Well, our speaker this evening
for the last worship service of 2015, Pastor
Don Fortner, the Grace Baptist Church of Danville, Kentucky.
I've looked very much forward to the message, the time together
this evening. Brother Don, I think the greatest
compliment that you can give a pastor is he's faithful. faithful man, faithful to the
cause of Christ, faithful to preach Christ to those who would
hear him. And I'm very thankful that he has agreed to stop. He's
on his way to Fairmont, West Virginia, to preach there this
weekend. This weekend will be the 60th anniversary of Katie
Baptist Church. 60 years. Two faithful pastors
over that time. They're going to have a special
meeting. Brother Don's going to preach there. But first, he
gets to preach where we get to hear him preach here. This is
the first time Don's brought Shelby with him. And so we're
delighted to have you here. Don, can you come closer to us? Thank you, Pastor. Open your
Bibles with me, if you will, to Deuteronomy chapter 15. Deuteronomy
chapter 15. It is such a delight to be here
with you for the final worship service in this place this year.
It's been a while since I've been with you folks at the end
of the year. It's been a long time since most of us have had
the privilege of breaking bread together. Anxious for that. I guess it's been 30 years since
I broke grave with someone at the Lord's table. But I saw in
the bulletin that your pastor had planned for us to have the
Lord's Supper tonight after the service. And with that and the
concluding of this year, I thought it would be a good time to do
some remembering. I like to remember, don't you?
We're old enough since we do more remembering than anything
else. But I just got back from Mexico, and normally Brother
Walter and I particularly will sit around and remember things
and discuss everything. Do you remember when? Well, turn
to Deuteronomy chapter 15, verse 15. God is giving the children
of Israel specific instruction about the year of Jubilee, the
celebration of that year of Jubilee. He's giving them specific instructions
about how to deal with bond slaves and about how to deal with the
poor and needy among them. And this is the motive and the
direction he gives them. Deuteronomy 15, 50. Thou shalt
remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt and the
Lord thy God redeemed thee. In this book, We're constantly
told to remember what God has done for us by his grace in Jesus
Christ the Lord. God teach me to remember your
goodness, your mercy, and your grace. Teach us ever to be mindful
of your covenant and if your covenant works on our behalf.
And we will learn something of contentment and peace and joy
in a world of sorrow and pain and woe. Teach us to remember
what you have done and are doing for us. And we will learn to
worship you in the day you've given us on this earth. The Lord
tells us to remember, remember, remember, because everything
in the book of God you and I are taught to do and be is motivated
in the Word of God by the remembrance of God's mercy, love, and grace
toward us in Christ Jesus. He tells us to do something,
tells us to behave in such a way, and he says, now, here's my motive.
Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of
Egypt, and the Lord thy God hath redeemed thee. In his autobiography,
William Jay, who was an Anglican preacher in Bath, England at
the same time as John Newton was an Anglican preacher in Olney,
came to visit Newton one day. And William Jay is telling the
story in his autobiography. He said when he came in to see
Mr. Newton, he noticed that he had
hanging over his desk where he could see it all the time when
he was working this text of scripture written out in large letters
to remind him thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the
land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. And as he
labored, Newton lived and worked and preached with that constantly
on his mind deliberately, desiring that it be on his heart. And
when he came in, when Mr. J came in, Newton stood up and
said, I'm glad to see you. He said, perhaps you can assist
me. I have a letter here from Bath and I'm about to answer
it. Do you know such and such a man? He called his name. To
which Mr. Jay replied, he once attended
the ministry of the gospel, but he has now become a very wicked
man, a man of wicked reputation, a leader of every vice. Newton
responded, perhaps there's been a change. He writes a very penitent
letter. And Jay said to his friend, Mr.
Newton, I can only say that if ever he should be converted,
I should despair of no one. And I, said Newton, have never
despaired of anybody since I was converted myself. Newton remembered
he was a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord, his God,
had redeemed him. Mr. Jay confesses for the moment
he had forgotten. May God the Holy Spirit now bring
to our memories his amazing grace in delivering our souls from
bondage and melt our hearts at his throne. John, I pray that
he will melt your heart afresh at his throne. Melt our hearts in renewed consecration,
in renewed devotion. in renewed commitment to our
Redeemer. And for you who are yet in the bondage and gall of
iniquity, under the power and influence of hell, I pray that
this hour our God will melt your heart by His grace before His
throne in repentance. I repeat that which motivates
and governs the lives of God's saints. is our remembrance of
redemption and grace in and by Christ Jesus. Now, as we look
at this command from our God, I want to do four things in this
message. First, I'll give you the picture of grace as it's
set before us here, and then remind you of the bondage of
sin, the redemption of our souls, and as God will enable me, we'll
conclude with me trying to lead you in the remembrance of mercy.
First we had before us in the picture given here of the children
of Israel coming out of Egypt, a marvelous picture of God's
grace. The whole affair of Israel being
brought down into Egypt, their remaining in bondage for 400
years, and God then sending Moses to bring them out of Egypt, across
the Red Sea, and up to the very edge of the land of promise,
and then sending Joshua to bring them into the land of promise,
is a picture of redemption and grace by Christ Jesus. Now let
me help you, and I'm sure your pastor has told you this. I know
others have told you this, but it bears repetition. When you
come to deal with types in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament
is full of types, all the types are focused on one thing, redemption
and grace in Christ. All the types are focused on
that one thing, to picture for us the Lord Jesus Christ and
God's grace in Him. But understand that the types
in the Old Testament, like the parables in the New Testament,
and like illustrations we use as we tell stories and illustrate
subjects, are designed for one thing, just one thing. Some of you have read a good
bit of Mr. Pink's works in Genesis and Exodus
and in the Old Testament. We used to hear fellows make
comments, the types are designed to walk on just one leg, Mr. Pinkman, and walk on a thousand
legs. And he did. He did. That's overstretching
it. Whenever you tell me that something in the scripture, this
is what this means to me, show me what it means in the book.
I don't care what it means to you. Show me why you're saying this
is what that means. Show me why God says this. The types are designed to teach
one thing. just one thing. The parables
are designed to show one thing, not many things, just one thing.
And the picture of the Jews in Egypt and their bondage there,
their deliverance and the Passover sacrifice is all pointing to
Christ, our Passover, who was sacrificed for us by whom we
have redemption and grace this hour. The month of their deliverance,
turn back to Exodus chapter 12. The month of their deliverance
was made the first month of the year to them. Look at verse 2
in Exodus chapter 12. This month shall be to you the
beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. I'm near 66 years old now. Hard to imagine, hard to imagine. But my life just began about
49 years ago. Up until that time, I was walking
in death. The believer's life, the beginning
of months in life for us, is the day God saves us by His grace. In the sweet experience of His
grace, all things are made new. This shall be the beginning of
months to you. This is the day you mark as the
beginning, the new beginning for you. And a special ordinance
was established, an ordinance that God required the children
of Israel to keep every year perpetuate throughout their generations
from the time he gave his law until the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It was called the Passover. Continue
reading in Exodus 12, verse 3. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying in the tenth day of this month, they shall
take them, every man a lamb, according to their father's houses.
A lamb for a household. And if the household be too little
for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take
one according to the number of the souls. According to every
man's eating, you shall make your count for the lamb. Your
lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. That is a
perfect lamb, a lamb in the vigor of life, picturing our Redeemer. You shall take it from the sheep
or from the goats. And you shall keep it until the
14th day of the same month. Inspect it. Be sure there's nothing
wrong with it. And the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it even. Everybody involved in slaughtering
this lamb. And they shall take of the blood
and put it on the two side posts and on the lentil upon the houses
wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread with bitter
herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw nor boiled
at all with water, but roast with fire, its head with its
legs and with its inwards thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it
remain until the morning, but that which remaineth of it until
the morning, that is carcass and bones, ye shall burn with
the fire. Thus shall ye eat it. Watch this
now. With your loins girded, with
shoes on your feet, with your staff in your hand, eat it in
haste. That is, eat this lamb, believing
God. We're fixing to leave here, boys.
With your loins girded about, your staff in your hand, shoes
on your feet, we're getting ready to go out. God said so. This
lamb pictures redemption and deliverance by Christ Jesus.
Read on. For it is Jehovah's Passover, for I will go through
the land of Egypt in that night and will smite all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the
gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am Jehovah. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you." This Passover is ordained by God to be a constant
New Year celebration of redemption. a lamb for a house, a lamb without
blemish, a male in the strength and prime of life, picturing,
as I said, our Savior, to be killed by the whole congregation
of Israel. Every man slaughters a lamb for
his house. Every man has his head in the
blood, involving himself in the guilt of the sacrifice, involving
himself in the act of the sacrifice, and involving himself in the
benefit of the sacrifice. And then the paschal lamb for
the nation, killed by the high priest, wearing their names upon
his breastplate. And the blood sprinkled, sprinkled
upon the two side posts, and over the top of the door. And the Lord God says, you go
in behind and shut the door and eat the lamb confident. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And this blood shall be to you
for a token. I'm as good as my word. I'm going
to do what I said. I'm going to bring you out. Now,
I had never really understood the ramifications of that so
well as I did when Brother Scott Richardson and I were preaching
together many, many years ago. He had just been to see his brother,
his brother whose mind was gone with Alzheimer's disease. He's
in a permanent care center. And Scott said, God didn't say,
when you see the blood, I'll pass over you. He said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. But this blood is for them
for a token. He said this blood shall be to
you for a token. But they couldn't see it. They
couldn't see it. The blood was sprinkled on the
outside of the house. They were on the inside. They
couldn't see it by any carnal method. They couldn't see it
by the carnal eye. They couldn't see it by carnal
reason. Well, I put the blood on there,
but it might be raining now. I'm in here, I don't know what's
going on. They couldn't see it except by the eye of faith. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you, God said, and this is to you for a token. This blood
sprinkled on your house. And Brother Scott said, the time
may come when I can't see the blood. You may come see Brother Scott
and he'd be locked up in a mental ward somewhere and his mind gone,
him sitting in a wheelchair, drooling all over himself, but
the thing hasn't changed. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. He said to us that day, God saw
the blood before I saw it. He saw it from everlasting, the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and accepted me
in his soul. God saw the blood when he gave
me eyes to see it, giving me faith in Christ, sprinkling it
on my heart, giving me a peace of conscience. And God will see
the blood when I can't see the blood. And God acknowledged what
many of us have to acknowledge, Dale. Sometimes for the life
of me, I can't see the blood. Sometimes for the life of me,
I can't believe God. I just can't. I try. I can't. I just can't. I just can't. I'm sorry. That's just that. You mean you don't have faith?
Oh, yes. God's given me life and faith
in Christ. But active faith and the life
of faith are two different things. If you know what I mean, you
know what I mean, and if you don't, you don't. It's one thing
to believe God is something else to believe God. It's one thing
to believe God is something else to walk in the joy and peace
of confident faith in God. But our salvation, our acceptance
with God is not based upon and must never be based by us upon
our experience and our perception and our feeling and our emotion. It's based entirely upon God's
work and God's word. This is a token to you. When
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. The Passover was required
that the children of Israel Take the blood, sprinkle it, and eat
the lamb. And the blood be a token for
them. In addition to the Passover ceremony,
back in the passage we read earlier in Deuteronomy chapter six, look
at that for a minute, down to verse 20. The children of Israel were required
to instruct their children in this matter. Instruct their children
in this matter of redemption. The gospel was to be handed down
from father to son, generation after generation, orally. Handed down from father to son,
generation after generation, orally. Look what it says, verse
20, Deuteronomy 6. When thy son asketh thee in time
to come, saying, what mean these testimonies? Some of you young
people here tonight, you've, I have no question, watched this
congregation take this bread and wine, these deacons pass
it out, and you've watched it, watched your mom and dad eat
the bread and drink the wine, and you might think to yourself,
well, I sure wonder what they're doing. I wonder, are you hesitant
to ask? Go home and ask your daddy. What's
his name? Go and ask them. Fathers, take your children by
the hand and set them down and tell them what it means. Every
time you observe it. What mean you by this service?
And the statutes and judgments which the Lord our God has commanded
you. Then thou shalt say unto thy
son, we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt. And the Lord brought
us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. If this was the responsibility
of every man in Israel, in that typical dispensation. How much
more it is your responsibility and mine today in this age when
the picture has been fulfilled and we've experienced the fulfillment
of it in redemption and grace in Christ Jesus. Children come,
tell them why it is we come to the house of God, why we give
to the cause of Christ, why we spend our lives preaching the
gospel of God's grace, why we build our lives around the worship
of God. Why do we do this? Why do we
do this? I just heard you moving down. I guess you just moved.
Good for you. Good for you. What cost you? What cost you? I expect it's going to cost you
a lot more than you think, in a lot of ways. A lot of ways. It'll cost you. You can't worship
God without cost. You can't serve God without cost. He won't allow it. He just won't
allow it. He won't allow it. And your children
are going to ask you, why did you do this? Why did you do this? Start telling them. We were bondmen
in Egypt. And the Lord redeemed us with
a mighty hand. He brought us out. And it's my
determination to raise you under the sound of the gospel of God's
grace, telling you what God has done for me. And that's our privilege
and our responsibility. Even in the giving of their law,
the children of Israel were commanded to remember, remember, I, the
Lord, your God, you were in the house of bondage, I brought you
out. Repeatedly throughout their history,
the children of Israel were commanded by God to remember their deliverance. And yet theirs was only typical. Their deliverance, their redemption
was only a picture. How much more we ought to heed
this command of God. God sent his son and redeemed
us. God stretched out his arm and
redeemed us. God saved us by his mighty grace. Remember, you were bondman and
I redeemed you. Have this always in the forefront. And as you come to the house
of God, Michael, you pick out every song, you've done it for
years now. Always in the forefront, redemption, redemption, redemption.
Grace, grace. Christ, Christ, Christ. Always
in the forefront, never push to the background. And in our
lives, and in all we seek to do in the name of our God, let
this always be the primary matter, not secondary. Let me illustrate
it for you. You say, this is the motive for
everything. When God sends the Apostle Paul
right to the Ephesians, and he's trying to get the Ephesian believers
who are Jews and the Ephesian believers who are Gentiles to
get along with each other. Now, that's tough doing. That's
just tough doing. I know we live in a politically
correct society these days, and we try to cover everything up
and pretend nothing exists. We just try to make sure that
nothing really exists. My first trip to Kingston, Jamaica
must have been, oh, at least 40 years ago. Maybe a little
less than that. Brother Aaron Dumas pastures
in Kingston, picking up at Montego Bay, and we drove in his little
VW Bug 90 miles across the island to Kingston. I got in his house
and sat down and he introduced me to his wife and his children. The first word I remember him
saying to me, he said, in this house we don't see color. And
I said, Brother Aaron, that's just not so. That's just not
so. You're a black man, I'm a white
man, and we're both racist. We're both racist. The difference
between us and other folks is we're believers and we see the
evil of it and deal with it. We see the evil of it and deal
with it. Paul wrote to the Ephesians. These Jews wouldn't have anything
to do with the Gentiles. These Gentiles wouldn't have anything
to do with Jews. Just as bad on one side as it is the other.
Just as bad then as what I've just described to you. And Paul
said, but you were strangers. Now you're brothers. You were
aliens and foreigners there. You've been brought together.
Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition so that in
Christ circumcision doesn't mean anything and uncircumcision doesn't
mean anything. Being a bondman and being a freeman
doesn't mean anything. Being rich or being poor doesn't
mean anything. Being male or being female doesn't
mean anything. Christ is all. Christ is all. I have a very dear friend, Brother
David Wright. Lives down in Crow, West Virginia
now. He got there by way of New York
City and San Jose, California and Nashville, Tennessee. But I remember him since God
saved him. He's been a good friend of mine.
He's a black man. Little old short, chubby black
fellow. He wouldn't let me tell you he's chubby. He's a dear
friend. My grandson's first baseball
glove, David gave it to him. He's a good friend. He's a good
friend. Well, what do y'all have in common?
Oh, not much. He's a Yankee. I'm a Southerner.
He's a short fellow. I used to be a little taller.
Both a little chubby. He's black. I'm white. What you
got in common? One God. One father. One blood. one elder brother,
one family, one hope, one salvation, one everlasting inheritance.
Need I go on? You were bondmen in Egypt, but
you've been redeemed. I brought you out by blood and
with a mighty hand. The apostle calls for us to give
ourselves in godliness and devotion to our savior. Reminding us of
our redemption. He says God be thanked you were
the servants of sin But now you will be from the heart that form
of doctrine delivered you Being then made free from sin You became
servants of righteousness you you were you were fornicators
and adulterers and idolaters But now you've been bought with
a price You've been bought with it. Have you been bought with
a price? Have you been bought with a price? Has Christ redeemed
you by his blood? Then you're not your own. He
bought you lock, stock and barrel. He bought you! Therefore glorify
God in your body and in your spirits, which are God's. And
then the apostle promotes mercy, kindness, forgiveness. Turn over there and look at it.
Ephesians chapter four. I want you to see this. What is it that motivates believers
to live together in unity? What is it that motivates believers
to devote their lives to the son of God? What is it that motivates
believers to love and kindness and forgiveness? Grace. The experience of redemption
and grace in Christ. Look at Ephesians 4 verse 32.
Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Well,
we do that. Hang on. Even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you. Well, I'd forgive him if he repents.
Aren't you thankful God didn't deal with you that way? I'd forgive
him if he asked for it. Aren't you thankful God doesn't
deal with you that way? I'd forgive him if he'd show he's truly sincere.
Aren't you thankful God doesn't deal with you that way? Be you
followers of God. What's that mean? Somewhere in
the margin of your Bible, write this down. Imitators. That's the word. How do we deal
with each other? How am I supposed to deal with
Frank Page? in every relationship we have. Just like God did with me. Is that what it said? Is that what
it said? In other words, you and I never
have a justifiable reason ever for being malicious, cold, hard,
unforgiving, or unkind to any redeemed sinner. Never. Not me,
not you. You don't know what he did to
me. I know what I did to God. I had
my hands in the sacrifice, didn't you? You don't know what she said
about me. I know what I said about God. You remember? I had
my hands in the blood. Crucify him! To hell with God! I don't want him! Be ye followers
of God. in all your relationships with
all God's people. And I'll tell you something,
that'll solve just about every problem you got. That'll solve
just about every problem you got. Redemption and grace in
Christ is not the primary thing in our lives. It's the only thing. It's everything. Now, second
thing, let me remind you briefly of the bondage of sin. Children of Israel were in bondage
in Egypt. And they went down there by the
arrangement of providence. That's a big subject in itself.
But while they were there for 400 years, they loved it. They just, they wouldn't leave.
For 400 years, they got along very well with the ways of the
Egyptians. And they conformed to the ways
of the Egyptians. And they loved the leeks and
garlics in Egypt. And they could put up with the
bondage, everything else going just fine. Until they began to
multiply. And the numbers swelled. And
there were rows of Pharaoh who didn't know Joseph. And they
said, these folks are going to rise up against us. And they
started to afflict them and torment them. And they groaned. And God
heard their groans. And God remembered his covenant.
And God sent a deliverer. So it was with me. So it was
with you. We lived in bondage to the lust
of our flesh and to Satan. and loved every minute of it.
Loved it. We had no inclination to and
no will to righteousness. No inclination to, no will to
holiness. No inclination to make any change
in our spiritual condition and no will to do so. And had with
the will and inclination no power to do so. We were in bondage. As I said a moment ago, I'm a
Southerner. I'm so much a Southerner that if I couldn't be a Southerner,
I'd at least be ashamed. But there is a horrible blight
on Southern history, a sore I wish wasn't there. I wish it could
be erased from memory and erased from history called slavery. One of the worst things about
slavery was that men came to prefer slavery to freedom. It's a moral castration of manhood. Men enslaved after a while preferred
slavery. So it is with man, fallen and
adamant. We hugged our chain and kissed
our manacles and we didn't want to let go. until God calls the change to
be calling. And God sent terror in our souls
by his law and conscience is screaming guilt and tormented
by the hearing of the gospel we couldn't believe. But at last
the Lord God comes in sovereign mercy. Our Savior comes by the
power of his spirit and knocks down the door of our hearts and
sets up his own throne on our hearts, binds the strong man
and cast him out. And thereby we are set free,
given grace to believe God, to trust his son and to live before
him. And now we need to tell our children,
like the children of Israel, we're commanded of God to tell
them what God's done for you. Oh, blessed, blessed day. The day came when God saved me
by his grace. I talk little about sin. No need for you to know much
about that. But oh, the wonder of grace.
Did you ever try to picture Joshua and Caleb? They got there. children
and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren all gathered
around them Thanksgiving time, Christmas time and they say,
they say, boy let me tell you what God's done for us. Let me
tell you, let me tell you why we're observing this blessed
ordinance. You see these scars? Those are manacles of bondage
that I once loved. You see those stones set up yonder
in Jordan? Those stones represent God's
covenant fulfilled. You see this lamb we slaughtered
and we're about to eat. That lamb pictures the sacrifice
God made for our souls that night when he passed through Egypt
and delivered us. It pictures a greater sacrifice
of him who's yet to come. Now, this is all a picture of
the redemption of our souls. The word redemption, let me hurry,
the word redemption We tend to think of it in very limited terms. When you think about redemption,
what do you think about? The cross. You think about redemption, you
think about the death of Christ. Think about redemption, you think
about 2 Corinthians 5. Think about redemption, you think
about Galatians 3.13. Think about redemption, you think about John
3.16. And that's wonderful, that's wonderful. But redemption involves
much more than the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. The word
redemption means deliverance. Deliverance. Every sinner redeemed
by Christ is delivered by Christ. You remember when Moses went
into Pharaoh and he said, God said, let my people go. Pharaoh
tried to strike a bargain with him. He said, I'll tell you what,
you can go and Abraham can go and the men can go, but you leave
your wives and children and cattle here. And Moses said to Pharaoh,
you don't understand. We're going out. And there shall
not a hoof be left behind. There shall not a hoof be left
behind. Well, who's going to do this?
Hang on, you'll find out. You'll find out. Redemption involves
deliverance. First, we're redeemed by the
purchase price of Christ's precious blood. He redeemed us by the
sacrifice of himself, purchased us with his blood out from under
the curse of God's law, satisfying divine justice. And then he comes
at the appointed time of love in sovereign saving mercy and
redeems every sinner purchased by his blood by the power of
his grace. There shall not a hoof be left
behind. Everything purchased by Christ
shall be delivered by Christ from sin and death and hell and
destruction. But then there's another aspect
of redemption. There's this thing of possession. In Exodus chapter
23 verse 14, Joshua says to the children of Israel, I take you
to record this day. The Lord God has fulfilled every
word he promised in covenant to your father Abraham. Everything God promised Abraham
to his physical seed was fulfilled when Joshua, the picture of our
Redeemer, brought Israel into the possession of the land of
Canaan. Everything. They possessed the whole land.
Now, I know people have the idea that somehow we're to interpret
the Bible by what goes on in Israel. Well, let me tell you
something. This may come as a shock even
to some of you. God doesn't govern the world
according to that little peanut nation over there. The reason
they were made a nation was to be a picture of the true Israel
of God, his church. And our Lord Jesus Christ soon
will bring every one of his redeemed and present us faultless before
the presence of the glory of the triune God with exceeding
joy. Oh, I can't imagine. I have not
seen here, hadn't heard, never been into the heart of man. He's
going to present us before the triune Jehovah with exceeding
joy, holy and unflammable and unreprovable in the sight of
God. And we shall possess everything
God promised us in covenant with his son before the world began. And that's called the redemption
of the purchased possession in resurrection glory. We shall
be brought into the possession of all God promised us when redemption
is done. Now, I send you home calling
on you to enjoy and practice the remembrance of mercy. Remember,
there was a bondman in the land of Egypt. And the Lord thy God
redeemed thee. That fact ought to make us humble. We would every one of us be in
hell tonight if it hadn't been for God's grace and redemption. It ought to make us thankful.
Thankful. How thankful I am. How thankful
I ought to be. How shameful I am that I'm not
thankful as I should be. I have every reason to thank
God every day. You said to me before service,
the Lord's still good. He is still good. How patient
we ought to be waiting on God. How content. I was a barman in Egypt where
I sold myself willingly to everlasting destruction. And the Lord redeemed
me with blood and with grace and power. He redeemed me and gave me life and Christ and
himself. Oh, how content I ought to be.
Some of you will remember back when Shelby and I used to take
kids to camp, did it for nine years, took 100, 150 kids to
camp. If you want a work week, that's
a week for you. And one year we had invited a fellow from
Norman, Oklahoma, Brother Bob Lucilius, to come preach for
us. And the camp facilities weren't much. And the facilities we had
planned on the guest preachers staying in were just, you know,
shameful. You're shameful. And I apologized,
and I apologized, and I apologized. And I kept apologizing. And I
guess he got tired of hearing me apologize. And he stopped
me as we were walking across the campground. And he said,
Brother Don, listen, listen. All this and heaven too? All this and heaven too? And
what was it we were going to complain about? What was it you
wanted to grumble about? How patient. how content we ought
to be, we've been redeemed. You understand that? We've been
redeemed. I've seen a few painful things, a few sorrows,
shed a few tears. I'm going to tell you something.
You might see this in next week's bulletin. Cecil, I've never felt a pain
or shed a tear that I would have chosen. Not a one. But on this side of it, looking
back over it, Lionel, I've never felt a pain or shed a tear I
regret. God's done everything for me.
everything for me, nothing against me, everything for me, because
he redeemed me by the price of Christ's precious blood, by the
outstretched arm of his grace and his mercy. Let us then remember
his mercy. I talked to you about Mr. Newton
in the beginning of the message. A man came to him one day and
he was often asked, says he got old, said, why don't you retire? And Newton responded by saying,
the old African slave trader quit. Oh no, not as long as there's
breath in my body, I'll continue remembering and proclaiming redemption
and grace by Christ the Lord. Our God, give us grace now in
the remembrance of your goodness to worship you. To give ourselves moment by moment,
hour by hour, day by day. God, give us grace to give ourselves
to you. As you, our God, are utterly
committed to me. sweetly forced me to be utterly
committed to you. I ask your blessings upon this
assembly. Pastor, these men and women as
they labor together, God, use them for your glory. I ask that
you'll be pleased to increase their strength, increase their
number, increase their labor, increase their opportunity. Use
them for the glory of your son. In whatever days you've appointed
for us ahead, God, give us grace to honor you. Let us glorify
God in our body and in our spirits, which are God's for Christ's
sake. Amen. So good to be with you
again. God bless you. Well, I'm glad I was here. Aren't
you? That was so good. Let me have to have to amen something
our brother said to you children. I hope you were listening. You
heard what he said. If you have a question, you wonder
about something that the Lord's table or something we do, something
your teacher says in the class, something your pastor says. Ask,
don't just hold it inside and it's just in a. Ask your mom
and dad. They'll be delighted that you
asked. Ask them. Ask them. Janet and I were here
in the building earlier today. She was decorating the tables
and stuff out there, and I was done with what I had to do. I
was pacing around, waiting on her. I went into Sabrina's Sunday
school class and looked on the wall at the lessons she's teaching
the children. Sabrina, I wish preachers in
this town could hear those lessons. They're good lessons. If you
wonder about what she's telling you, ask your mom and dad. Ask
them. Ask them. That's important. All
right. Enough of that. You get that
for free. I can't think of a better way
to end this year than remembering the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus
Christ, worshiping around his table. So Wayne, you may come
and deliver the prayer.