Brother Dan Morgan's going to
come and read scripture and lead us in prayer. And then after
that, Sean's going to lead us in singing the call to worship,
which is located inside the bulletin. Somebody may not have seen the
bulletin, so if anybody doesn't have a bulletin, if you raise
your hand, Jonathan's got one, and he'll give you one. They're kind of hidden amongst
the food, so you want that so we can sing the call to worship.
All right, Dan, you come read scripture and lead us in prayer. You can turn to Romans chapter
10 this morning. I'd like to read this section
of scripture from Romans chapter 10, beginning in verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart who shall
ascend unto heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring Christ
again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the
word of faith which we preach. that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed, I'll
report. So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Let's stop our reading there. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we come
before you a thankful people. Thankful that through our Lord
Jesus Christ, we might approach thy holy throne in his righteousness. Thankful, Lord, that you have
blessed us this weekend through the preaching of the word. preaching
of Christ. We thank you for these men that
you've brought here to open your word and tell us of our Savior. We pray, Lord, that we're still
needy. And we pray that you would send
your spirit to be among us this morning, that you might take
the word that you've given your servant and apply it to the hearts
of your sheep. Father, we claim to be Israel,
favored of Thee. Father, leave us not knowledgeable
in the doctrines and ignorant of the person. Father, cause us not to Think
of the mechanics of righteousness, but to love righteousness himself,
the person, our Lord Jesus Christ, calls us to love him. Lord, give us a glimpse, just
a glimpse of ourselves in our need, enough to cause us to run
to the person. the who of righteousness, not
the what. Father, you've brought each one
of us here this morning. We pray that you would not leave
us alone, but that you would give us a word from me. What
a blessing it is to be here among your people. We pray for those
who were unable to be here this morning. For whatever reason,
we know that many of our number are going through deep trials,
and when one of our members hurts, we all hurt, and we lift them
up to thee, knowing that thou art able to heal whatever befalls. We ask, Lord, that as we stand
and hear Christ proclaimed in this place, that you would Send
your word out to gather your sheep through this world. What
we ask for us, we ask for men who stand this morning preaching
Christ. Leave them not alone, Lord, but
give them food for your sheep. Father, we give thanks once again
for these men that you've brought to us And Lord, we ask once again,
leave us not ignorant of who calls us to run to Christ, to
cling to him, to know our need, and to know salvation. We ask
all these things in the name above every name, our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen. If you would have your bulletin,
call to worship, is they're gonna be to the tune of song number
58, Jesus, the Very Thought of Death. And please sing. Dear Lord, to us assembled here,
reveal thy smiling face. While we, thy faith with love
and fear, Approach thy throne of grace. Thy house is called
the house of prayer, A solemn, sacred place. O let us now thy presence share
While at thy throne of grace. With holy boldness may we come,
Though of a sinful race, Thankful to find there yet His room Before
Thy throne of grace. We bless Thee for Thy word and
laws, We bless Thee for Thy peace, And we do bless thee, Lord, because
there is a throne of grace. And now, if you would, for one
more in your red hymnal, turn to song number 296, All the Way
My Savior Leads Me. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus, doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus, doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial,
feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from the rock before
me, Blow a spring of joy I see. Gushing from the rock before
me, Blow a spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. Our second speaker this morning,
Pastor Chris Cunningham, College Grove Grace Church. I'm just
so thankful, Chris, you could be here, you and Kevin, and I
pray God bless you now. And in case I forget to say it
later, when you men go home, I pray God bless you there in
College Grove and in San Diego. You know, we think about preaching,
you know, being conference preaching. These men preach these same messages
at home every week, don't they? Every week. And I pray God bless
you and bless his sheep there through you. So Chris, you come
and bring the message God's given to you. Luke chapter 19, if you would,
please. I appreciate that message by
Brother Kevin. I wouldn't presume to title your
message for you, Kevin, but I'd be tempted to call that message,
Where'd the Towel Go? Wasn't that beautiful? It's never
mentioned again. Never mentioned again, is it?
Because of the grace and power of our Savior. Luke 19, 1, I guess we'll just
go a verse at a time through this. Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. I do want to show you something
right away as we enter this study, though. I want us to look at
verses 3 and verse 10 as we're thinking about our Lord passing
through Jericho. In verse three, talking about
Zacchaeus, it says, he sought to see Jesus, who he was. Could
not for the press, because he was a little of stature. And
then in verse 10, our Lord said, the son of man has come to seek, to save that which was lost. Zacchaeus sought him, but could
not. that our Savior came seeking Zacchaeus. They were seeking
one another. I'm sure Zacchaeus was interested
in seeing the Lord, likely for the same reason everybody there.
There was a multitude there to see the Lord, interested because
of the word of his miracles had spread, I'm sure, through the
country and multitudes followed the Lord wherever he went. And
Zacchaeus was short of stature and was unable to see in the
crowd, so he climbed up a sycamore tree. But verse 10 tells us that
the reason the Lord Jesus came to this earth, the reason God
Almighty was born of a virgin, the reason that existed before
he came, that motivated the Lord Jesus to come to this earth was
to seek and to save Zacchaeus. The loss, that's many we know. It's a number which no man can
number. Is it you? I don't know, but I know it was
Zacchaeus. I know Zacchaeus was one of them. There was a time, I guess, I
know on this earth in time when both the sinner and the Savior
sought each other at different times maybe, but way before that,
way before that, For there was time, God the Son purposed to
come in the heart of God. Father, Son, and Spirit in the
heart of God was the will to seek and save sinners. The eternal
Son of God had the desire, the will in His heart. He said, I'm going after Him.
I've come to seek my sheep. I lost sheep and I'm going to
find them. I call them unto myself. I'm
going to find them and I'm going to save them. He came to seek
and save many. Zacchaeus was one of them. Who
else do you reckon? We know from Scripture some of
who they were. But what's paramount to each
of us, I want to emphasize this again this morning, is will He
save me? Would He come to me? Would He
come where I am? Would He bother to even passed
my way this morning. Verse one says he entered and
passed through Jericho. In Joshua chapter six, we learned
that the city of Jericho was accursed unto the Lord. And this
is what the city pictures spiritually here in our text, to be cursed
of God. In the story of the Good Samaritan,
the man who is saved by the Good Samaritan, it says he passed
down from Jerusalem to Jericho. That's us by nature. We go from
the place of double peace. That's what Jerusalem means.
This is a picture of us by nature. We fell, we went down. The garden, we had perfect peace
and fellowship with God, but we went down in the fall. When
we sinned against God, we went into the place of the curse,
Jericho. Cursed of God, that's why our
Lord Jesus Christ had to be made a curse for us. We're cursed
of God by nature. In Joshua 6, 17, it says of Jericho,
and the city shall be accursed, even it and all that are in it,
to the Lord. To the Lord. To the people there,
it might have been a fine city, but to the Lord. And the story of the good Samaritan,
again, the only way that that man, he went down from Jerusalem
to Jericho, fell among thieves. And he's laying in a ditch, bleeding
out, and the only way he leaves Jericho is for the Lord to come
there. Passed by that way, and I love
those words in that text. It says, he came where he was. You're saved, that's what happened
to you. He had to come where you were. Came where he was and
he poured in the oil of his grace and the wine of his precious
blood. Bound up his wounds and lifted him up and took him to
safety and paid his way and said, if he ever owes anything else,
put it on my tab. That's how the Lord saved me.
I just lay there. In our text, it says that the
Lord Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. We know from all of Scripture
that when he did, he found some wretched, cursed, dying, hell-bound
sinners there. He brought them out with him.
We see that in several places in Scripture when he went to
Jericho. Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law. He took us out of the place of
the curse, from under the curse. Being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangs on a tree. Being made a curse for us. He had to pass through Jericho. That's where we are. He came and brought us out. took
us with him out of Jericho. And behold, verse two in our
text, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the
publicans. And you might as well just trade
out that word publicans for sinners. That's how everybody looked at
him. It's just about synonymous in the scripture. Publicans and
sinners, the words are used together. And look at what it says, and
he was rich. Why does it say that? What difference does that
make? Well, I believe I know why. In chapter 18 of Luke, the
previous chapter, we have the story of the rich young ruler
where the Lord told his disciples, they said, who could be saved
if this man went away? He came asking, how can I inherit
the kingdom of God? There are not many people doing
that. He came and asked about that. The thing is, you can't do anything
to inherit. But inheritance is given willingly. You have to be a son in order
to inherit. That happened by you doing something. So the Lord told his disciples,
it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And then he just flat
out said, and he just said, with men it's impossible. A rich man
can't be saved. And then what did he do? He just
went and saved a rich man in chapter 19. But with God, all things, all
things are possible. He came in order to seek and
to save those who by their own estimation are rich spiritually. We have need of nothing. Till
we come to the place by God's grace that we find that we need
everything. Dan asked me to get that closer
to me and I forgot to do it. I hope it's not too close. If
I start shouting. And he was rich. Impossible. But He came to seek
and to save those who can't save themselves. To save the lost. That's what that is, people that
can't save themselves. Now where was the Lord headed
ultimately when He went through Jericho? The place of the curse. Look at Luke 18, 31. Then he took unto him the 12
and said unto them, behold, we go up to Jerusalem and all things
that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall
be accomplished. He was heading to Jerusalem this
whole time. When he passed through Jericho,
he went by blind Bartimaeus, of course, on purpose and saved
him. And in verse 35 of verse, it
came to pass, chapter 18, verse 35, it came to pass that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain man sat
by the wayside, begging." So he went into Jericho and go on his way
to Jerusalem. He's going to the place of double
peace with God. He stops off though on the way
there and finds us under the curse. He can take us back to
where we started. The man went from Jerusalem down
to Jericho. The Lord comes through Jericho,
but he's heading to Jerusalem. He first must enter and pass
through that place of the curse. And the picture here is so clear. We fell from Jerusalem to Jericho. But where he's headed, he's going
to the cross. He's gonna go through Jericho
under the curse, being made a curse for us, but he's coming through
there to get for us. This is my blood which is shed
for you. And we're heading to Jerusalem, to
Jerusalem. The word publican, as I said,
was all but synonymous with sinner. Matthew 9, 11, when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? That's who Zacchaeus was. Paul
wrote in 1 Timothy 1, 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. whom I'm chief. Verse three in
our text, and he sought to see Jesus who he was and could not. Could not for the press because
he was little of stature. Now he sought the Lord, but he
couldn't see him. He couldn't find him. He couldn't
get it done. The gospel message is seek and
you shall find. And Zacchaeus did seek, and he
ultimately did find, But Zacchaeus' stature was not the solution
to the problem. Why did Zacchaeus find the Lord?
Because the Lord came right where he was and looked up at him and
said his name. It said, come on down here. You'll
notice in verses four and five that it does not say that Zacchaeus
ran before. Look at verses four and five. He ran before and climbed up
into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and
said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today
I must abide at thy house. It doesn't say Zacchaeus ran
before, climbed up a tree, and that solved his problem. He saw
the Lord. It never says that. It says the Lord saw him. And
that's how it happens in salvation. The Lord came to the place. He
came where he was. Just like the good Samaritan
did. And this is how God saves sinners.
He sought us from eternity. He gives us a heart to seek him,
and we will by his grace do that. We do, and we are determined
to get to him. But in the end, all who find
him give him all the glory. What's your testimony, Paul?
When it pleased God, he revealed his son in me. What's your testimony,
David? Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire. What's your testimony, John?
We love him because he first loved us. And this is the record
that God hath given to us, eternal life, and this life's in his
son. Verse five in our text, when
Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said unto
him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide
at thy house. In verse four is the description
of Zacchaeus' efforts to see the Lord Jesus Christ, but it
never says Zacchaeus saw the Lord. Obviously he did, but it's
worded this way for a reason. The language is significant here.
It says the Lord saw him, and this reminds me of that old blind
man in John chapter nine. Remember, listen to verse one
of John nine, and as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind. He saw a man that couldn't see
him. That's my testimony, how about you? The Lord looked upon
me and I had no idea that he was even there when he said his
affection on me. What a beautiful verse of scripture.
One day the Son of God came where I was and saw a man which could
not see. never would, born blind and never
could, never would see Him, but He saw me. You know, it's just
the simple, beautiful things in Scripture that teach the most
profound doctrinal truths. You know, I'm thankful for books
like that thick on doctrine. I've read a lot of them and enjoyed
them. But you could write a book that
thick or you could just hear the Word of God say, the Lord
saw a man which was blind. You know, people write big old
books on the immutability of God. Wonderful, wonderful doctrine. But the way the Lord says that
is this, I am the Lord, I change not. It doesn't take long to read
that, does it? And he's able to show you that. He's able to
reveal that to you. Oh, but look what the Lord said
to Zacchaeus. He didn't say, I've got a decision
for you to make today, Zacchaeus. It sounds like from what the
Lord said to Zacchaeus that the matter had already been decided.
and not by Zacchaeus. And look, he said, hurry up. Why does it say it that way?
Make haste and come down. You know, if the Lord would have
just said, come down, Zacchaeus, just come down. Zacchaeus is
not going to stay up there and say, I don't know, I got a pretty
good view from up here. He would have just come down,
wouldn't he? But he deliberately said, make
haste. You know why? Because now is
the day of salvation. That's why. Come down now, hurry,
come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. There is no tomorrow. There literally is no tomorrow. And tomorrow there'll be no tomorrow. If there is a tomorrow and there's
not. It doesn't exist. Now is the day of salvation.
So the Lord said there in verse five, Zacchaeus, make haste and
come down. And look, he said, come down
because I must abide at thy house. And you know how the Lord described
that? I must abide at thy house. What does that mean? Here's the
way the Lord described it in verse nine. This is what he's
saying when he says, I must abide at thy house. He said, Jesus
said unto him, this day is salvation come to this house. That's what
it means. This is what it means for as
much as he also is a son of Abraham. He's saying, come down because
I've got to save you today. Would you like to hear the Lord
say that to you? Make, hey, hurry up, come down
here because I've got to save you today. I don't hear anything about a proposal, any kind of contingency or condition. It's pretty clear it's Ikeas. The Lord doesn't save mankind,
he saves his sheep. calls them by name, Zacchaeus. Make haste and come down, I'm
gonna save you. There's no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. The gospel's a command. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent, Acts 17.30. We're told of the obedience of
the gospel in the word of God. It's not an offer. It's not an
invitation. If the king sends you an invitation
and says, you come now, you come to my supper. And he says, I'm
going to cut your head off if you don't show up. That's not
an invitation. There's consequences to not coming
to Christ. Eternal consequence. Repentance is a change in our
mind about who God is. About what we are and how God
can be just and justify a wretch like me. He's just and justifier
by Christ going through Jericho. He made a curse for us that we
might be redeemed from the curse of the law by his precious blood.
The gospel is urgent. Make haste and come down. Listen
to this passage of scripture that's not often seen in its
full context. Listen to this, 1 Corinthians
5.20. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. Well, on what basis? God is holy
and I'm a wretch on this basis. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God 2 Corinthians 6, 1, listen to this. We then as workers together with
him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God
in vain. Don't hear us preach in vain
this morning. Don't hear the gospel in vain. Don't trifle with God. For he saith, I have heard thee
in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I secured
thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. You notice it doesn't even say
today is the day of salvation. Now is the day, right now. The gospel's a command, the gospel's
urgent. The gospel requires you to come
down. Now, this is more than just humility
coming down. And we do have to come down now. Because we think we've got it
solved. We've climbed up our tree and everything's going to
be fine. We're going to be able to do
what we came to do. We've got to be brought down,
but this is more than that. We don't discount that, but this
is more than that. In the story of the Pharisee
and the publican who both prayed in the temple, our Lord said
that the publican went down to his house justified. Do you remember
the reason? I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other for everyone that
exalteth himself shall be abased. Do you remember what the Pharisee
did? Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I do this
and I do that and I do the other thing. He that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. He wouldn't even lift up his
eyes to heaven and smote upon his breast. This coming down
that's pictured by Zacchaeus physically coming down from that
tree is an acknowledgement of our sin. It's a cry for mercy
unto him, like the publican at the mercy seat, who alone can
have mercy on a sinner. You come to the place where mercy
is had for sinners, the mercy seat, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and say, God, be merciful. And that word merciful, there
in Luke 18, 13, he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That word merciful means make
propitiation for me. It has to do with the sin offering. And think about this too. What
was coming down for Zacchaeus? What was that coming down? It
was undoing everything that Zacchaeus did in his flesh in order to
see Christ. He had to undo that. Not only was Zacchaeus' stature
not his solution, it was his problem. And not only were his
efforts not the reason that he saw Christ, but he had to undo
his efforts. He had to renounce them. Salvation
only comes when you abandon your efforts, when you've spent all
you had and are despairing of any help. You despair of your
own stature. You despair of your own energy
and will and receive the Christ who doesn't save tall people. He don't save anybody that can
see Him on their own. He saves people that are never
gonna get a glimpse of Him, unless He comes right where they are. Or the ingenuity of, well, I've
got this figured out, I'll climb a tree. You gotta come down from that
tree. He saves in spite of your stature, that is your standing
before God, He saves in spite of your efforts to get saved.
They have to be undone. Paul said, I renounce everything.
Who I am, my heritage, all that I've done, everything, it's done
that I may win Christ. Gotta come down out of your tree.
Fig leaf's got to be stripped off if you're gonna be clothed
with the righteousness of Christ. Hurry up and come down for I
must save, I must abide. That word abide means to remain. Bless God when the Lord comes.
It's salvation. Salvation's come when he comes
to abide with you and he comes to stay. This doesn't mean in
the text here, obviously, that he lived with Zacchaeus in his
house from then on. But again, the wording is significant. It means to stay. I've come to
stay. And once you know who he is, once you realize who came where
you were, one of your favorite scriptures will be, I will never
leave thee, but forsake thee. I've come to stay. I've got to
stay with you. He does. If we're going to be
saved, you got to stay. Once we know who he is, all we
want to do is know who he is. Paul said, oh, that I may know
thee, that I may know thee in the power of thy resurrection. What I have now is him with me. What I long for is him with me. And I want to be with him in
paradise because that is paradise. And he made haste, verse six.
He made haste. I reckon he did. And came down. Oh, he brings us to the dust
and what a blessed place to be. If you're not utterly hanging
upon the mercy of Christ, if you're not at his feet in the
dust this morning, you're in a bad place. and received him joyfully. Of course he did. When God says,
let there be light, there's light. When he says, be not faithless,
but believing, the next thing is my Lord and my God. And notice
he didn't accept him. He received him. There's a big
difference. The son of God is not up for
acceptance or rejection. You are, and I am. Salvation
is not us accepting Him. It's Him accepting us. It's Him
coming where we are and saying, here's what's going to happen
now. It does. It does. You received Him. But this is not Christ standing
outside the sinner's door, you know, the door of his heart and
knocking, you know, they talk about that in religion, hoping
that you're going to let Him in. This is Him saying, hurry
up. get down here, I must come save
you today. It's necessary. This is the son
of God fulfilling the purpose for which he came. He came to
seek and to save us, his lost sheep. That's what he did. That's what he's doing. That's what he will do until
this thing is over. I pray he'll do that this morning. or he'll bring a lost sheep home
this morning. What is our experience of that?
Pure joy. He received him joyfully. And
you know what his experience of that is? He said, I found
my sheep, which was lost. Come rejoice with me. Boy, for us, pure joy. Not perfect
joy. Not yet. but the simple joy of knowing
that God came to save you. He came and called your name
and said, you come now. I must abide at your house today. The simple joy of that, he gave
himself to save me. And because of who he is and
what he did, I'm saved. Salvation came to my house, not
an opportunity, Not a chance, salvation, the
person came to live with me. That's about as joyous as it
gets. I want to close with just this
passage of Scripture in 1 Peter 1.3. If you want to turn over
there with me, I've gone too long, but let's look at this
together in closing. 1 Peter 1.3. Just thinking of what it said
there in our text, he received him joyfully. 1 Peter 1.3, blessed
be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled. and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. You know what
that sounds like? Doesn't that sound like a finished
salvation? It sounds like he did it for
us, doesn't it? All of it, all of it. wherein you greatly rejoice.
That's the only gospel you can rejoice in. The flesh, you know,
they get excited about the man-made free will, so-called gospel,
but that's not joy. That's not the joy of the Lord.
Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, you're in heaviness through manifold trials. that the trial
of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." You read the
first part of this and you think, how wonderful. He saved me from
start to finish. He saved me. And then he starts
talking about bad things that happened. And that's him saving
us too. That's part of it. That's to his glory and for our
good. Verse eight, whom having not
seen, you love. In whom though now you receive
him not, yet believing by his grace, we believe. What's the
next word? Help. We believe, Lord, help. Help our unbelief. But believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable. You think you could explain it
to somebody right now? If they asked you, what's the
big deal about this Christ y'all preaching, Him saving you? What's the big deal about that?
You think you could even explain it? You know what you'd say? Come see for yourself. Come in
here. Come in here. Joy unspeakable and full of glory.
May God cause us to leave here today rejoicing as we see our
sister baptized in His name. We're going to rejoice with joy
we can't even talk about by His grace. What a wonderful, wonderful
Savior we have. Let's rejoice in Him together
this morning. Thank you. Because that was so clear. You
said that's how God saved you. That's how he saved me too. All by his seeking, by his grace,
by his mercy, by him giving faith, by him giving life, by him calling,
by him keeping. That's how God saved me too.
I appreciate that message. This is why I try to preach this
congregation every week. Come to Christ and come right
now. right now. Oh, God, help us to hear the
gospel urgently, to hear Christ urgently. You know, not one person is here
accidentally this morning. Not one. Maybe, Lord brought
you this sycamore tree to call you. Maybe he brought you here
to call you this morning and say, come now. Oh, I pray so. I pray so. And after Sean leads
us in singing a hymn, we're going to have a baptismal service.
We're just delighted. Our sister, Janie Hoback, is
going to confess our Lord and believe with baptism. And for
our visitors, let me explain to you the way we do this. After
Janie's baptized, she's going to stand over here wrapped in
a towel, and y'all come. Hug her around the neck, and
let's thank God together. And after that, you find some
need out here. Our lady's got plenty. We'll find some need
and have a time of fellowship before y'all got hit the road
and get back home. So Sean, you come lead us in
a hymn, and Jane, you get ready. We'll have a baptismal service.
I can't think of a better way to end a Bible conference than
somebody confessing Christ. Can you? I'm thankful. Thankful. If you would, turn to song number
37. and we'll sing How Great Thou Art. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands hath made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain granule And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God His
Son not sparing Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in That
on the cross my burden gladly bearing He bled and died to take
away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
and there proclaim, My God, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Our dear Lord and Heavenly Father,
we bow before you this afternoon again in Christ's name, giving
thanks, Lord. Thankful for what we just witnessed,
our sister being baptized. We thank you for these messengers
and the messages that they've delivered to us. We're thankful for this congregation,
Lord, the love that they've shown us during this meeting. Lord, but above all things, I'm
thankful for your son and the blood that he shed. Lord, be
with us as we go away from this place. Lord, guide us, direct
us, cause us to look to you in all
things. Lord, I thank you for first loving us. Also, Lord, I thank you for the
forgiveness from sin. It's in Christ's name I pray,
amen.