretty much worship the law of Moses, you
know that. And in essence, they worship
Moses. They trust in their keeping of
the law and they work hard to keep it. You wouldn't find better
moral people. more upright, moral folks. They observed, they kept all
the days, all the traditions, all the ceremonies, all the ordinances,
sacrifice, feast day, but they never truly understood that God's
law had to be kept perfectly in order to redeem a righteous
working sinner. And that's a word we don't know
much about. We use it a lot when a new baby's born. We go, oh,
he's just perfect. She's just perfect. Well, they
are to us, but they're not, are they? Pretty soon, they're going
mine. So. Kept all the days, kept the law,
crossed every T, dotted every I. They trusted in everything
but the finished work of Christ. I harp on that a whole lot lately.
I don't know, it's just been in the last couple, three years,
the Lord really brought that home to me. My work is finished. You know, we talk about retiring,
and a lot of folks retire, and we work harder after we retire
than when we were working. but to rest, to rest. I can't find any rest anywhere
else, but in the Lord Jesus. I sure can't find it in the law.
I can't find it in what I've got to do to be saved. Here in
John chapter six, the Lord Jesus talking with these religious
Jews, and in verse 32, if you got there with me, John 6, 32,
He tells them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Moses gave you that bread, that manna from heaven, but my father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God
is what he. which cometh down from heaven
and giveth light unto the world. And they said unto him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life, and he that cometh to me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto
you that you also have seen me, and believe not." Man can know
something that he doesn't believe, but he can't believe something
that he doesn't know. And here the Lord says, you've seen me.
I am the bread of heaven, but you don't believe that I am the
bread from heaven. You don't believe that I'm who
I claim to be. They wanted the bread from heaven
because it gave life, our Lord said. I want some of that. They
wanted to live forever. They wanted to hunger and thirst.
Oh, you got some bread where I won't have to eat that really
fulfills and water where I won't thirst again? I'll take some
of that. I'm all for that. Where's the sign-up sheet for
that? But they didn't want Christ, who was the true bread, who was
the water from rivers of living water flow. Now in verse 37, the Lord gives
us the first of the word, a word used all here, A-L-L. This all speaks of the ones that
God's gonna save. It's amazing how many people
today just worship the thought of Christ
dying for everyone. He says, all that the Father
giveth me, not the whole world, not everyone in the world, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me, I'll in no wise cast out. Oh, you're one of those beliefs,
once saved, always saved. You better believe I am. If the
Lord Jesus Christ saved me, I'm saved forever. And if I fall
away tomorrow, then the Lord didn't save me. All that the Father has given
me. Who are they all for whom Christ came to save? All the
world? No. Everyone in the world? No. The whole world? No. All
that the Father gave to Christ. Just don't make it any harder
than it is. All that come to Christ and they
all will. All who will never be cast out. This is the will and purpose
of God. Who's going to thwart His will and purpose? Who's going
to stay His hand? Who's going to put God in handcuffs?
Verse 38, for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. What is the Father's will?
Verse 39, and this is the Father's will, which has sent me, that
of all, that's the second use of the word, all which He hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. What is the Father's will? Verse
40, this is the will of Him that sent me. Now look, that everyone,
All that the Father gave to me, all that come to me. Which seeth
the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and
I'll raise him up at the last day. That's what it's talking
about. Paul wrote that the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness to him. I had a guy
one time tell me, I hear you're a Christian. And I said, well,
I don't know if that word can be taken a lot of ways anymore,
can it? And he said, so you're telling
me that everything you believe comes out of this Bible. And
I said, that's exactly what I believe. And he said, that's foolishness. That's foolishness. It is to
the world. But to us, it's the power of
God, isn't it? It's what gave this sinner life
and breath. A natural man receives not the
things of the Spirit of God. Our Lord said, let another come
in His name and Him you will receive. But God takes on the
flesh of man and the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without
sin. And God becomes a man and He lives perfectly on this earth.
And men crucify Him. Let someone come in their own
name. It's always been the case, there's a way that seems right
unto man, and the end thereof are the ways of death. Now, man's
religion is based on logic. Religion's based on natural understanding. Carnal, natural mind's enmity
against God. That word enmity means hostile. You know, it's one thing to be
mad, it's another thing to be hostile. When folks get hostile,
that's when they start killing people. And that's what our natural
mind is. It's hostile against God. It's not subject. It's not submissive
to the law, guy. And it says neither can it be.
Neither indeed can it be. Man says, I see it this way.
This is how I see it. You tell someone the truth about
the scriptures and about God Almighty and how He saves sinners. They go, well, that's not the
way I see it. That's not what my church believes. Probably
not. But what God says in this word
is all that matters. And then folks are going to say,
well, you know, everybody has their interpretation. Best commentary there is on this
book is this book. There's no contradictions here
without controversy. We just can't see it. God's got
to reveal it to us. One day we're going to see it
clearly. What a day that'll be. Based on logic. Verse 41, the
Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which
came down from heaven. And they said, is this not Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it
then that he saith, I came down from heaven? And there again,
can you see the natural logic in their thinking? How did he
come from heaven? He was born and raised in Nazareth.
This is Jesus. This is Joseph's son. You remember
him. Worked in the carpenter's shop. My mom knows his mom. His dad knows my dad. Small town,
Nazareth. And his father and mother, we
all know. How is it that he said, I came
down from heaven? How can that be? And that's what's
wrong with man's natural religion. It's based on man's logic. It's
based on man's thinking. Naaman came to the prophet of
God to be healed of leprosy. Elijah, the prophet of God, didn't
even go out to see him. And he's a big important war
hero. And an important man. It was
by man's way of thinking. But not God's. God's no respecter
of persons. All who fear him accepted of
him. They fear him. It's a reverential
respect. But Naaman didn't. So Elijah
sent his servant out. He said, go wash in the River
Jordan seven times. And it made Naaman mad. Naaman
said, doesn't he know who I am? I've seen a lot of celebrities
get pulled over on these cop shows. And as soon as they roll
down the window, do you know who I am? It doesn't matter who
you are. You broke the law. That's the
way it's supposed to be, isn't it? Sadly, it's not. Nahum said,
it's a logical presumption that He would surely come out and
see me, knowing who I am. And I sent word through their
king to Him who I was. So, I know He knows. I thought
He'd come out and stand before me. I thought He'd show me some
respect. I thought He'd lay His hand upon me. I thought he would
call upon God in my presence. And I thought God would show
up because of how important I am. I thought he'd perform some religious
ceremony, some religious to do. Doesn't he know who I am? It doesn't have anything to do
with what we think. I thought, doesn't matter. Abraham
defeated the kings of the plains and their mighty armies with
318 men. Doesn't matter, his ways are
past finding out. Is that possible? 318 men to
defeat four kings and their armies. Certainly not logical, is it?
Israel brought the mighty walls of Jericho to the ground with
trumpets and marching and a shout in unison. Logic says impossible. Not with God, it's not. Shamguard, in the book of Judges,
defeated 600 Philistines with a farm tool. Knox gold. Stick with a little hook blade
on the end they used to move livestock around. Killed 600
Philistines. Samson slew a thousand Philistines
with a jawbone of an ass. You know why? Because God was
doing the slaying. God was doing the fighting. Just using instruments. That's
all preachers are, instruments. Brother, I hope you don't get
puffed up. Don't worry about it. The Lord take care of it.
The Lord got a way of keeping his people humble, his servants. God's thoughts are our thoughts. Jesus said, why murmur among
yourselves? You're doing exactly what dead men do. You're using
your natural reason. You're responding to these things
with the logic of a natural man and woman. With God, you can
throw your logic out the window. God's not understood with human
reasoning. God cannot be explained by natural
experience. And God can't be fathomed with
human rationality. Verse 44, God says, no man can
come to me. Man reasons within himself and
he says, I can come and go as I please. No, no man can come
to me, Christ said. No man has the ability to come.
Men say, well, where there's a will, there's a way. And the
Lord says, you will not come to me that you might have lot.
All men by nature are dead. No man can come to me. No man
will come to me. There's only one way a dead man
can come to Christ. There's only one exception right
here. No man can come except, here's the exception, the father
which hath sent me, draw him. We're right back to where we
were last night. We love him because he first loved us. Doesn't
matter ability, heritage, tradition, race. As I said, no man can come. to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. God's got to draw that man that one. With the cords
of love. Give them the ability. Then the
will. How does God do that? Verse 45
it's written in the prophets they shall all. They shall be
all taught of God and there's the third all we have in the
chapter. It's still speaking about the same ones. All that
the Father gave to Christ, none of them shall be lost, all of
them shall be saved. And now we see that without exception,
all of them are gonna be taught of God. Every man, every woman,
all of them, therefore that have heard and have learned of the
Father cometh to me. Our Lord said, he that hath ears
to hear, let him hear. He said, how shall they hear
without a preacher? He said, blessed are your ears because
they hear. God's got to give the hearing. God's got to do
the drawing. Who are they? All that learned
of the Father. All that's been taught by Him.
It's written in the prophets. Boy, that's saying a lot. From the books of Moses to the
major prophets, minor prophets, the book of Psalms, they're all
what? Concerning Jesus Christ. Every one of them. It's written
in the prophets. That's what the Old Testament
declares. It teaches who God teaches. Isaiah 2, 3, come and let us
go into the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God, the God
of Jacob, and he'll teach us of his ways and we'll walk in
his paths. Isaiah said, and all the children
shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy
children. Isaiah 54, 13. This is what the
prophets are preaching. Micah 4.2, come and let us go
up into the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of
Jacob. And he'll teach us, he said the
same thing that Isaiah did. And we'll walk in his paths.
Jesus Christ is the path, Jesus Christ is the way, Jesus Christ
is the shepherd, and what do the shepherds do, what do the
sheep do? They follow him, the shepherds. God's got to teach us. Turn back
a page. You may not turn back. John chapter
5 verse 40. You know this. We've already
quoted it. And you will not come to me that you might have life.
Men and women won't come because they cannot come. They have no
ability to come, no will to come. The Lord told the religious folks
of His day, you search the scriptures and in them you think you have
life, but they are they which testify of me. If you don't see
Christ in this book, then you haven't yet seen God. Verse 42, He said, but I know
that you have not the love of God in you. Men liked and loved
titles, pastor, elder, doctor, reverend, bishop, rabbi. Christ
told the Pharisees, you love the praise and the recognition
of man. It's a sure sign that you hadn't
been taught of God. Our Lord told the Pharisees,
you love to be seen of men and you seek not the honor that comes
from God, but the honor that comes from man. You're religious,
you're ignorant, you claim to know everything, you don't know
nothing. I thought I knew something at
one time. I knew a few, memorized a few verses of Scripture. We're religious, we're ignorant
by nature. The root of the problem, that's it. We have need to be
taught of God. It's written in the prophets,
they shall all be taught of God and every man that hath heard
and hath learned of the Father does what? Comes to me. What
happens when you come to Christ? You have life. I have a friend who's a state-recognized,
award-winning educator. He's won Teacher of the Year
locally and statewide and all. And he's a great teacher. I had
him when I was in school. But he cannot, as good a teacher
as he is, he cannot give anyone the ability to learn. He can't
do it. He can teach, but only God can
give the ability to learn. Men by nature are without understanding. 131. Speaking of Gentiles who
without Christ, Paul wrote, having the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that's
in them because of the blindness of their hearts. And after the
Lord resurrected, he met the disciples there on the seashore.
And he said, these are the words which I've spoken to you while
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which
were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets. concerning
me, then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the
scriptures. We've got to have our understanding
open, we've got to be taught of God. We must have the eyes
of our understanding enlightened, that we might know what's the
hope of his calling. I didn't always know that Christ
is the hope of God's calling to me, but I do now. Because
God's been teaching me, just like he has been you. What's the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe according to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ? Today we've got men
and women who desire to be teachers of the law. Paul said, understanding
not what they say. Gotta be taught of God. The world
by wisdom knows not God. But it pleased God by what the
world calls foolishness. Preaching of the gospel to save
them that believe. That's how sinners are taught
of God. By the preaching of Christ in this book. Most important
thing we do. May we always keep that in mind. Well, I need to move along. I want to ask you four questions
in closing. How does God teach us? Three
part answer. He teaches us by His Word. You know, I was in a dollar store
the other day, and they had some Bibles in there. I think they
were $1.75. You can buy God's holy word for less than $2, and
it just don't mean much to anybody anymore. It does to God's people. We buy covers for ours. I don't
know why we get another one, but it's something we honor and
respect. It's the best possession that
we own. God's Word. God teaches us by His Word. Isaiah
wrote, if they speak not according to the Word, it's because there's
no light in them. If you're ever to hear from God
or to be taught from God, it's gonna be through His Word. Secondly,
God teaches through His servants, His ministers. God sent Philip to the eunuch.
God sent Peter to Cornelius. He sent Ananias to Saul. He sent
me a preacher one day, and he's gonna send his people a preacher,
and God reveals that divine things by human instruments. And what
the instruments got to do when we preach is to get ourselves
out of the way and point men to who we're talking about. I
believe it was Brother Todd and Iver that said this. I'm more
inclined to think he just made it up. No, I'm kidding. He said that's why the pulpit
was originally designed, so we could hide behind it. Well, we
ought to do a little more hiding. God help us to direct that honor
and glory to the Lord Jesus. God gonna send people a preacher.
Of his own will, beget us with the word of truth. He's gonna
save God's people by his word. And thirdly, God teaches His
people by His Spirit. He said when He, the Holy Spirit,
is come, He'll convince the world of sin. Not the whole world,
all that the Father gave Him. All that come to Him. All His
sheep, all His people, not the whole world. He'll come and He'll
convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
When God's Spirit comes, He's going to glorify Christ. He's
going to take things of Christ and show them to His people. He's going to teach them, and
that's speaking of all that He gave to Christ. He shall not
speak of Himself. He's going to speak on Christ.
And I tell you, a man is always harping on the Spirit of God.
He's baptizing the Holy Spirit. He's filled with the Holy Spirit. He's doing wonders and miracles
by the Holy Spirit. I'm telling you, he's not of
God. The Holy Spirit speaks of Christ.
That's the only message we have. There is no other message. The
Holy Spirit was sent by God to guide Chosen sinners and to the
truth about the Lord Jesus Christ And he will not speak of himself
he's going to speak of the things of Christ and so we're God's
minister Don't speak of the Christ person his incarnation his life
his teachings his death his resurrection his ascension His redemption
his return God teaches sinners by His word, His ministers, and
by His Spirit. Second question, what does God
teach those that He saves? Well, you know the answer to
that. God teaches us something of His holiness, and of His glory,
and His majesty, and His sovereignty, and His power. You know, six
times, I believe, in Isaiah chapter five, the prophet Isaiah says,
woe unto them. woe unto them for doing this
and woe unto them for doing that and woe unto them for not doing
this and uh and then in chapter 6 verse 1 he said in the year
the king Uzziah died i saw the lord sitting upon the throne
high lifted up and his train his glory filled the temple the
seraphims flew over and he's so holy they covered themselves
and he said they cried holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts
and you remember what Isaiah said? He didn't say woe is them
anymore. He said woe is me. I'm in trouble. That's what sinners are going
to cry when they see the holiness of God Almighty. Woe is me. Not
woe is so and so. And woe is me. they'll see their
sin and cry, whoa, it's me. The older I get, the longer I
walk with this old nature, old man, whatever you want to call
it, the more I see how holy God is and how sinful we are. You
know, when the Lord, after the Lord taught and saved the apostle
Paul, he said, I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. As he
got older and walked more with the Lord, he said, I'm less than
the least of all saints. as he continued on and towards
the end of his life, he said, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm
the worst of all of them. Oh, wretched man that I am. Not
that I was all those years ago. I'm still that wretched man. Who's going to deliver me from
this body of death? Who's going to deliver me from
this sin? He said, there's only one who can. And he thanked Him.
He said, I thank You, Lord. You're the only one who can. Third question, why must I be
taught of God? Because I can't come to Christ
if I'm not. Dead men can't do anything, and
we're all spiritually dead. Women, by nature, are lost. They
don't know where they're going. Albert Einstein was traveling
on a streetcar one time, or on a train is what it was, and the
conductor came down the aisle. You've seen them do it in the
old movies. They're punching the tickets. And they came to
Albert Einstein, and he's shuffling through his coat pocket, and
he can't find his ticket. He stands up, he's shuffling
in his trousers, can't find his ticket. The conductor said, Mr.
Einstein, I know who you are, and I know you bought a ticket,
don't worry about it. And Mr. Einstein nodded, but
he just kept looking. He looked in the seat next to
him, and the conductor's going on down the aisle, punching other
tickets. And he looks back, and now Einstein's
on the floor. looking underneath the things. And he come back, and again,
he said, Mr. Einstein, he said, Professor, he said, I know who
you are, and I know you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it.
And he said, young man, he said, I know who I am, and I know I
bought a ticket. He said, my problem is, I don't
know where I'm going. You ever walked into a room and
forget what you went in there for? Even the brightest men,
Albert Einstein, do such. The point I'm trying to make
is that Folks are lost and they don't even know it. They haven't
seen the ticket. We've got the ticket. We see
what it is. We see the end. Taught of God. He's made into
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. Everything that
we need before God. He's the only one that can save
to the uttermost those that come to Christ by Him. Everyone, all
that's heard and everybody that's taught of God, they're going
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Have you been taught
of God? Have you come to Christ? I pray
you have. I pray that I have. And last
question, how do you know if you've come to Christ? You'd
be surprised. Believers walk with the Lord
for years. They get in there. older age,
and they begin to doubt. They begin to struggle with assurance,
and every single time you talk to them, it's because we begin
to start looking within instead of looking without. You look
back on your life and you say, oh, I wish I'd have done this
differently, and I wish I'd have done that differently. You can't
change it. Let it go. Doesn't have anything
to do with that. Not a thing. How do you know you've come to
Christ? Well, you'll freely take of the water of life. You won't
have to be coerced to take it. You won't have to be pressured
to take it. You'll take it. You find a real thirsty man,
and you won't have to sing just as I am 35 times to get him to
take a drink of it. No, sir. He'll lap it up like
a dog and ask for more. Lord, help us to be thirsty.
Help us to be hungry. Let him that is a thirst come,
and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. Have you taken of the water of
life? It's free. It's free. How do you buy without
money and without price? You charge it to the account
of another. That's the only way. I can't charge it to my account
because it comes due in 30 days, and if I don't pay it, it gets
really expensive. But if I charge it to his account,
I'm not going to get a bill later on. We charge it to the account of
our Savior. My wages of sin have been charged
to Christ's account. Paid Him for it. You know, there's mercy reserved,
His blood. It's like a credit, you know. He paid the price and all our
debt is covered under it. Past debt, present debt, future
debt. That's the beautiful thing. Is
that when my sin goes before God, it's immediately paid for,
taken care of. So much so that I don't have
any sin. Now you chew on that for a little bit. But we start looking within.
We start seeing that sin. We start doubting ourselves.
Don't do that. Don't do that. It won't do you
any good. You're saved by the finished
work of Christ. You put in your trust in Him.
If you do that, as my pastor used to always say, everything's
going to be alright. It's going to be alright. And
it is. It is. Are you resting in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus? Do you have a good hope that
your sins can and won't be held against you when you stand in,
as we read last night, in boldness in the judgment. The people of
God couldn't even stand before the mountain of Mount Sinai.
They trembled and quaked. To stand in the presence of God
Almighty in my sin? I can do it with boldness because
of who died for me. I can do it with boldness because
of who stands, my advocate, as he pleads my cause and my case
before the great judge. Why, he is the great judge. Well, we'd question that as unfair,
wouldn't we? Well, that's unfair. I don't
want what's fair, I want mercy. I want mercy. Help the Lord to
help us. If you have these things, you have Christ and you've been
taught of God. And all that's left for you to
do is what we've said so many times already in these two services,
is rest. Rest. We rest when the work's
finished. Thank you so much. I appreciate
that. Words can't describe it. Thank
you. I'll leave it at that. You had occurred to me as Brother
David was preaching. We opened the service, Brother
Eric read that great message the Apostle Paul preached. And
some believed. Only the gospel can make some
and all be the same people. You know why? Some believed they
were part of the all. And I echo what David said. I hope I'm part
of that son that believed. I pray God give me faith, I hope
I'm part of that son, I hope you are too. And I am, you are. You're part of that all, if Christ
is your only host. We're gonna have something to
eat and a time of fellowship, but before Chris comes and leads
us in our closing hymn, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father,
how we thank you for these two days that you've given to us
to meet together and to worship you around your throne, to worship
you in the hearing of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
Father, I beg of you that you'd not let us be stony ground hearers,
let these things be quickly taken away from us, or that we'd be
shallow ground hearers and these things would quickly take root,
but quickly dry up in the heat of the day. But Father, that
you plant these things deep in our hearts, cause them to grow
to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring forth fruit that's fit
for his glory. Father, we thank you for bringing
Brother David our way. Father, I pray that you'd give
him traveling mercies today, that you'd bring him home safely
tomorrow, or today, and that you'd bless him tomorrow richly,
preaching to the saints there in Madisonville that you've put
under his watchful care. Bless us tomorrow as we meet
together to worship. Father, we thank you for this
time of fellowship that we're about to have. Thank you for
this food that you've provided and pray that you bless it to
our bodies. Father, as always, we pray you'd forgive us of our
many sins, that you'd see us and hear us only in our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's for his sake and his glory
we pray, amen. All right, Chris, come lead us
in a closing hymn.