Thank you, Pastor. It is so good
to be with you. I woke up this morning early.
For me, six o'clock is early. I woke up early with Isaiah 42,
16 on my mind. Be turning there if you will.
Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 16. In his outstanding book, Pilgrim's
Progress, John Bunyan gives us a description, an allegory of
his experience of God's grace. And really the experience of
every believer is described in Pilgrim's Progress in an allegorical
way. On one part of the book, he speaks
of Christian and hopeful. They were imprisoned in the dark,
dark dungeon of Doubting Castle. when it appeared that giant despair
would surely destroy them. Then Christian remembered he
had a key in his pocket and he pulled out the key and he unlocked
the door and he and hopeful escaped the dark, dark castle and escaped
the destruction of giant despair. He called the key The key of
promise. That's my subject tonight. The
key of promise is told you Bible's open on your lap here at Isaiah
42. I believe the Lord's given me
a message for you in this chapter. Isaiah is describing our Lord
Jesus, the son of God, our savior, beginning in verse one, behold
my servant whom I uphold. Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
I put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus is spoken of as
this one who will bring righteousness, justice, truth to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. That is, he will
not ever appear to be weak, helpless, or frustrated. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. This one is so tender that he
will not break the bruised reed. He will not quench the smoking
flax. And yet he deals with all men
only in judgment, in righteousness, in justice, and in truth. He
shall not fail. Oh, what a word. Whatever this
one comes to do, whatever he sets his hand to, whatever his
purpose is, he shall not fail. Failure with God is an impossibility. Failure with Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer, is out of the question. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. till he has set judgment in the
earth, righteousness. And the isles, that is God's
elect among the Gentile world shall wait for his law. God's people calls to wait for
his word. If you're waiting for his word,
I have just the word for you. Here in verse 16 is God's promise
to you. God's promise to his people. God's promise to his elect in
every age and in every place, as surely as if it had been written
specifically this morning and addressed to you personally,
and you picked it up in your mailbox and opened it. If you
believe God, if you are washed in the blood of Christ, If God
Almighty has made you the righteousness of God in his son, giving you
faith in his son, this is God's word, a promise to you. Verse
16, I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. I will
lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness
light before them. and crooked things straight.
These things will I do unto them and not forsake them. Now always read the scripture
in its context. Always read the scripture and
understand it in the context in which it is given. Without
question, this is talking about the revelation of God's grace
in Christ, our substitute. That one whom Isaiah describes
as the Lord's righteous servant. That one who has come to save
his people by magnifying the law and make it honorable. Making
it honorable, look at verse 21. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. This is our Redeemer. In the
saving of our souls, Christ Jesus magnified God's law and made
it honorable. In giving you and me free forgiveness,
in putting away our sin, Jesus Christ has magnified God's law
and made it honorable. The Lord God almighty does not
forgive sin in the sense men commonly think. He declares his
glory to Moses. I will by no means clear the
guilty. And he turns right around and says, forgiving iniquity,
transgression, and sin. How can both be so? God forgives
sin by annihilating. God forgives sin by punishing
it to the full satisfaction of justice. God forgives sin by
removing it, not by pretending that you didn't sin, but by making
it so that you didn't sin and you have no sin in his son. How can that be? Jesus Christ,
our Redeemer, came into this world in our flesh and lived
in obedience to God perfectly. Perfectly. Fulfilling all the
will of God in our room instead. Bringing in everlasting righteousness,
just as the prophet Daniel said he would. And when he had finished
obedience, you and I who are his, finished obedience in him. Would to God we could get some
grasp of the reality of our union with Christ. We really are one
with God's Son, our Mediator, Jesus Christ. everything he did
in obedience to God we did in him our covenant head and our
surety one with him and when he died under the wrath of God
when he was made sin for us and justly punished for our sins
justly punished for our sins. He could not be punished for
sin that was not his. He was justly punished for our
sins. God cried awake, O sword, against
the man that is my fellow. Smite and slay the shepherd,
because when he was made sin, he deserved to die. And we died
in him. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. And so he magnified God's law
and made it honorable in forgiving my sins. He brought justice and
truth into the earth. He brought righteousness and
truth to God's elect wherever they are found. But the promise
reaches beyond redemption, far beyond just the redemption of
our souls. Great as that is, this is God's
promise to his people in this dark, dark world. We were blind,
but now we see because he's given us eyes to see the kingdom of
God and enter into it. He's led us in paths of grace,
righteousness, and faith. that we knew not before. And
the promise reaches us in our present circumstances. The Lord,
our God declares to you and me, I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. After reading that text and mulling
it over and mulling it over and mulling it over some more, I
turned to the next chapter and the next and the next. And I
want you to just hold your Bibles open at this portion of Isaiah's
prophecy, beginning in chapter 43. And let me show you some
of the promises. The key called promise. Oh, how
often. These past 48 years, I have found
that key helpful to my soul, and I pray you will tonight.
Let's look at some of God's promises here, beginning in Isaiah 43,
verse one. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. Reckon why God refers to the
same people as Jacob and Israel? Why does he refer to his elect
as Jacob and Israel? The name Jacob identifies us
by nature, what we are, as the corrupt fallen sons and daughters
of Adam. And that never changes while
we live in this world. Never changes. Dale Simpson,
once you were born a son of Adam, you're going to die. That's not
going to change. That's not going to change. But
God's made us new creatures in Christ. Jacob wrestled with God. God wrestled with Jacob. Back
in Genesis 32, you remember? And Jacob said, I won't let you
go except you bless me. And the Lord spoke to him and
said, what's your name? And Jacob said, my name's Jacob.
My name's tricky, deceitful, sinful, corrupt, vile, wasted,
and useless. And the Lord said to him, your
name's Israel. For as a prince, you have prevailed
with God. What? I used to do some wrestling. And I never did win the match
when I was on my back. Never won a one when I was pinned
down. Actually, I never found anybody bigger to pin me down.
But I never won one when I was pinned down. Not a one, not a
one. Nobody wins pinned down except the sinner. Pinned to
his back, brought to utter despair, forced to confess what he is.
And when you're weak, then you're strong, and you prevail with
God. God calls us Israel, Israel,
princes with God. You sinful sons of Adam, made
by grace to be the sons of God, always prevail with God, princes
with God. He says, O Jacob, he that formed
thee, O Israel, fear not. I would suggest when you read
through this book, but especially through Isaiah's prophecy here,
take out a special pen, some color special, and mark those
two words everywhere you find them. Fear not, fear not, fear
not, fear not. It is though the Lord God moved
his prophet to write to us before trouble comes. before the difficulty
befalls us, before we're faced with a great obstacle, before
some seeming danger is before us, he anticipates the troublesome
circumstance and he says, now don't be afraid, don't be afraid,
don't be, fear not, fear not, fear not, for you, oh Jacob,
oh Israel, for you and me, fear not. is absolutely excuseless. I belong to God. I belong to
God. What have I to fear? You belong
to God. What have you to fear? The Lord
God has made us princes with him. What have we to fear? We
will be wise to hear God speak and beg him to lay to our heart
reasons why we should not fear. Let's go through a few of them.
Now, obviously, I'm gonna be covering a lot of territory tonight
and we can't begin to cover everything here. I remember when our little
granddaughter was just a little shaver before Will was born.
We'd take her to the candy store in the mall over in Lexington.
We'd go over there and I'd just, you just go through and get anything
you want to. And you know what she did? She went through there
and got a little bit of everything. Just got a little bit of everything.
And I don't remember her ever getting sick, but I wonder why
she did, because she had tasted all. She just, and if she didn't
really like it, she'd spit it out. But not only did she do
that, she'd roll it around a little bit and get some more. Well,
let's pick up the candies in the store. roll them around in
our mouths and get every bit of sweetness we can, and I pray
God will make a sweetness to your soul. Why shouldn't I be
afraid? God says, I have redeemed thee. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not,
I have redeemed thee. I bought you. bought you at such
a price you can be sure no harm shall ever befall you. God bought
you with the blood of his darling son. Now what do you suppose
he's going to allow to happen to you? What do you suppose he's
going to bring upon you? Don't be afraid I bought you.
That one declaration here in Isaiah 43 verse 1 is sufficient
to totally smash to pieces every notion of universal redemption. If Christ redeemed me, I have
nothing to fear. God has bought me with the precious
blood of his own darling son, that which is dearest to God
he gave me. I have no reason then to fear.
Brother Scott Richardson, preaching for me one time years ago, one
of our conferences, one of the first things he said when he
got up to preach, he said, there's been no bad news since I got
the good news. That's pretty good. No bad news
since I got the good news. Why should you fear my brother? Why should you fear, my sister? Anything or anyone, you've been
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Look at the next word.
I have called thee by thy name. Oh, sweet promise this is. The
Lord God has called us with an effectual, irresistible, personal
call. Called us by name. I bought you. And I sought you, I called you
and called you to me graciously, forcing you to come to me when
you were terrified. And when you came, I received
you graciously. Now, why should you be afraid?
I remember, don't you? What it is to be terrified of
God. Terrified at the thought of God. Terrified at the prospect of
meeting God. And then he called you by name.
Sprinkles on your heart the blood of his darling son, telling you
your sins are gone, washed away in the blood of his son. And
you come to him and say, my father. And you come with delight. Abba
father. Now, why then, if I bought you
and I redeemed you, would you ever be afraid? Look at the next
line. Thou art mine. Oh, what a blessed word of grace.
You belong to God, his peculiar possession, his new creature,
the apple of his eye. That means you're under God's
constant protection and God's constant provision. The Lord
himself is my shepherd. One asked a little girl to quote
the 23rd Psalm and she quoted it just right. She stood up and
said, the Lord is my shepherd. He's all I want. That's a pretty
good interpretation of Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd.
That means surely goodness and mercy. shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. When I was a boy down in the
flatlands of North Carolina, I used to go coon hunting with
my uncle. Some of you fellas know what that is. We'd go out
after dark, turn the hounds loose. And the biggest purpose I found
out for going coon hunting was to listen to the hounds holler.
We rarely ever shot a coon. Sometimes dogs would get in a
fight with one, but we rarely ever shot one. Who wanted the
fool would bury the stinking thing. But we'd go just to hear
the hounds holler. And you'd hear those hounds when
they'd hit the trail, and they'd follow that coon. I mean, they
were pursuing that coon until they finally got him up a tree.
And there they stopped. And you knew exactly where they
were. They stayed right there. The coon's right up that tree.
You'd bank on it, he's right there. Because the hounds had
done their job. These are the hounds of grace
by which God chases sinners into the arms of Christ and at last
into glory, goodness and mercy. have been nipping at my heels
now for near 65 years, every day, every hour in every direction. And I shall dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. Look at verse two, Isaiah 43,
two, when thou passest through the waters, not if, when, and
you're going to. You may not have yet, but you're
going to. I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire. What a word. When thou walkest
through the fire. Who ever heard tell of such a
thing? Who ever heard tell of such a thing? I've been A few times exposed
to circumstances where fire was around me. Just a few times.
And I didn't walk anywhere. I ran as fast as I could get.
Terrified. But God says when you walk through
the fire. Walking with me. Me walking with you. Trusting me. And thou walkest
through the fire, and through it you shall walk. Not into it,
through it. Thou shalt not be burned. And
when you get done, you're not going to smell like you've been
in a smoking area. Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. You remember back in Daniel 3,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast in the burning fire
furnace. They were bound hand and foot and cast into the furnace,
that hot, hot furnace. And King woke and walked over
and looked into the furnace. And he said, how many folks did
we cast into that furnace? And they said, three, King. He
said, I see four being down there. And one of them looks to me like
the son of God. And they brought Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
out of the fire. And do you know what happened to them while they
were there? Do you remember what happened to them? The only thing
they lost in the fire were the cords that bound them. Nothing else. Nothing else. When
you pass through the water and walk through the fire, I will
be with you. And those woes and trials and
adversities will do you no harm. Look at the next line. I will
be with thee. Wherever God by his providence
puts you, He will be with you in sympathy and in power to take
care of you. And he may let you know it and
he may not. But he promises I'll be with
you. So the rivers won't overflow you. The fire won't burn you. The flame won't kindle upon you.
Look at verse three. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, the Lord Jehovah, the triune God, Elohim,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Are you listening now? Are you
listening? I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't, I wouldn't dare think
about saying this. If I didn't read right here,
he said, I am by God. Brother Gary, that means God
himself in all his being is as much your property as you are
his property. I belong to you. I belong to
you. Oh, preach, you can't say that.
Can't say that. Don't deal with people as property. I took my wife to be my wife
46 years ago in jail, 46 years ago. And when I did, I gave her
myself, all of me, all of me. Whatever I am, whatever I shall
ever come to possess, it's hers. I'm her property within me. And God Almighty has made us
his property and made himself our property. I am thy God. The great three in one declares
next, I, your God and your savior. And then he says, I gave Egypt
for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee. What? What? The Lord says, you don't
need to be afraid of anything or anybody. Don't you remember? I sacrificed nations. I sacrifice nations for you just
to preserve and keep you, to provide for you, to care for
you, to sustain you. I sacrifice nations for you. What do you think I won't do
for you? Here is heavenly logic. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Oh my God, forgive my sin in
ever questioning your goodness. He who gave his son for me will
withhold nothing from me. Nothing. He will withhold no
good thing from me. and everything that appears to
be evil, he turns to be good. He gave his son for me. Look
at verse four. Since thou was precious in my
sight, honorable, I made you. Thou has
been honorable. I have loved thee, therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. since you
were precious in my sight, highly esteemed by me, prized by me,
cherished by me. I've made you honorable. I've
made you an honor. I've made you an honor, an honor. I was down in North Wilkes-Barre
preaching for Brother Mike Walker years ago. The last night of
the meeting, I stepped into the elevator to go downstairs, and
a fella got in as I was getting off, and I thought, I know that
man. And I stuck out my hand and I
said to him, are you Bob Spitzer? He said, I sure am. I said, you
won't remember me, but you were my sixth grade teacher. My name's
Don Fortner. He said, oh, I remember you. And he was astonished to find
out. God's made me honorable. Honorable. How could that be? I passed by
you when you were naked. polluted in your own blood. And
I spread my skirt over you. And I said to you, live. Yeah,
I said it to you, live. And you became mine. And you
were made comely, beautiful through my comeliness, through my beauty
that I put upon thee. Here we are. Here we are in Christ,
honorable. honorable, perfect, righteous,
holy, spotless, pure, just to the extent that God made his
son sin for us. So he has made us the righteousness
of God in him. And he declares that we are chaste
virgins. Brother Frank tells me he'd been
preaching through the song of Solomon. Listen to how the Lord
describes you. I would never dream of describing
one of you this way. And I sure wouldn't dream of
describing me this way. He said, thou hast dove's eyes. You've
ravished me with one look in your eye. Thou art spotless. There's no blemish in thee. Can God say such to me? Can God speak such to you? Indeed,
he does. Magnifying his law, making it
honorable, he declares men and women, Jacob by nature, to be
princes with God, honorable! As honorable, as holy, as perfect,
as righteous as Jesus Christ, his own son. What's the next
line? I have loved thee. Now I know people are running
as fast as they can away from the message of God's free grace
and they're trying to tell us there's some way in which some
sense in which some manner in which God loves everybody and
Christ died for everybody. Universal love and universal
redemption and universal grace is all universal nonsense. That's
nonsense. I have loved thee. Now Cecil,
he gives that to you as a reason why you shouldn't be afraid. Is that what it said? Fear not! I have loved thee. If he loves
everybody, then one or two things are so. Either everybody's got
a reason to be afraid because his love means nothing, or everybody's
all right. One of the two. He says, I have
loved thee. He loves you particularly and
distinctly. And he almost always speaks of
it in the past tense. I have loved thee. That settles
the matter. Nothing going to change it. I
love you with an everlasting love. That means I love you to
the end. Nothing causes it to vary. Nothing causes it to alter. I have loved thee. So don't be
afraid. The chapter 43 verse five, fear
not for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the North,
give up into the South. Keep not back. Bring my sons
from afar. My daughters from the ends of
the earth, even everyone that is called by my name for I've
created him for my glory. I formed him. Yay. I have made
him. I am with thee. I am with thee,
God declares. In chapter two, or in verse two
rather, he said, I will be with you. Here he says, I am with
you. Wherever you are, I'm with you. Rejoice in the Lord always. In everything, give thanks and
rejoice in the Lord always. Let your moderation Your gentleness,
your ease of mind be known to all men, the Lord's at hand,
the Lord's at hand. Our one child, when she was a
little girl, she really did think that it could do anything. And
we'd go walking in the woods behind our house and hear strange
noises, sometimes loud noises. You hear a flock of quail taking
off, or some wild turkeys taking off, and you'd think the world's
falling in. And she'd be just terrified.
And she'd run, grab my leg, or I'd pick her up in my arms, and
that little heart would just, all of a sudden, it's just calm. Because she didn't, she thought
I could whip the grizzly bears after her. She just thought I
could do anything. She's perfectly comfortable as
long as daddy is nearby. Don't be afraid, my child, God
says. I'm with you. I am with you. I'm at your right hand. I am
God at your elbow all the time. I have created you for my glory. I have created you for my glory. What a word. It has been my prayer every day
for 48 years, countless times through the day. God, let me
today honor you. And I strive to honor God in
thought and word and deed. But oh, how horribly I fail. But when God gets done, when
God gets done, this man shall be to the honor of God. You, his Israel, he will spread
before wandering worlds and say, look here, what my grace has
done. I created you, God says, for
my honor. There is none that can deliver
out of my hand. I will work and who shall let
it? None can resist my will. The
work of redemption is finished precisely according to my purpose.
And having worked grace in your heart, I will perform it unto
the end. You're in my hand." Oh, what
a place to be. I have a dear friend I've never
met, Jim Jensick. He lives in Arizona. He used
to be a professional golfer and had an accident and lost his
arm and has had to do other things. And from the first time I heard
from him, until yesterday when I got the most recent note from
him by email. He almost always signs his notes
this way, in his grip. That's where we reside in the
grip of omnipotent mercy, in the grip of omnipotent grace,
in the grip of God almighty. Move on to verse 19. Behold,
I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth, shall
ye not know it? I will even make a way in the
wilderness and rivers in the desert. It commonly appears to us that
we spinning our wheels in the sand are at best moving in circles,
chasing our tails, and everything's a confusion. I can identify with
that adage you've heard or read many times, the hurrier I go,
the behinder I get. It seems like everything's, you
try to make order of it, you make a mess of it. You try to
set plans and something happens, messes everything up. I've often
thought about the children of Israel. going through the wilderness. Can you imagine what must have
gone through their minds those 40 years? They managed to make a three
day journey in 40 years, but God led them by a direct
path, in direct steps, in a direct
way to the land of promise. and so it is with you. He orders our steps. He ordered them from eternity
and he orders them day by day in the most direct and best way
to carry us to glory for his glory and our souls everlasting
good. The Lord God My brother, my sister
has a work for you to do. And mortals are immortal here
until their work is done. He made a way for us in this
wilderness and he orders our steps in the way. Look at verse
21. This people, have I formed for
myself, they shall show forth my praise. Verse 25, and hear the sure promise of
God. I, even I am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember
thy sin. Isn't that marvelous? He puts
it in the present tense. But he did it from eternity.
He did it when his son's blood was poured out at Calvary. He
put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. But now he says,
I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions. I will not remember
thy sins. Nathan came to David and told
him, said, thou art the man. And David said, I've sinned.
And Nathan's next word to him was, the Lord had put away thy
sin. How sweet, how gracious, how
kind is our God that as we confess our sin, he's faithful and just
to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And he does it afresh continually
for all his own. Remember these chapter 44 verse
21. Oh, Jacob and Israel. Remember
this, my children, for thou art my servant. I have formed thee. Thou art my servant, O Israel.
Thou shalt not be forgotten to me. I blotted out as a thick
cloud, thy transgressions and as a cloud, thy sins returned
to me for I have redeemed thee. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. Sing, oh heavens, For the Lord
hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth. Break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every
tree therein. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob
and glorified himself in Israel. Look at chapter 45, verse two.
I will go before thee and make crooked places straight. I will
break in pieces the gates of brass. and cut in sunder the
bars of iron. I will go before you. God, our savior, always walks
before us. He goes before us to clear the
way for us and breaks down all opposition and destroys the very
gates of hell before us. Verse three, I will give thee
the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places
that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by
thy name and the God of Israel. Children of light commonly walk
in darkness. And we're surrounded by darkness.
Times of spiritual darkness in our souls. Darkness and trouble
in our lives. God hides his face from us and
won't speak. Won't let us speak to him. And he puts us in darkness for
our benefit, that he may give us the treasures of darkness
and show us things we could never know apart from the dark pit
in which he puts us. Now I've never been in a deep
pit. Some of you may have, whether so or not, I don't know. I'm
just telling you what I've read from others. I'm told in a deep,
deep well, if in the bottom of a well, you can look up through
the darkness and see stars that the naked eye cannot otherwise
see, except from that deep, deep hole of darkness. Whether that's
so or not, I don't know, but I do know this. And I assure
you, my brother, my sister, when God puts you in darkness, he
puts you in darkness to give you the treasures of darkness,
to show you and teach you things concerning himself that you could
not and would not otherwise see and know. Now, Look at verse
17, chapter 45. Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation. God's going to save every one
of his elect. I remember years ago, Brother
Mahan called me up and he was working on a message for Wednesday
night. And we were chatting, he's preaching
from John chapter 10. He said, I'm going to preach
tonight on the trail of Christ's sheep. I thought that's kind
of an unusual title. We chatted about it a little
bit. He said, he said, people need to know we're not seeking
everybody's salvation. God does it and we don't. We're
seeking the salvation of God's elect and our business is to
seek out the sheep. We go and preach the gospel,
employing every means God gives us, using every opportunity God
gives us, every advantage at our disposal, and relentlessly
give ourselves to the work because we're seeking the salvation of
God's elect. And we go with this confidence.
God says, I will save my people with an everlasting salvation. And then it gives one more sweet
morsel with which to forbid our fears. Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded
world without end. You shall not be ashamed. You shall not be ashamed of me
and you shall not be put to shame by me and you shall not be ashamed
of anything. I blush with shame because of
some of the things I know some of you know about me. And I would
blush with horrible shame if you knew what I know about me. But there's a day coming, oh,
bless be his name, there's a day coming when I will blush with
shame for nothing. For nothing, for nothing. Then I shall see as I am commanded
to see now, as God sees things in their perfection and in their
perfect order. You'll not be confused, confounded, put to confusion
or shaken. World without end to the endless
ages of eternity. In heaven's clearer light, we'll
see all things worked out for good. Let me tell you a story
very quickly, and I'll wrap this up. Years ago, I read about a
man who had fallen on hard times somewhere in the northern part
of Ohio. And he decided to try to make
his way to New Orleans back in the 1800s when things seemed
to be more prosperous there. And he got together what money
he could and bought him a ticket and got on one of those riverboats
to go down to New Orleans. But he didn't have hardly anything. He gathered what cheese and crackers
he could and stuffed it in his pockets and got on a riverboat.
And when other folks went to dinner, they got all dressed
up and went to dinner and they'd go in the dining hall and he'd
sneak under a stairwell somewhere and eat a little cheese and crackers.
And he did this day after day after day, the fellow got noticing
him. And one day, a gentleman walked over to him and he said,
Why don't you come join us in the restaurant?" He said, oh,
I can't do that. I can't do that. He said, I barely
had enough money to buy a ticket to get on this boat. He said,
did you look at the ticket? He said, what do you mean look
at the ticket? He said, get your ticket and
look at it. He said, what? And he held it up and he said,
all inclusive. That means you can have anything
on here. All inclusive. Christ is all inclusive. In him, all the promises of God
are to you who are in him. Yay and amen. Amen. Thank you for your attention.