All right, if you wouldn't open
your Bibles with me, Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. I have a message this morning
that I pray will be a special blessing to those of us who feel
helpless and hopeless. The title of the message is,
What I Can Do. Verse 13 of Philippians chapter
4. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthens me. This is like many other passages
of scripture, a very misused and abused verse of scripture.
I recently heard an athlete quote this verse about an upcoming
big game that they had. They got this big game, a big
opponent. So I can do all things through
Christ, which strengthens me. Which in context, Sounds like
the man was saying, we can win this game. The Lord just help
us just a little bit. We can win this game. We got
them licked, but the Lord will strengthen us. We can do it.
It makes it sound like he doesn't need the Lord's help to play
a game when they're a heavy favorite. And that thought process is human
nature. People in all different areas
apply that thought process to a lot of things that we do in
this world. I pretty much got it licked, but Lord help me a
little bit, you know, I can do this. And when somebody says
it like that, I don't know if they mean it this way or not,
but this is what it sounds like. Yeah, I could just take care
of my problems. If Lord just help me just a little bit, you
know, me and the Lord together can take care of this, this problem.
And in case you don't already know it, let me assure you of
this. That's not what this verse means. This is the truth. We can't do anything. We can't
do anything without the Lord. Didn't the Lord tell us that?
John 15 verse five, without me, you can do nothing. We can't
do anything. We can't breathe. We can't walk. We can't talk. We can't feed
ourselves. We can't do the most simple tasks
of life. And one day I won't be able to
do those things anymore. Because the Lord's going to take
away my ability to do them. And as long as we can do those
things, as long as the Lord has given us the strength to just
do these basic, simple, everyday tasks of life, it'd be mighty
good for us to keep this in mind. I do those things as the Lord
allows. Wouldn't that keep the Lord in
our minds in the right way to remember Him? Isn't that what
the wise man said in Ecclesiastes 12? Remember now thy creator
in the days by you. Remember him now. Now, while
it is true, we can't do any physical activity whatsoever unless the
Lord enables us to do them. There is a far more important
lesson being taught here. We can't do anything spiritual
that the Lord requires of us unless the Lord enables us to
do them. And I want to spend the rest of my time this morning
looking at the spiritual things that we cannot do unless the
Lord enables us to do them. But we do them if the Lord enables
us to do them. And I hope that we see this this
morning, our inability. If the Holy Spirit will show
us our inability to do anything that God requires and our complete
dependence on the Lord, if we see that, we'll have the spirit
of worship. If we see, if the spirit enables
us to see all that God's done for his people, that he's enabled
us to do what we cannot do by nature, we'll be thankful. Well, if you've got a dependent
attitude and a thankful attitude, you can have the spirit of worship.
I know this from scripture. I can't do anything. I can't
do anything. I can't do anything to be saved. I can't do anything to get God
to save me. I can't do anything to earn a righteousness. I can't
do anything that would be accepted by God. Because my works and
your works are filthy rags. All our works can do is condemn
us. They can't help us in any way. And when we see we can't
do anything to please God, we can't do anything that God requires
of us, we'll say with the Apostle Paul, who's sufficient for these
things? Not only does that apply to preaching, who's sufficient
to be able to preach? the eternal God, salvation in
His Son. Who's sufficient to hear those
things and believe them and love them and receive them? Who's
sufficient for anything that God requires of us? Nobody. Nobody but the Savior. He's sufficient. He's the one who's sufficient
to do what God requires of me. So the first thing I see is this,
the only way we can do anything that God requires of us is through
union with Christ. When Paul says here, I can do
all things through Christ which strengthens me, the word is in. I can do all things in Christ,
in Christ, through union with Christ. And you know what the
truth really is? I already have done everything
that God requires of me. If you're a believer, you already
have done everything God requires of you. because you did them
in Christ. When he did them, so did you,
because you were in him. Just like I sinned in Adam, I
obeyed God's law in Christ. Just like I was cast out of God's
presence in Adam, I'm brought back into God's presence in Christ. Look at Philippians chapter two,
just back a page. Here's the second thing. You
know, we can only do what God requires of us if God works in
us and makes us do them. Philippians 2 verse 13. For it's
God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good
pleasure. If you have any will, any desire
to do of God's good pleasure, and you have any ability to do
it, it's not you. It's God working in you, making
you do those things. And I wanna give you a few things
I thought of that I can do, that you can do, that God's people
do, by the power of Christ. First, look at the book of Acts,
Acts chapter 16. By nature, I cannot believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. But by the power of God, I do
believe Christ by his power. That's the commandment of God.
The commandment of God is not obey the law. The commandment
of God is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But by nature,
we can't do it. Look at Acts 16, verse 25. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations
of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were
opened and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the
prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing
that the prisoners had been fled. Paul cried with a loud voice
saying, do thyself no harm for we're all here. Then he called
for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down
before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what
must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe. What
must I do to be saved? You've got to do something you
can't do. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved in thy house. Now the commandment of God is
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the commandment
of God. If you believe Christ, you'll be saved. The problem
is we can't believe. Our nature cannot believe on
Christ and trust Christ. Our nature is dead and the only
thing it will trust in is our dead works, which bring us condemnation. The only way I can believe on
Christ is if God gives me faith to believe. God's got to give
it to me because I can't conjure it up myself. Then what am I
to do? Well, I say this often, I'm going
to say it again. Somebody might listen to me someday. If you
want to be given faith in Christ, I'll tell you what to do. You
hear the preaching of Christ as often as you possibly can,
because God gives faith through the preaching of Christ. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That's exactly
what happened for this jailer. Read on here, verse 32. They
told him to believe, and they spake unto him the word of the
Lord. and to all that were in his house.
And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their
stripes and was baptized. He in all his straight way. And when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all of his heart. House. Now, why did he believe
God? They spoke unto him the word of God. See, faith cometh
By hearing, when he heard who the Lord Jesus Christ is and
how it is God saves sinners, this man and his house believed
on Christ. And the same thing is true of
you and me. If we believe on Christ, I'll tell you why we
believe on Christ. Because God the Holy Spirit has
worked in us and makes us believe. He gives us a nature that can't
do anything else. The only thing it can do is believe on Christ. I didn't do that in my own power.
The Holy Spirit gave it to me. Faith is the gift of God. God gave me that faith to make
me believe on Christ. Scripture calls that faith the
fruit of the Spirit. That's not my, it's not my fruit,
is it? It's God's fruit, but I bear
it because the Spirit dwells in me. Now look back at Matthew
chapter 15. Now we've already established
this, I can't produce faith in my heart. But I'll tell you what I can
do. I can beg God and ask Him to give it to me. And you know
what? Begging God, falling at His feet
and begging Him for mercy, you know what that is? It's the evidence
God's already given you faith. Look here, you wouldn't be begging
God if you didn't believe He'd help you. Matthew 15, verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I'm
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered
and said, it's not me. It's not right for me to take
the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she said, truth,
Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. be it unto thee
even as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that very
hour. This woman was begging the Lord
and she wouldn't go anywhere else because she believed he's
her only hope. You beg God for mercy, that's
evidence God's already given you faith. Now I can't make myself
have faith, I can't make myself trust Christ, but I sure can
beg God and ask him to give it to me. And isn't it a blessing
that God's pleased to give His people faith in Christ, to do
what we cannot do by nature. We can't do it by ourselves.
He gives faith to believe on His Son, to rest our soul on
Christ. Now, I'll tell you what, if God
gives you faith in Christ, you won't be able to not believe
Him. Oh, your nature, your old nature, try to get you not to
believe Him every day. But if God gives you faith in Christ,
you will be able to not believe Christ. Isn't that a blessing? God gives you faith and you'll
never believe on anything else for you to save your soul again.
God gives his people faith and we don't quit believing. All
right, number two. By nature, I can't see Christ. But by the power of God in me,
I see. I see Christ. When I say by nature, I can't
see Christ, this is what I mean. I don't see, like I don't understand. You know, somebody's trying to
explain something to you and you're just not getting it, and all
of a sudden you say, oh, I see. I understand. By nature, I cannot understand
anything spiritual. I don't see, I don't understand
my need of Christ. Because I'm so dead in sin, I
think my righteousness, my rags of righteousness are good enough.
I think I'm good enough on my own, so I don't see, I don't
understand my need of Christ. I don't see my need of Christ
to save me because I don't understand what sin is. I don't see what
my sin really is. By nature, we can't see our need
of Christ to save us because we don't know we're lost. It's
like a sheep out there wandering the wilderness and have no idea
that we're lost. We can't see. Someone might think,
Preacher, you tell me all the time to look to Christ. And I
don't know what you mean. I don't see Him. Where is He? I don't see Him.
I don't know what you mean. Now, I understand. At the very
least, when you say that or you think that, at the very least,
you've got a sympathetic ear in me because I understand. I
understand not being able to see. I understand not being able
to understand. I was once blind too. I was,
but now I see. And my advice to you is keep
listening to the gospel. Keep coming here. Listen online
all you want, but make it your business to be here in public
worship circles. Because our Lord said, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them. If you want to see Christ, wouldn't
it be a good idea to be where he is? Jonathan, you're much
more likely to see him if you're where he's at. Doesn't that just
stand to reason? Be where he's preached. If you
look back over or over to John chapter one, here's the greatest
example that I can think of, of our spiritual blindness. John chapter one, verse one. In the beginning was the word.
The word was with God and the word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by him.
Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. The darkness
didn't see, it didn't understand, it didn't comprehend the light.
We're so spiritually blind, Christ, the light of the world, came
where we're at. He shined in the darkness, and
we're so blind, we couldn't see. We couldn't see the light right
in front of our face. Well, verse six, there was a
man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him
might believe. He was not that light, but he
was sent to bear witness of the light. We're so spiritually blind, God
had to send a witness to tell him he turned the light on. Now,
if you're in a dark room, somebody turns the light on, the only
person that needs somebody else to tell them the light's been
turned on is a blind person, right? If you can see, you know
the light's on. God sent a witness to tell us that the light is
on. Here he is. Verse 10, he was
in the world, the world was made by him, and the world knew him
not. He came into his own and his
own received him not. Now this is how blind we are
by nature. We could not see the light and we refused. Not only could we not see, we
refused to open our eyes and look. We refused to see. We're spiritually blind and by
nature we're also spiritually deaf. We don't have the ability
to hear the gospel and believe on Christ. See, by nature, I
mean, if you have ears to, you know, physical ears, you hear,
you hear what I'm, what I'm saying, but we hear the gospel by nature.
All we hear are a bunch of doctrines. That's all we hear. We hear the,
the ABCs, the tenants of the gospel, the pillars of the gospel.
We, we hear them and you can even understand them, but you
don't hear the person of the gospel. You can hear the technical,
I don't even know how to say, the
technicalities of the gospel. This is how God saves sinners.
This is how God is just and justifier, putting away the sin of his people
by the sacrifice of his son. Substitution is the easiest thing
in this world to understand. Somebody took your place. It's
easy to understand. But here's our problem. By nature,
we don't see our need of Christ. We don't hear, we hear the words
of the gospel. We hear the, the gospel of Christ
is just logical. I mean, it's just nothing else
is logical. Man's free will is not logical.
The gospel is logical. You see it, you understand, but
you don't see your need of Christ. You see, oh, here's how God saves
sinners, but you don't see your need of Christ. See that, that's
the difference. Look at Matthew chapter 13. Here
we are by nature. Matthew chapter 13. Matthew 13 verse 13. Therefore speak I to them in
parables because they seeing see not and hearing they hear
not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, by hearing you should hear and
shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is wax
gross and their ears are dull of hearing, their eyes have they
closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and
hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them. You see what
the Lord's saying here is not only is it true that we cannot
see and we cannot hear, we refuse to see. We refuse to hear. When the gospel's preached and,
you know, the gospel offends the flesh. The gospel tells us
how helpless we are. The gospel tells us how dependent
we are on God. The gospel insults our morality,
our goodness, telling us we don't have any. The gospel insults
our intelligence, telling us you can't understand this unless
God gives you faith to believe it and understand it. So what
do we do? We plug up our ears and close
our eyes and refuse to open them. We can't see and we can't
hear, but we also refuse to see, don't we? We refuse to hear.
I will not believe that. Now brethren, our rebellion and
our unbelief is our own fault. We cannot blame God for our sins.
It's our fault. But you know what? By nature,
we can't see and we can't hear, but somebody does. Somebody does. Somebody hears Christ. Somebody
sees. Even look at verse 16. But blessed are your eyes for
they see, and your ears for they hear. For verily I say unto you
that many prophets and righteous men have desire to see those
things which you see, and they haven't seen them, and to hear
those things which you hear, and they've not heard them. You
see, you hear. How did those disciples see?
Huh? How did they hear? Many of you,
you see, you hear. How do you see? Why do you hear? Huh? Well, you know, if you hear
and you see, you know why the Lord gave me eyes to see, and
he gave me an ear to hear. One day I was listening to the
gospel, it's like I had so many other times, and this time I
heard. What happened? Solomon told us
in Proverbs 20 what happened. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, the Lord had made even both of them. The Lord made the seeing
eye and the hearing ear in you and made you see, made you hear. Now, if you can't see and you
can't hear and you can't understand, just like you can't make yourself
have faith, I'll tell you what you can do. I just told you who
made the seeing eye and the hearing ear, didn't I? You can ask Him
to give them to you. You can ask, Lord, make me see.
Lord, make me hear. He's the only one who can. The
Lord is the only one who can make you see your need of Christ. He's the only one who can make
you see that Christ is all you need. He's the only one who can
make you hear Christ speaking in His Word. Otherwise, all you
hear is me. You're going to hear Eric or
you're going to hear Jonathan. You hear some of these men we
invite. Otherwise, you're just going to hear men. And let me
tell you, that ain't going to do you any good. Only the Lord
can make you hear the voice of the shepherd in the world. And
you hear him calling, you'll come. You'll come to him. And
in the blessing, the Lord takes his people who by nature cannot
see and cannot hear, and he makes us see and makes us hear. I'm
telling you, once the Lord makes you see Christ, You see Him everywhere,
don't you? Once you hear Christ in the Word,
you hear Him everywhere. It's Him. This is speaking of
Him. This is His voice in the Word.
Oh, isn't that a blessing? See, the Lord makes you see.
And the Lord makes you hear. A false prophet will never be
able to deceive you. You'll know that's not my shepherd.
That's not the voice of my shepherd. I'm not following Him. Isn't
it a blessing? We can't do that by nature, but
the Lord gives that to his people. By his power, I see, I hear. I hear is the third thing. By
nature, I cannot give myself eternal life, but by the power
of God, I have it. You know, I can't make myself
live and you can't either, because we're born dead, dead in trespasses
and sins, and a dead man cannot make himself live. All he can
do is stink. Now if we're gonna talk about
spiritual life, spiritual life and spiritual death, this is
a matter of life and death. If we're gonna talk about this
thing, we gotta start at the beginning, don't we? It's always
good to start at the beginning. How is it we became dead? God
didn't create Adam dead. How is it that we became dead? All men and women, boys and girls,
all of us here, We were born dead in Adam. We became dead
in Adam. When Adam sinned, he died. Just
exactly like God promised him he would. You remember God created
the heavens and the earth. He created a beautiful, perfect
garden. Created Adam and put him in the
middle of it. Perfect garden. And he told Adam, I've given
you everything in this garden to eat. You eat all of it freely.
Every bit of it tastes good. I mean, not only will it just
sustain your life, you know, every bit of it tastes good.
Adam, there's just one rule in my garden. Eat of all these trees,
do as much of them as you want, but there's a tree in the midst
of the garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't
you eat it. And the day that you eat thereof, dying, thou
shalt die. Thou shalt surely die. That's
how it's translated in our King James Version. But what God said
is, Adam, when you eat that fruit, dying thou shalt die. You will
immediately die spiritually. And you'll immediately begin
dying physically. And you know what? That's exactly
what happened. It happened just like God said
it would. Adam ate that fruit and the moment he ate that fruit,
he sinned against God and he died. He died. And everybody
who would ever descend from Adam died in him. Died at that very
moment. We all died spiritually just
like our father Adam did. Now we're dead. Like I said a
minute ago, we cannot make ourselves live. A dead person can't do
anything to make themselves live because we can't do anything.
Doesn't that just make sense? Well, preach, that's pretty dark.
Is there no hope? Is there no good news for the
spiritually dead? Can't you give me some hope?
Oh, I can. I can give you some hope. If
you're a dead sinner, I got good news for you. There's life in
Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. See, here's the good news. If
one representative man made you dead in sin, another representative
man can give you spiritual eternal life. 1 Corinthians 15 verse
20. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For
since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive. Everybody who was in Adam died
in Adam. And everybody who is in Christ has life, life in him. And I'm telling you, if Christ
has given you life, you can never die. The life you got from your
parents, you're gonna lose it one day. That life, physical
life's gonna die. But if Christ has given you life,
you can never die. You can never die the spiritual,
the second death. The moment that this body dies,
gives up the ghost and dies. At that very moment, at that
moment, you're gonna open your eyes in glory, looking into the
face of Christ the Redeemer. You can never lose that life.
Isn't that assuring? Isn't that comforting? All right,
here's the fourth thing. By nature, I cannot come to Christ. But by the power of God, I come. By the power of God, I can truthfully
sing that song, Jesus, I come. Now someone might hear me, who
hears me preach often, might say, Frank, you tell me in nearly
every message you preach to come to Christ, And I've tried and
I can't do it. Well, again, you've got sympathetic
here. I understand. I understand. And
I don't know if this will help you or not, but let me tell you
what our problem is in this matter of coming to Christ, that we
cannot come to Christ. Our problem in coming to Christ
is twofold problem. Look at John chapter six. Here's
our first problem. We cannot come to Christ. That's
our first problem. By nature, we cannot come to
Christ. And our second problem is this. By nature, we won't
come to Christ. John 6, verse 41. Here's our
first problem. The Jews then murmured at him
because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then he saith, I came
down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, Remember not among yourselves. No man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me drawing and
I'll raise him up at the last day. By nature, we don't have the
ability to come to Christ. We can't come to Christ any more
than a dead man can get up out of a casket and run out of a
burning building. We cannot do it. And I'll tell you the reason
for that. Our nature is ruined by sin. And you might think, well, preacher,
you're being mean to me. Tell me to do something I can't
do. But the commandment of God is come to Christ. By God's grace,
I'm gonna keep telling you, right where you sit, without moving
a muscle, you come to Christ. I'm gonna keep telling you who
Christ is. I'm going to keep telling you of His perfection.
I'm going to keep telling you of His sacrifice that cleanses
His people from all sin. I'm going to keep telling you
that there is no sinner so vile and so lost, He can't find them,
He can't save them, and He can't cleanse them. I'm going to keep
preaching Christ to you. But if you ever start hearing
the voice of Christ speak in His Word, and you quit hearing
my voice, if the Father teaches you who Christ is. You quit here
me trying to teach you who Christ is and the Father teaches you
who Christ is. You know what you're going to do? You're going
to come running to Christ and nobody better get in your way.
You're coming. Coming to Christ simply means
this. Coming to Christ doesn't mean going to a physical place.
Coming to Christ means this. All of your hope, all of your
confidence and your salvation in Christ. In Christ. Well, how is it that the Lord
draws a sinner to Christ? Huh? It's through the preaching
of Christ. Look what our Lord says in verse
45. It's written in the prophets, and they should be all taught
of God. All my people shall be taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard, and if they've learned of the Father, cometh
unto me. Well, if the Spirit teaches you
who Christ is, you'll come. You'll come. and you won't be
able to go away. You won't be able to go out.
Your old man will try to get you to go away every day, but
you will not be able to go away because the Spirit's drawing
you to Christ. The Father's taught you who Christ
is, and you won't leave. Well, that takes care of our
first problem, doesn't it? We do what we cannot do by nature
because the Spirit draws us to Christ. Well, look back at page
John 5. Here's our second problem. We
will not come to Christ by nature. John 5, verse 39. Search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. And you will not come unto me
that you might have life. Now by nature, we hear of Christ
and we refuse. We refuse to come to him. We
refuse to rely on Christ as our all. Christ can help me out,
but now I gotta contribute a little bit of this thing to make sure
it's done right. That's our dead nature. But I tell you what,
if the Lord ever shows you your need of Christ, see, this whole
thing is based upon our need. If the Lord ever shows you your
need of Christ, you'll come to Him. Remember that leper, after
the Lord preached a sermon on the mount, came to the Lord and
worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me
whole. You know why he came? He had a need. Nobody else could
help him, only the Lord could help him. And he came to Christ
believing Christ could make him whole. And I tell you what, if
Almighty God ever shows you you're a sinner, you'll come to Christ.
You'll come to Christ. See, here's the good news. Listen
to what the Savior said, Matthew 11, verse 28, come unto me. The law says don't come, doesn't
it? The Savior says, come unto me. Are you laboring? Are you heavy
laden? Come unto me, the Savior said.
I'll give you rest. Come. In John 6, verse 37, the
Savior said, All that the Father giveth me, they shall come to
me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Now don't you think, oh, I'm
not going to come to Christ and He might cast me out. I'm not
going to come to Christ. I just don't know that He'll
accept me. He'll have mercy on me. Don't you be saying that.
The Savior said, if you come to me, I will in no wise cast
you out. And you come to Christ, depending on Him to be your all. Like I said, I'm going to keep
telling you that as long as the Lord gives me breath. But I know
when you'll come. It's when the Lord makes you
willing in the day of His power. You'll come. You'll come. He's
going to draw you to Christ and He's the one that's going to
keep you. Let me give you just a few more quickly in closing.
By nature, I can't repent. I can't repent. I'm commanded
to repent. And repentance is not being sorry
for your sin. Repentance, the word means attorney.
It means turn from trusting in your works and turn to trust
Christ. And someone might say, I've tried. I've tried to quit trusting in
my works. I've tried to trust Christ and I can't do it. I can't
make myself do it. I keep trusting my own works.
My friends, you're not alone. Nobody can make themselves repent.
I'm telling you this, if the Lord makes you turn, if the Lord
reveals Christ to you, you'll turn. You'll turn, you'll turn
to Christ. Jeremiah 31 verse eight, this
is what the Lord said. Turn, or this is what Jeremiah
said to the Lord. Turn thou me and I shall be turned. If the Lord turns you, if the
Lord reveals Christ to you, you'll turn. There's a famous illustration
I heard at first from Brother Marvin Stoniker, his mother and
father owned a restaurant of some sort. And there's a little
fella there that has a Sunday buffet, you know, where they
had all the stuff there, you know. And this little fella,
was there eating, and he had little pieces of corn on the
cob, and he ate all the corn, and he was just sucking the juice
and the butter. That corn was just in a pan filled with melted
butter, and you got those tongs and pulled that corn out of that
melted butter, you know, and that little fellow just sucking
on that butter and all that out of that, just all over his face.
Oh, it was so good. Well, everybody, the family had
eaten, they were ready to go. They wanted to go home, just,
you know, go home and take my son in the afternoon nap, and that
little fellow would not let go of that ear of corn. He would
not do it. And Marvin's dad watched this
whole situation going on, and he wouldn't let go. And Marvin's
dad came over and said, excuse me, would you mind if I tried
something? And the parents were just beside
them, just, yes, whatever. Marvin's dad went back behind
the counter and came back, and he held up a Hershey chocolate
bar. And that little boy, drop that ear corn, grab that chocolate
bar. If the Holy Spirit ever reveals
Christ to you, you drop your works, and you'll turn and lay
hold on Him. You surely will. You'll repent.
Some of them might think, well, I can't pray. The Lord taught
us to pray. The Lord told us to pray. I just
can't seem to truly pray. Well, it's difficult, isn't it?
But I'll tell you this, I know when we'll pray. When the Lord
enables us, he makes us to pray. And this will be a comfort to
you in your prayers. Romans 8 verse 26. Likewise,
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercessions
for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. The Spirit takes
our prayers, he leads us to pray, to pray right. He makes intercessions
for our prayers so that they're heard. Then when someone says,
well, I can't give myself faith, and you know what? I can't keep
myself believing either. How do I know I'm not just going
to run away and fall away from Christ? Well, I'll tell you this,
with the Lord, with His power, you're going to keep believing.
Jude 24, now unto Him, not unto you, unto Him that's able to
keep you from falling. and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only
wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power
both now and ever. Amen. He's strong enough. He'll keep you. You don't have
to keep yourself. He'll keep you. And then last,
and this is very applicable for many here this morning, many
who may be hearing this recording later on. The Lord sends trials and troubles,
and they're hard. And we think I'm not strong enough. I can't do this. I see the trial
barreling down the road at me. I cannot do this. I can't do
this. My heart breaks for you. I know
how you feel. But let me tell you, with the Lord you can. With
the Lord you can. Not you and the Lord doing it
together now. By his grace. You remember this in times of
trouble and trial now. His grace is sufficient for thee. Just exactly like it was for
the Apostle Paul with his thorn in the flesh. So what can we
conclude from all of this? Salvations of the Lord. I can't
do one blessed thing, but he's done it all. God help us to trust
him. Let's bow before our Lord in
prayer. Father, how we thank you for
your word. How we thank you that you have
done everything that we cannot do. And that in Christ, your
people are perfect and complete. How we thank you, Father, that
you give faith where there was none. You give life where there
was none. That you keep and preserve your
people Father, I pray that you'd use this message to enable your
people to see our great need, our great helplessness, and the
completeness of our Savior. Cause us to trust Him and Him
alone. It's in His name, for His sake, the glory of His name,
we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.