All right, well, I've asked Brother
Eric Floyd if he'd come and read us, read scripture and lead us
in prayer if we could begin our second service. Let's open our Bibles together to Acts
chapter 15. Acts chapter 15. We begin our reading in verse
one. And certain men, which came down
from Judea, taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. When therefore
Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with
him, They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others
should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about
this question. And being brought on their way
by the church, they passed through Pharnacia and Samaria, declaring
the conversion of the Gentiles. They caused great joy unto all
the brethren. and they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church and the apostles and elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which
believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and
to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and
elders came together for to consider this matter. And when there had
been much disputing, Peter rose up, and he said unto them, Men
and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice
among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them. purifying
their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye
God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe, I've got a note
here, I'm not sure who said it, here's the conclusion. We believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as they. We end our reading. Our God and Father in heaven,
Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you for this,
thy word. Lord, for this opportunity to
gather together as a people. Lord, to read thy word, to sing
hymns of praise. Lord, to hear thy word declared. How we thank you that, Lord,
you brought these men our way. Lord, that you've given them
a message. Lord, give us ears to hear. Lord, hearts to receive and to
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ. For thy mercy, for thy grace
and goodness or to us in the Savior. Lord, as you've blessed us, Lord,
we pray again that you bless us again. Lord, as our brother
comes to declare the truth of thy word. Lord, for those of our number
who are in a time of trouble and difficulty, I pray your hand
will continue to be upon them, Lord, that you comfort, strengthen,
and encourage your people. Lord, again, as we've gathered
here this morning, bless us with your word. Set aside the thoughts
and cares of this world, Lord, so much that catches our mind
and distracts us. Lord, set aside these things
just for a little while. Let us see Christ. In his name
we pray and give thee thanks. Amen. Everyone stand and sing 206. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater
than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe
it? Where shall its grace begin? Taking away my burden Setting
my spirit free For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful
the matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling
sea Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain, all-sufficient
grace for even me. Broader than the scope of my
transgressions, greater far than all my sin and shame, O magnify
the precious name of Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching
to all the lost. By it I have been pardoned, saved
to the uttermost. Chains have been torn asunder,
giving me liberty, for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the matchless grace
of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea, Higher than the
mountains, Sparkling like a fountain, All-sufficient grace for even
me. broader than the scope of my
transgressions, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching
the most defiled. By its transforming power, making
Him God's dear child. Purchasing peace in heaven for
all eternity And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me Wonderful
the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling
sea, Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain, All-sufficient
grace for even me. broader than the scope of my
transgressions, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, praise His name. 334 Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Not be all else to me, save that Thou art, Thou
my best thought by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, light
presents my life. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word, I ever with Thee, and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son. Thou in me dwelling, and I with
Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only. in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure
Thou art. High King of heaven, my victory
won May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun Heart of
my own heart, whatever befall Still be my vision, O ruler of Y'all make a good choir. I'm
glad you didn't do what I did, quiet, and just listen to you. As I listened to you, I thought
of this verse. That was so beautiful. Boy, one
day there's going to be a choir we're going to hear, and we're
going to sing of him. John said, and I beheld. And
I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the
beasts and the elders and the number of them was 10,000 times
10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy
is the land that was slain to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every
creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth
and such as are in the sea And all that are in them heard I
saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever. And
the four beasts said, amen. And the four and 20 elders fell
down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. You know, I
can't wait till that day. But till then, I sure enjoy hearing
y'all sing. That was outstanding. Well, our
next speaker is Pastor Chris Cunningham, pastor of the College
Grove Grace Church. Chris, we're delighted that you're
here, and I pray God bless you as you come bring the message
he's given to you for us to hear. It's good to be here this morning
to see you all. Just what a blessing already
this morning to worship our Lord. When Brother Eric was reading,
I thought, I believe a lot. Talked about there was much disputing
over this and that, and I believe a lot of disputing, if not all
of it. And just vain bickering and division
could be solved if we could all just remember by the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we're saved. I believe that would do it. We
don't need to know a lot of things. We just need to know one thing
real well. And I pray the Lord will teach
us this morning. Matthew chapter 14. Matthew 14.22. Fr. Kevin almost
preached my message there a couple of times. Did y'all see me scooting
to the edge of my seat? I thought I was going to have
to run up here and tackle him. But it was close. It was close. What a blessing. That was a wonderful
message. Matthew 14.22. Straightway, Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him onto the
other side while he sent the multitudes away. When he had
sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart
to pray. And when the evening was come,
he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves. But the wind was contrary, and
in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when
his disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled,
saying, it's a spirit. And they cried out for fear.
But straightway, Jesus spake unto them, saying, be of good
cheer, it's me. It is I, be not afraid. I wish we could
hear these three simple words. It is I. Those three words spell goodbye
to every fear, every doubt, every sorrow, every grief, every trouble. when you're going through a difficult
time or you're troubled like these disciples were at this
moment in their text. And when you don't understand,
like they didn't know, they didn't know the Lord from a scary ghost. What you need to hear is from
Him. And all He needs to say is, it's me. It's me. I haven't been through a whole
lot in my life. Had a few sleepless nights, though,
over the years, worrying about things. Well, mine is trouble.
My heart's broken a few times. It's as though the Lord speaks
the very words in my ear, though, as I lay down at night. He doesn't
speak audibly to us. We know that. It's a lot better
than that. He speaks to our hearts. Says it is I, be not afraid. He has spoken to us in his eternal,
immutable word and said, all things work together for good. For them that love me, to those
who are the called, according to my purpose, everything that
happens to you, I did it, I brought it, I did
it for your good. We can't see all that he's accomplishing
in the things that he does in our lives. Like here, he sent
these disciples ahead of him across the sea and then sent
a storm. You say, well, he calmed the storm,
Chris. Oh yeah, I know he did, but he sent it too. He sent it. And then he appeared
unto them, but not in a pleasant way, not in a way that they understood
or could rejoice in at first. But when we're like that, going
through a trial that he sent and that only he can calm, then
we hear these words and know that we're able to rest
because it's him. How can a man dying of cancer,
laying in bed, and you've come there to try and be some comfort
to him, how is it that he's the one that comforts you? He's the one who said, don't
cry, I'm going to be okay. I was supposed to be the one
that says that, but he did that. He comforted me because the Lord
had already spoken to his heart and said, do not be afraid, it's
me. It was his eye that brought the
cancer, his eye that brought the heartache. It's I that brought the pain,
and it's I that'll be with those who suffer loss. It's I that
will welcome home our loved one and deity. Be not afraid. It's more than just earthly troubles
that our Lord has assuaged with these beautiful words. There'll
no terror ever take hold of the soul of a sinner like the terror
of our sin. the Lord ever shows it to us. Paul said, when I heard the law, sin revived and I died. It killed
me, it destroyed me. The me who trusted in myself,
the self-righteous me who thought my works, you know, were my hope
before God, he killed me, he destroyed me. If the ghosts of all of our ingratitude
and self-righteousness and selfishness and pride and just flat-out evil
ever appear and rise to haunt us so much that we feel we'll
die from it. You know, when our Lord began to
feel the weight of our sin in Gethsemane, he said, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful even unto day. And we'll never feel that. But we do feel it. We do feel
the weight of our sins sometimes. But with Paul, we're able to
say what? Who is he that can do? Who can
charge me with any wrongdoing? And what's the answer? It's Christ. I can say it is Christ because
he's spoken to my heart and said, it's me, be not afraid. So I
can say it, it's him. By his grace, I can say that.
It's I that brought your sins before your eyes. It's so that
you would understand the glory of the truth that it is I that
washed them away. And you would flee to me. Don't be afraid of the, thunderings
at Mount Sinai. Don't be afraid of the roaring
of Satan. Don't be afraid of the very terrors
of hell. It is I. It's not just that somebody named
Jesus died on the cross because he loved me this much. You know,
they like to say, he loved me this much. Well, I hope he loves
you more than that. He's loved us with an everlasting
love that you can't measure. My arms don't spread that wide. The unshakable confidence of
our soul is the knowledge of who it is that died. If the sovereign, almighty Lord
Jesus Christ died for me, then I'm perfected forever. Eternal
redemption is obtained for me. The Lord, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not. We tend to focus on the last
part of that. No, it's because of who your shepherd is. That's
why you will never lack anything. He didn't say to his disciples
before he left this earth, let not your hearts be troubled.
Heaven has streaks of gold and pearly gates. He did not say, let not your
hearts be troubled. I've done all I can do, and now
it's up to you. But you've learned a lot, you
know, you'll be okay. He said in John 14, one, let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Believe in me. You know what
somebody's saying when they say that you believe in me. Trust
me. Trust me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you in that pressure. He said, if this wasn't going
to end well for you, I would tell you. I'd have told you that. But it is going to end well for
you. I go to prepare a place Father's
house. There are a lot of dwelling places
and I'm gonna go make sure now. I'm gonna go to the cross. I'm
gonna give myself for you. I'm gonna make sure one of them
is yours. A place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am, Paul said, I have a desire to
depart, be with Christ. That's what glory is. That's
glory. Where I am, there you may be
also. I'm gonna see to it. That's what
he's saying. Believe in me. I'm gonna go see
to it. I'm gonna go make sure that you
never pay for a single sin you've ever committed. Not one. or ever shall commit. Because
of what I'm gonna do, you should never let your heart be troubled
or afraid of anything. I'm gonna make all your fears
unfounded. I'm gonna make all of your troubles
baseless. I'm gonna go and make it so that
you can be with me, shall be with me forever. It is I. Remember right before that, Simon
said, I will, I will not deny you. I will stand by you. I will die with you. The Lord
said, no, you won't. But I will. I will go. I will prepare a place. I will
come again. I will receive you. That's our
hope. He's our hope. And in verse 28,
and Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, Bid me come unto thee on the
water. Now Peter didn't just jump out
and start toward the Lord on his own. He said Lord bid me,
bid me come. And not Jesus bid me, Lord bid
me. Lord bid me come. How wonderful
it is to have In God's word, he's bidding us to come to him. What sinner would dare come before
the holy God unless he said come? Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Even knowing that it was the
Lord's will, Republicans stood afar off, didn't you? would not lift up so much as
his eyes to heaven. Do you understand that? But our Lord bids us come. There
is in religion, though, an unholy familiarity with whoever they
call God and presumption. If you will, God will. I'll tell
you what God's gonna do. He's not gonna react to you.
He's gonna do what he said he would do. When I say religion, I mean the
human heart. That's what religion is. It's
not a church with Free Will Baptist on the sign, although that's,
how audacious, do you ever think about that? Let's name our church
after an attribute of man. It's the human heart, religion
is the human heart, false religion. At Sinai, the people didn't have
any desire to go where God was. They didn't want to come to God.
They pray the mediator to go for them. We do too. He has, and he says, come. He is the mediator, the one mediator
between God and sinners. Here he is in our text. That's
why he can say, come, come to me, come to God, because he is
the mediator. We can't go to God, we don't
know what terror is until we get a glimpse of what it means
to appear before the holy God of heaven and earth in ourselves,
in our sinful state. And yet in the person of Christ,
our substitute, our mediator, God says to sinners, come now,
not just come, but do it right now. Do it now, come now and
let us reason together, saith the Lord. What about, Lord? Your sins? Your sins have gotta be dealt
with. How can I come? How can I be
together with God? He said, let us reason together. How am I gonna do that? Though
your sins, though they be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wood. That's
how, that's how our Savior made peace between us and the Holy
God with the blood of his cross. And this is the gospel. Before
I dare come to God, I need to know that's what he wants. There's
no question of me accepting Jesus. The question is, is he gonna
accept me? Lord, did me, did me come to
you? Just as you are. Look what our
Lord said in verse 29. One word. Our Lord didn't waste
any words, did he? Whatever he said, boy, come. Do we get any sense at all of
the magnitude of that? The Holy One says come. When Peter was come down out
of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Just as I am without one plea,
that thy blood was shed for me. And that thou bidst me come to
thee. O Lamb of God, here I come. How
about you? How about you? If the Lamb of
God says come, by his grace, He ever says that affectionately
to your heart? If the one who said, let there
be light, and there was light ever says to you, be not faithless,
but believing. If he ever says to you, couldn't
keep you from him with a baseball bat. He's the difference. Simon did the impossible. because
the Lord commanded it. That's what faith is now. It's
just Him giving you the ability to do what you can't possibly
do. Dead people can't come out of
their graves. Like Brother Kevin said, every
miracle he ever did. He didn't do that just to heal
them physically. What difference does it make
whether you go to hell lame or go to hell walking? It's not
about that. This is how he saves sinners.
Dead people don't come out of their graves unless the Lord
says, come forth. Lame people can't walk. That's
what it means to be lame. Until he says, arise, take up
your bed and walk. You can't come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can't do it unless he says
come. With the command, he gives you the supernatural ability
to obey the gospel. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Out of
works, lest any man should go. I had somebody say to me one
time, I've never I've heard this actually several times, but I've
never forgotten the first time somebody said this to me. They
said, God would never ask a sinner to do anything that that sinner
can't do. That sounds reasonable, doesn't it? It's the biggest
bunch of nonsense that you'll ever hear. When did he ever ask
anybody to do anything that they could do? He never did. I'll agree with the first part
of it. God never asks a sinner to do anything. He commands it. Just by nature of who he is,
it's a command when he speaks. He doesn't ask, but the truth
is just the opposite of what this man said. God will never
tell you, he never told anybody to do something they couldn't
do. What about Lazarus come forth? He four days stinky day. Stretch forth thy hand. You ever
think about that? That's the only thing that man
could not do. He had a withered hand. If the
Lord would have said to him, I want you to swim the Sea of
Galilee, he could have trained, he could have strengthened his
other arm and his legs, and he could have gotten across there
somehow. One thing he's not ever gonna
do until the Lord comes. Stretch forth thy hand. Why would the Lord tell him to
do that one thing? Because with men it's impossible. We need to understand that. He's
going to get all the glory. And we're going to like it. We
do, don't we? We kind of like it that way,
by his grace. Even after he saves us, he's
still saving us, isn't he? He's still saying, we can't do
anything without him. Without me, what could be clearer?
Without me, you can do nothing. Nothing. Well, you say, well, Chris, we
can love one another. We can do that. Really? Can you? He didn't say, you know, love
one another kinda. He didn't just say love one another.
He said love one another as I've loved you. Fixin' to do that? He got to save us every day. Every moment. Without me, you can do nothing.
Lord bid me come. And he did. Come, come on. Verse 30, but when he saw the
wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried,
saying, Lord, save me. I believe other than our Lord's
prayers in the scripture, prayers don't get any better than that.
They just don't get any better than that. All faith is full of doubt. He
saw the winds, of course he did. We do too. You know what, when he saw the
winds and the waves, you know what he was thinking? I could
walk on water. And he was right, wasn't he,
Frank? He was right. You say it took great faith for
Peter to step out on that water. Yeah, but not saving faith. He
had seen the Lord what the Lord was able to do. He said, you
bid me come and it did take some faith, but that's not saving.
That's just a picture. That is a picture though of saving
faith. He says, come, we're coming. We know who he is and where we
are and where we need to be, what we need to be before God.
We're coming to him. And faith is a great gift from
God. By faith, Moses chose the reproach
of Christ. over all the riches and the treasures
of Egypt. By faith, Abraham believed God,
for he reckoned him faithful who had promised and believed
that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. But in the lives of Moses and
Abraham and in our own experience, we see that though we do believe,
our constant prayer must be, Lord, I believe. We can't really ever say, Lord,
I believe, without the next word of Him. And this prayer that
Simon prayed, it's not a one-time prayer, Lord, save me. I've been
crying that for 40 years. Lord, save me, save me. I've seen the waves and winds
many times when I should have had my eyes fixed on the Savior,
but I didn't. And this is a brief and urgent
prayer. This is a prayer of a man that's
sinking. This is a prayer of a man who
has no hope except to pray. There's no time now for eloquence
or pretense. pretentious prayer is a terrible
thing, isn't it? This is not, you know, God, I
thank Thee that I'm better than everybody else, blah, blah, blah.
This is, Lord, save me. Save me. This is, God, be merciful
to me. Save me. Republican prayed pretty
much the same prayer Simon did here. Lord, save me. Have mercy
on me. This is an appeal to the only
one who can save a sinner, the Lord. The Lord, only the sovereign
Christ can save. If he leaves anything up to us,
as religion likes to say so much, we're gonna drown in our sins. Bless God, our Savior is mighty
to save. He doesn't leave anything up
to me. He's able to save to the uttermost those that come to
God by him. He said in John 10, I lay down
my life for the sheep and they shall never perish. He laid down his life for us
equals us never perishing. That's not complicated. Nothing complicated about that. How many of you know, this very
weekend, we'll pray to a God that came to save us. Tomorrow
morning, everybody will put on their nice clothes and go and
worship themselves. My Savior's hand is not shortened,
but he cannot save us. He saves whom he will, when he
will. If he will, he'll save us. If you will, you'll make us clean. It never says that Simon tried
to swim back to the boat. He's unable to do what he set
out to do. He's walking on water for a little
while and then he begins to sink. And there's a man in front of
him that's standing on that same water. And the only thing in that scenario
to somebody with no faith that's solid and reliable is that boat.
We know that'll float. He didn't try to go back to the
boat. He abandoned all regard for human ability, and we've
got to do that. We've got to do that. That's
what it is, taking up your cross and following the Lord. One thing
that crosses are good for, people die a lot. We've got to die to self.
We've got to give up all hope. We've got to spend all we have
and be worse. The Lord's able to arrange that.
He's able to arrange that. This is faith too, to disregard
all human ability or resources. Paul said in Philippians 2, I've
suffered the loss of all things. You know what it was? I've suffered
the loss of all things. If you look at the context in
the previous verses there, it was I was circumcised. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews.
I was a Pharisee. As touching the law, I was blameless. That's what he suffered the loss
of, the upset of. Any man will lose in his life. But he'll know what life is.
Paul said, it's all done. That I may win Christ. Simon here put all of his hope
in the Lord Jesus Christ It's like the Apostle Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded. There's nothing
to argue about. I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him. It's that day. This was a prayer, Simon's here,
with complete confidence in the ability of the Savior to save.
Lord, save me. It's a prayer that acknowledges
the ability of the Savior, but it's also a prayer that acknowledges
Simon's inability. He didn't say, Lord, I'm gonna
do my best to swim over there, but I'm gonna need your help
here. I'm gonna swim toward me if you'll meet me halfway. Listen to those words that he
cried. Save me. That's what we need to do. That's
what we need from Christ. Save me. Paul said the Jews,
they had a form of godliness. He said, my heart's desire and
prayer to God is that he would save them. Not that they would
get a little correct on some of their doctrine. God's gonna
have to save them if they don't have any hope. Save me. Paul wrote, we worship
God, we're the circumcision that worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus. And you remember the rest of
it? Have no confidence in the flesh. None. We abandon all hope and
trust in ourselves. By the grace of God, we have
no confidence in this flesh, not mine or yours or anybody
else's. Will my loved ones come to know
the Lord? It's a rare day that goes by
I don't think about that. Wilbur, I'll tell you this, I
don't have any confidence that they're just gonna come around.
Do you? They're not just gonna figure
it out. I don't have any confidence in their place. Bless God we
commit their souls to the one who delights to show mercy. It's the spirit that quickeneth
flesh, profiteth nothing. So we pray, Lord, have mercy
on me. And this is such a personal prayer,
isn't it? Lord, save me. Save me. This is where Kevin
almost got out of line a little bit. Started preaching my message. Save me. He didn't cry out, Lord,
I believe in the doctrine of the salvation of sinners by the
sin atoning death and representative righteousness of Christ. I believe
that doctrine. But my prayer is, Lord, save
me. Save me. You know, the question this morning
is not, does God love everybody? That's not the question. I hope you know the answer to
that question, because it's clearly revealed in the word of God.
And if you're ever going to know God, you're going to know the
answer to that question. But you know what the question is,
does he love you? That's what you need to know. You need to
know if he loves you and how in the world could he? How can
he be just and justify a wretch like me? Lord, save me. It's one thing
to believe in the doctrine of the immaculate, sinless, holy
son of God and his effectual sin atoning blood. But here's what the Lord said
about that. Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood. It's him. It's personal. It's a person saving a person. We can sing, you know, Jesus
saves, Jesus saves. I kind of like that song. It's
all fun. I'm glad he saves. But we've
got to come to the place where our heart's cry is, Lord save
me. Follow others thou art calling,
don't pass me by. This is a personal thing. I'm
sinking and I deserve to sink. If I sink down to hell, God has
done the right thing. I'm sinking because of what I
am. If I was a fish, it'd be all
right, but I'm not a fish, I'm a sinner. Sinners sink. They can't walk
on water and sinners can't come to the one who saves sinners. They need for him first to come
to them and bid them come. He has had them. Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He says, come all ye that labor
under heavy laden. You must come down. Let us reason
together. Saith the Lord. Saith the Lord. How does all this end? Well,
Christ has saved me. He is saving me. But he shall
save me. We're still coming to Him. We're
still coming to Him. To whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God in Christ. Are we gonna make it? Are we
gonna make it? Well, I'll tell you this, it
won't be on the strength of our faith, will it? What saved Simon here was not
the strength of his faith. It was the opposite of the spirit. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth his hand, verse 31, and caught him. Isn't that beautiful? He's sinking, and the Lord caught
him. The Lord caught him and said
unto him, O thou of little faith. What faith he had was in the
Son of God. O thou of little faith, why did you doubt? Wherefore
did you doubt? It will be the strength of our
faith that saves us, the object of our faith is he who saves.
It's Christ the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. The apostle was a doubter. Wherefore
did you, he was a doubter, but he was a caught doubter. Thank God for catching grace.
The word caught there means laid hold of. Remember what Paul said
in Philippians 3, he said, not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I
may apprehend, if that I may lay hold, that for which also
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. You know what he said there?
My desire is to lay hold of the one who laid hold of me. May that be the desire of everybody
here and may the God of all grace say to us with power this morning. Give us grace to come to him
and be saved. Amen. The Apostle John said, the spirit
and the bride say come. It's a message of God, the Holy
Spirit, and it's a message of God's people. Come, as we just
preached. Don't come to aware now. Come
to who? Salvation is a person. Oh God,
help us come to Christ. All right, well Isaac's gonna
come lead us in a closing hymn. prepared based on my experience
what will be a delicious meal. So I hope you all stay and enjoy
something to eat. Give the men a few minutes to
set up the tables and we'll enjoy a time of fellowship together.
And Brother Scott Keller from Princeton, New Jersey is going
to lead us in prayer after the song. So the last verse, you
come up here. Isaac, you come lead us in a song. Brother Scott
will dismiss us in prayer and we'll eat, all right? by stand and sing 272. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely
face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found, Dressed in His righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. Let's give thanks. Our gracious Heavenly
Father, we do thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being able
to come out and worship you. to having heard two wonderful
messages, Your Word being proclaimed, Your Son being exalted. It is truly a delight to hear
something that teaches us about our Savior. We get to know Him
a little better each time we hear that Word in power from
Your Spirit. We love Him a bit more. We trust
You a bit more. We thank You, Lord, for these
things, for the food which we're about to receive after we know
that You know, Lord, we have need of these things too, but
You provide it in such abundance and we're thankful for it. We're
thankful for all the work that goes into that and goes into
these conferences and that goes into preparing these messages. It's a delight to see Your people
work. We know we aren't working for our righteousness. Our righteousness
is complete in Christ, but it's a labor of love, Lord, and that
brings glory and honor to your name, and it's a delight to be
a part of it, and we thank you for it and for them. We ask these
things in Christ's name, amen.