Well, it seems like I just got
here. I preached at home and then drove
up to Kingsport, Tennessee and preached Sunday morning there
and then Sunday evening here. And it's been a long time since
I've preached this many consecutive messages, five messages in a
row. I struggle getting two a week.
what the Lord has blessed. And I hope and pray that our
time together will be profitable to you. And that in some way
you've been bettered by our visit. And I would ask you, as I know
Brother Larry would also, to pray for us. Pray for us. I don't want to
be just another window dressing to you. I want to be used of
God. I don't have to preach for a
living. I may not look like it, but I still know how to work
a little bit. But this is my calling, and it
is a calling. It's a calling of God. Brother Don said, would you be
willing to go down to Arkansas and pastor that little church.
He said, they've been without a pastor now for over five years. And I said, Brother Don, I'd
be willing to stand on my head till the Lord came back, but
I have to know that's where he wants me. And he made me to know
that. All right, will you allow me
to teach you one more song one more song as we journey on
our pilgrimage through this world to our father's house let you
and I learn the song of the blessed you know our Lord didn't say
blessed will you be he said blessed are blessed are Turn with me,
if you will, to Psalm 128. This is the Song of the Blessed. This will be the ninth of the
15 Psalms of Degrees. They begin in Psalm 120 and run
through Psalm 134. If you look above each chapter,
it'll tell you up there a Psalm of Degrees. And they had four things for
us to learn or at least be reminded of. This is why they sang the
songs. They wanted to remind themselves
on their way to worship of all that God had done for them. Of all that God was doing in
them. And all that God had promised
that He would yet do. and they recall these things
in these Psalms. I want to talk about the promised
blessing and then an explanation of the blessing and where will
I go to receive the blessing and what is the result of being
blessed. So let's begin tonight with the
promise of the blessing. Oh, how this world longs for
a sign. Give us a sign. Give us a sign. Some evidence of God, some supernatural
work. What must we do to work the works
of God? He said this is the work of God.
that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's already told
you. With man it is impossible. It's
an impossibility. And believe me, I tried. I tried. You can't do it. And then he
gives you faith. And you can't help but do it. He said the Jews require a sign. All religious men and women seek
for a sign. They told our Lord as He was
dying on the cross, if thou be the Christ, come down from the
cross. They wanted that sign. That was the sign. He was dying
on the cross. There was a certain noble man.
He was from Capernaum. And his son was dying. And he'd heard about Christ,
and he heard he was near, and he ran to him. And he sought
the Lord to heal his son. And when he made his request
to the Lord, the Lord looked him in the eyes and said, except
you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. But he didn't go away. He didn't go away. He persisted. Come down, he cried, ere my son
die. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy
way, thy son liveth. Now watch this. And he believed
the word of the Lord. He didn't need a sign anymore.
And I tell you, that's what happens when a man is given faith in
Christ. He don't need a sign anymore. He has the evidence in Him. His Spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we are the sons of God. We don't need any more
evidence. The blessed are blessed by the
promise of God. Blessing is born from the Word
of God. I hope you're listening to me.
You and I are so ignorant of the things of God. We're so ignorant
of the things of God. So full of the things of man
that even the simplest things have to be taught us in His Word. We know so little about God and
so much about ourselves. Listen as this believer begins
his song. He said, blessed is. Blessed is. Oh, but I've been
diagnosed with cancer. Thank God. Thank God. You soon be well. You soon be
well. Listen to the promise. He said,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
did what? Blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Is there anything
or anyone or any circumstance or any situation that's going
to keep them from being blessed. Old Nebuchadnezzar, you know,
he looked down. I like to picture him standing
in one of the eighth wonders of the ancient world was the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon and that's where I picture him standing.
Scripture doesn't say where he was, but he was up here and And
I picture him in there and I picture them fingers, you know, like
this. And he's looking down and he
said, It's not this great Babylon that I built. In the power of
my might and for the glory of my name. Oh, God smote him. Let him crawl around on the ground
like a beast and eat grass for a little while. And then, he
said, when my reasoning returned unto me, when I come to myself, He said, now I know who He is. He said, He ruleth in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, His kingdoms from
generation to generation. Now listen, and none can stay
His hand or even ask Him what He's done. If He wants you to
know, He'll tell you. He'll tell you. He has blessed us. Blessed because
our Heavenly Father decreed it. Blessed because He says you're
blessed. Blessed no matter how contrary
your experience may seem to be. Joseph was blessed in that pit. His brothers throwed him in the
pit. Took his coat from him. Hold
him in the picture. Then he was sold into slavery. And then he was locked up in
prison. He was blessed. He was blessed. And finally,
he's second in command in Egypt. God raised him up. Gave him a
name above every name, didn't he? They said, we need corn. He said, go see Joseph. Go see
him. Then his brothers come over.
They come over to visit with him. And finally he revealed
himself to them. And he said, you meant all that
for evil, but God meant it for good. God meant it to bless me,
and he did. And he blessed you. Blessed, no matter how contrary
your spirit seems to be, blessed for all eternity. Oh, they was talking among themselves
in Corinth and they said, well, I was saved under Apollos. And another said, well, I was
saved under Christ. And another said, I was saved
under Paul. Paul said, how so? He said, don't you know all things
are yours? The world is yours. I'm blessed, ain't I? I'm blessed. Everything's yours. Don't you know our Lord said
you're going to judge angels? I can't picture that. I can't
picture that, but that's what he said. blessed for all eternity because
God purposed and promised the blessing. And when God made promise
to Abraham, now listen to this, because he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself. And none greater than him. He
swore by himself saying, surely, capital S, surely, Blessing. I will bless thee. Surely. And as near as I'm able to see,
if the blessing of God, it's a perpetual thing. It takes in
the whole of salvation. It takes in all things. Blessed be. There's somewhere
in this world a people that God has blessed. They don't even
know it. They don't know it. I didn't. Did you? I had no idea. But they're blessed. They're
blessed. Everything has been set in motion
and arranged to bring that blessing to pass. I didn't know that.
Oh, I thought it was the worst. I had a business. Man, I had
a booming business. I didn't have to advertise it.
I didn't have to do anything. They come to me. And I'd short
throw them and I'd do what I wanted to do. I had a successful business. And boy, the Lord turned it upside
down. He tore it apart. I was so disheartened. I'd worked for years to get that
thing established. I said, I'll tell you what, I'm
going back down to Kentucky. I've had all of Ohio I want. And I left Ohio and went back
to Kentucky, and things didn't go right there either. And it
just went from bad to worse. And finally I told my wife, I
was raised in religion. And I said, I'll tell you what,
I think we need to go down here and start going to church. Boy,
it really went downhill there. We don't know that, do we? Somebody
told me the other day, I said, their kids went off to school. And I said, is there a church
up there? No, but they're going to this First Baptist Church,
and that's better than nothing. I said, oh, no it ain't. No,
they just want to step down. And that's what I did. I went
down and joined that church. I paid nothing they said made
any sense. Patting me on the back and big
tears rolling down their face and tears rolling down mine because
I seen them crying. And pat me on the back, is everything
okay? And I said, no, no everything
ain't okay. Well, it will be. It will be. Just all you have to do is believe.
Oh my. I didn't know how to bless. And one day I was in, we were
having a revival. I decided, well, you just go
ahead and do what they told you to do, what weren't there. So
I did. And I went up there and my brother-in-law's brother come
to visit. And he said, oh, he said, don't
go ask him. Don't do that. And I said, why? Just don't. Just take my word.
Just don't. I said, I'm going to ask him. So I went up and
invited him to church. He had a pair of cut off jeans.
He had a big old long neck blue ribbon beard, had it open, drinking
it. And I said, why don't you come
down to the church with me? He said, why? Nobody ever asked
me why. And I said, well, we got an evangelist. He's preaching for us, like before
you come here. And he said, what does he preach? I didn't know what to say. I said,
well, he preaches the gospel. He said, you wouldn't know the
gospel if you met it in the middle of the road. Then I got mad. I said, what do you mean I don't
know the gospel? He said, well, if you know it, what is it? And for the first time in my
life, I realized I didn't know the gospel. And he started talking. He used
to listen to Brother Mahan, Ralph Barnard, and all these old men.
And he wasn't a believer as near as I could tell, but boy, he
had ammunition to tie an Armenian up where he couldn't move. And that's exactly what he did
with me. He just slit my throat and left me bleeding, you know.
And he said something about God's sovereignty. And I went home
and started looking in the Bible. Oh my. It was on every page. I'd never heard of it. Never
heard of it. God's sovereignty. He declares
the end from the beginning. From ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, I'll
do all my pleasure. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honour and
one to dishonour? One he'll make a trove of his
grace, the other he'll make a slop-yard out of the same lump. That's sovereign. It's not of
him that run it. It's not of him that will it.
It's of God that shall have mercy. And while I was trying to read
a little bit about God's sovereignty, I ran on to this word, predestination. And I went down to the church
and asked one of the elders about it. Oh, he said, don't. He said,
the secret things belong to God. I said, yeah, but it's no secret.
He put it in his book. I said, when he got done giving
revelations, he told John to put his pen up. The pen was still
writing when he wrote predestination. I'm just telling you the secret
things belong under the Lord. Don't go there. Don't go there.
It's a bottomless pit. Then I ran on to that thing of
election. I started looking it up. Finally, one of the old deacons
in the church, this had gone on for weeks. One of the old
deacons in the church, he said, brother, he said, I hear you
asking all these questions. He said, there's a man on primetime
TV on Sunday morning, deals with these things every week. I said,
there is nobody on primetime TV dealing with election and,
oh yes, there is. I said, who? He said, Henry Mahan. I stayed home next Sunday. Turned
my TV on. Sure enough, Henry Mahan. I told my wife, I said, we're
going up his church Sunday night. I went up and met him. When I
left there, I said, this is where we're going. But I tell you what
I learned there that I didn't learn from that man in the cut
off jeans. I learned that sovereignty and
predestination and all of these things, the eternal counsel of
God, all these things are in a person. They're in a Savior. They're in a Savior. It's all
about Him. To Him give all the prophets
witness. To Him. The blessing. What is the blessing? Oh, the blessing is to be in
Christ. That's the blessing. How do you
get in Christ? God puts you in Him. That's how
you get in. You can't put yourself in Him. Alright, here's the second thing
I want us to see. What is the blessing? Well, the
blessing of God arises from His eternal purpose of grace. God
said, I'm going to save a people through the person and work of
my Son for the glory of my great name. That's his purpose. That's what he's going to do.
When everything's said and done, of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. All for the glory
of his name. He doesn't do anything that doesn't
glorify his name. And then he tells us, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according according I don't know how many times seven, eight times
he says that in this chapter according according according
according to what according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy what's
that mean? he chose us in Christ We should
be holy. Well, that means you wear a certain
kind of dress, and it comes down about your ankles, and you can't
cut your hair. No, that ain't what that means. Holiness has to do with the wholeness
of God. The wholeness of God. And here's
what holiness means, just like God. What does it take to be saved?
You have to be just like God. Just like God. Whom He did foreknow, He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And Jesus Christ,
according to Colossians 115, is the image of the invisible
God. What are you saying, preacher? I'm
saying that God blessed His chosen people by putting them into a
union with His Son that they might bear the very image of
God. That's what I'm saying. If I'm one with Christ, I'm one
with God. Is that right? If I'm one with Him, I'm one
with God. Oh, you say, that's talking about
similarities. Oh, no it ain't. That's not talking about having
similarities with God. It's talking about being blessed
in Christ in such a way as to manifest the very name of God. When God saves a sinner, He manifests
His whole character in His salvation. He manifests His justice. His justice. Boy, you talk about
inflexible. I will by no means clear the
guilty. Say what you want, do what you
want. I will by no means clear the
guilty. being justified freely by His
grace. How can a man be justified? He has to be clear of all charges. And all seeing, all knowing God
is going to look at him, Larry, and he can see clear through
you. He can see your past, He can see your future, He can see
your motives, He understands your thought afar off. He can see it all, and He can't
find anything in you, if you're in Christ. And He says you're justified.
And I tell you, if He says you're justified, you're justified.
God says to anything, he talked to principalities, powers, people,
you name it. He said who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect, it's God that justifies. And
now that law that you feared, that law that had that whip that
cut deep burrows in your back. And it just kept whipping, and
you couldn't satisfy it, but it just kept hitting you with
the whip. You will do this. You will do that. Now that law, that law, the very
law that I used to dread, that law secures me now because I'm
justified. I'm justified. He exalted the
law and made it honorable. When He saves a sinner, it's
an honorable thing. He blessed us in Christ, according
as He has chosen us in Christ, the whole foundation of the world,
that we should be holy without blame. Scripture said un-reprovable. Well, you're pretty good, but
I've got a few suggestions. Un-reprovable. In Christ. Not
in you. In Christ. And that's what salvation
is. Be in Christ. No blind. And then, He chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we might be
before him in love. And what that's saying is before
him being loved. We wasn't even born yet. We couldn't
love or not love. We wasn't even born yet when
this was going on. This is before the foundation
of the world. This is part of those blessings our heavenly
father decreed to bless us with. And he said, you're always going
to be before me in love because I've secured my love in my son. Oh, thank God. I love him. I do. I love him. But oh, thank
God he don't look at my pitiful love to be satisfied. But he looks at his son. And
he sees me. And he loves me. No matter what. He loves me. Oh, you can't say
that. Oh, yes, I can. Read Romans 8, see what it says.
Things present, things to come, life or death, death, heights,
I don't care what, nothing can separate you from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. You want to talk about
love, talk about His love. His love, and when you talk about
His love and you see His love manifested, now you have love
for Him. Isn't that what he says over
in 1 John 4? That's where your love is born. When you see the
love of God manifested in His Son, you can't help but love
Him. You suppose the Father loved
the Son? Can you even conceive of a time
that He didn't love His Son? Let me read to you a few verses
from our Lord's high priestly prayer over in John 17. John 17 beginning with verse
20. Our Lord's praying. This is high priestly prayer.
He's praying for his church. He says, and he prayed for his
disciples. He prayed for them. And then
he says in verse 20, neither pray I for these alone. but for
them also which shall believe on me through their work." He gave them the Father's work,
and they received it, and they believed it. And he said, I did
that, that they all might be one as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I've given to them, that they may be one, even as we are
one. Now listen to this. I in them, thou in me, that they
may be made perfect, just like God, in one, and that the world
may know that thou hast sent me, and this just blows my mind,
and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Next time you start to doubt
the love of God, the only time you're going to do
that is when you're looking in this black hole. Well, get your eyes
out of there and turn it back to the sun. and you'll never
doubt His love. What is the blessing? The blessing
is to be in Christ and to have Christ in you. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Oh, no, we're born of God and
I've got this invisible person in me and I've got this, the
Holy Spirit has supercharged me and I can do, that's not salvation. Salvation is having Christ in
here by faith. It's seeing Him who's perfect. He's the perfect Savior. He's
the perfect Savior. He's the only Savior. And God
reveals Him by faith in here. And He said, as you receive Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in faith. Huh? It ain't about your want
to. It's about His want to. It's
about His will. And His will is for Christ to
be in here. That's the hope of glory, Christ
in you. You can't even look yourself
in the mirror and think about the Lord looking
at you and saying, well done, my good and faithful son. You can't do that. You can't
look in the mirror and say that. But you can look to Christ in
the mirror of God's Word, and you can hear Him say it. I don't
believe that. I don't believe that He can see
me and His Son and say, well done, well done. Brother Larry brought that wonderful
message last night from Philippians 3, 8 and 9, to be found in Christ,
not having my own righteousness. Oh, my son. That's the blessing. And all those blessed in Christ,
chosen in Christ, predestinated in Christ, will be found in Christ. And they'll be found in Christ,
Colossians 3, 2, having all their affection set on things above. Why? Because that's where Christ
is. That's where Christ is. And listen,
here's what they know. You're dead. Am I talking about dead and trespassing
and sin? No. I'm dead in Christ. When Christ
died, I died. That's what he said. You're dead.
You're dead. Well, how can that be a blessing?
Well, we died in our substitute. That's where the blessing is.
You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. The blessing is to be in Christ
and Christ in you. That's the blessing. Listen to the Psalm in 128. He
said, Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, and walketh
in his ways. Now all those who know the true
and living God, fear him. I've heard this explained and
explained and explained away mostly. They fear him with a reverential
fear. I'll go along with that. But
you cannot possibly know him and not have this reverential
fear. He tells those ungodly of judgment,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. You
didn't know me and I didn't know you. Think about this. God Almighty
with one single command created a universe that we can't even
see the end of instantly out of nothing. I think we ought to fear Him,
don't you? By His sovereign decree, the
proud waves of the ocean, they just go so far. He said, you
can come to here, but you ain't going no more. By His power and wisdom, there's
a preserving order to everything that is. Why don't a big old
meteor slam into the earth and blow it to smithereens? Because there is a preserving
order in this universe. All things were made by Him and
for Him and by Him all things consist. That means they have
a continuance. They are not going to fall apart.
Every soul blessed by God the Father in Christ obtained an
inheritance. The Scripture said, being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. Everything. What does that mean? That means everything. Everything
means everything. All means all. The very providence that orders
our footsteps is brought to pass by His divine direction. Boy, I can look back in Ohio
and I can see the Lord's hand in it now. I can see it. Boy,
I couldn't see it then, though. I tell our folks all the time,
I said, take one of them big 1,200-piece puzzles, dump it
down on the floor, and hide the picture. Put it down. Pick up
one piece out of that puzzle and tell me what that picture
looks like. You can't do it, can you? You can't do it. You can't tell it till all the
pieces go together. But then you can look back and
you can see it. You can see it as clear as a
bell. The very providence that orders
our footsteps is brought to pass by His divine direction. He's
the Lord, He said, of the dead and the living. And to know Him
is to fear Him. Fear not them that can destroy
the body, fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in hell. Without His sovereign will and
His redemptive purpose of grace, no son of Adam will escape eternal
damnation. Blessed is everyone that feareth
the Lord, that walketh in his ways. Christ said, I am the way. That's
how we walk. We walk in Christ. But those
who walk in Christ, they walk in the way of grace. Because
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The ways of God, we walk
in the way of sovereign mercy. He told those Pharisees, he said,
you go learn what this means. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice.
I'm not come to call the righteous but sinners to repent. You go
learn what that means. Come back and we'll talk some
more. We walk in a way of accomplished
redemption. Not trying to make myself acceptable
to God. God did that in Christ. Boy, we'd mess that up, wouldn't
we? Henry told me a story one time. I can't even remember the
pastor's name now. Doctor somebody or other down
in Louisville. Anyway, he was down there preaching
a meeting for them. They'd been out to eat, and they
come back to the motel. And they stepped on the elevator.
It was a hotel downtown Louisville. They stepped on the elevator,
and this old drunk comes up, and he gets on the elevator.
And he's staggering around, and he's looking. He said, you look
like that Mahan guy. Henry said, well, I'm Henry Mahan. Oh, he said, you preach them
selected ones. He said, I suppose I do, yeah. He said, you saved me five years
ago. Henry looked at him and said,
looks like some of my work Oh, my soul. We walk in the way
of accomplished redemption. I can't imagine what kind of
mess we'd make out of that. I just can't imagine. We walk
in the way of imputed righteousness. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. We have to have a covering. And we walk in the way of revelation. We don't know anything. God has
to reveal everything to us. eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things that
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit. He made known mysteries hidden
from the foundation of the world, and He revealed them to His people.
And then thirdly, listen as the singer remembers when he found
out about being blessed by God. He said in verse three of our
text, Psalm 128, thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the
sides of thy house, thy children like olive plants round about
the table. Behold, that thus shall the man
be blessed that feareth the Lord. Verse five, the Lord shall bless
out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the
days of thy life. I've already told you what the
blessing is, it's God in Christ and he's talking here about the
Lord's wife, not yours. Not yours. The Lord's bride,
not yours, shall be fruitful. She's going to be free. She's
going to produce children. Heirs of God. Join heirs with
Christ. When Zion prevails, sons and
daughters will be born. When the angel, the minister
of God, came to Mary, he said, Mary, you're blessed. You're highly favored of God.
The Lord is with you. Blessed art thou among women. You're blessed Mary. And the
angel said, Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring
forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. For he shall save
his people from their sins. And he's going to be called the
Son of the Highest. Oh, that's a beautiful verse
of scripture. But he says the same thing about
his church. You didn't know that, did you?
This is also true of the bride of Christ. This is the word of
promise. At this time, I will come and
say we're going to have a child. But she can't. She's in her 90s
and he's over 100. But God said she would. They which are the children of
the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted for the sheep. The bride of Christ,
he says, is the mother of us all. Jerusalem, which is above,
is free. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the people of God. They're free. They're not in bondage, they're
free. Free from condemnation and free
from sin and free from disability, free from the law. Any man being
Christ, he's a new creature, old things pass away. We're born
disabled, but we're not disabled anymore. He made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance with saints in life. Jerusalem, all of God's elect
in Christ are free. Now watch this, and she's the
mother of us all. Listen to this, Galatians 4 verse
27. It's written, Rejoice thou barren
that bearest not. Who's that? That's physical men
and women trying to birth their self into the kingdom of God.
Oh, he said, Rejoice thou that bearest not, and break forth,
and cry thou that conveyest not. For the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath a husband. And now, listen to this, we brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of the promise. Children of the
promise. All those born of God are sons
of the highest. All in Christ. All in Christ. He shall bless they out of Zion. Zion is the church of the living
God whose head and king and husband is Christ the Lord. And I refuse
to believe that Christ is sterile. Religious men and women make
him out to be stale. He wants children and can't produce
them. Unable to produce children. And even his bride is barren. His gospel seed is sown in the
spiritual womb of his church and sons and daughters are born.
Isn't that what Peter said? You born again! Not by corruptible seed, that
word is semen, not by corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the
word of God. For all flesh is grass. All the
goodness of man is like the flower of the grass. An old dandelion
come up and shoot up a big pretty yellow bulb and then it turns
to nothing and the wind blows it away. And then he tells you
in verse 25, and this is the word. which by the gospel is
preached unto you. The gospel preached to you is
the seed of regeneration. And it's planted in the womb
of his church, and she brings forth sons and daughters. There shall never be a miscarriage
by the bride of Christ, but he shall see the good of Jerusalem
all his days. blessed of God, children that
love their father and love one another. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ, he is born of God, and every one
that loveth him that begat loveth him also that begotten of him.
The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, bring forth children
like olive plants all round the table. And then lastly, this
pilgrim singer. He begins to think on all the
results of being blessed. Verse 6 of our text in Psalm
128. Yea, thou shalt see thy children,
and thy children's children, and peace upon Israel, God's
elect. Let me tell you something. Our
family is the family of God. I have a family. I have a natural
family. But they're not like the family of God. I love them,
but I don't love them like I do the family of God. Our earthly
family is just a figure of the truth. My mother, my father, my brothers,
my sisters are all those blessed of God to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. They said to Christ, your mother
and your brethren are outside. They're asking for you. He said,
who is my mother? Who is my brethren? They that do the will of God. he put his hand and pointed right
at his disciples and he said behold my mother and my father
and my sister and my brethren whosoever shall do the will of
my father which is in heaven the same as my brother and sister
and mother and I tell you don't you dare
prefer them in your own family above those in the family of
God. Don't do it. Don't do it. The family of God
are one with Christ. And as often as you do something,
for the least of these, my brethren, He said, you're doing it to me.
You're doing it to me. Well, the same goes if you walk
away from Him, don't you? You're walking away from Him. He said, he that loveth father
and mother more than me, Not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter
more than me, not worthy of me. Only one man could say in complete
confidence that he would see his children and his children's
children, and you could take that another fifty times. All at peace with God. Every
one of them. All of them redeemed. All of
them saved. All of them at peace. All of
them enjoying fellowship with God. There's only one man who
can say that. That's the man, Christ Jesus.
And he's saying it about the children of God, not our natural
families. Oh, I pray the Lord will save
my children. I want Him to. He said, the promise is unto
you and your children and your children's children. The promise
goes out. I'd like to see them all bowing
at his feet. All sitting around the table.
All bringing to him children. Children with his name. And being one with his people.
We're going to see it too. One day we'll look around. I
love what old brother Barnard said. He said, I dreamed one
night that I died and went to heaven. And he said, I got up there and
he said they were singing the most beautiful song I ever heard. Oh, he said, I wanted to be with
them. I wanted to join in the singing. And he said, I looked,
and there was a multitude all around. You couldn't even see
the end of them. And he said, way up there. He
said, I've seen an empty seat. And he said, I scrambled up the
stairs, and I pushed my way around. Excuse me, excuse me. And he's
going all down that aisle. And he got all the way down there.
And when he got to the chair, there was a name on the back
of it that said, Ralph Barnard. Ralph Barnard. Blessed. Blessed is the man that feareth
God and walks in His way. May the Lord use this for His
name's honor and glory. Thank you so much.