Good morning, folks. I can't begin to tell you how
thankful me and my wife are to be amongst those here in Danville
again. It's been a while since we've
been here, since Don's funeral, but we think of you often and
we just delight in the fellowship of the saints here. David and
Teresa send their love and their greetings And I know he's probably
going to listen to this, and so if I didn't convey that, he's
my pastor now, and he has a way of coming down hard on some people.
But I love him dearly, and he loves us dearly. I love Teresa
as well, and many of the saints in Madisonville send their love
as well. And it's just been a wonderful
time fellowshipping with the saints there, and we just have
nothing but praise and all hearts to our God for moving us to that
area. We were driving from Evansville,
which is a good hour one way, and so we couldn't make Wednesday
night. We recently bought a home in Madisonville, one mile, if
that far, from the church and the church building, I should
say. Anyway, Judy just delights in that now because She had to
get up pretty early to make that drive on Sunday morning. But
anyway, it's good to be here. And I do pray the Lord will bless
the message as he allows me the honor of preaching to you one
more time. As someone said, let a man talk
long enough, he'll tell you what's in his heart. With some people,
that doesn't take long to get around to that subject. And usually,
they're talking about themselves. And I can go straight this way.
You take a golfer, if he hits a hole-in-one, everybody's going
to hear about that. But he never talks about the
bogeys, never talks about the sand traps or those things. He'll
talk about that hole-in-one or par even, but boy, if we make
a mistake, we try to hide that as much as we can from other
people. I want to mention also that politicians
are in that same camp. They know what you want to hear.
And so do false preachers. False preachers delight in talking
about themselves and giving you a false hope by telling you things
that are nothing but lies, trying to encourage you to look to self
and not to the Lord Jesus. I want to have you turn to Isaiah
chapter 14. I've titled this message, Speaking
from the Heart. Speaking from the Heart. Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew
15, 19, out of the heart, Proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. And
so the heart is the inward man. Where we think, in this respect,
there is a heart that pumps the blood through our bodies. But
the heart that we're talking about this morning is the inward
man. that place where we think, where
our thoughts are. The Holy Scriptures tell us this
about the heart, the inward person. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? As a man thinketh
in his heart, so is he. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. So I have four points on this
subject, speaking from the heart. God himself, first of all, God
himself speaking from his heart, the natural man speaking from
his heart, the incarnate Christ of God speaking from his heart,
and the enlightened child of God speaking from his heart. Now the natural man is estranged
from his mother's womb, going astray and speaking lies. That's
not just men, that includes the women also. I probably shared
this, but I'm old, so I can repeat myself. One woman said, well,
I knew all men were liars, but I didn't know that included the
women. Yes, ma'am, it includes the women as well. All of us
are born in sin. We have a wicked heart, and we
hate God. We're enmity against Him. We
will not come to Him that we might have life. But remember,
the heart in this respect is the inward person. And here in
Isaiah chapter 14 and in verse 24, we read, the Lord of hosts
hath sworn, saying, surely as I have thought. And we're talking
about where the thoughts are. So this is out of God's heart
is coming from his heart. Surely as I have thought, so
shall it come to pass. As I have purposed, so shall
it stand. I am just overwhelmed with this wonderful truth that
goes through my mind that I do not have the words to express
in the way that it should be expressed. God thought about
everything that he created way back in old eternity and never
had to give a second thought to what he was going to do. He
is so perfect as he thinks it shall come to pass. I don't know how many times I
have started a project and said, boy, I wish I'd given this a
little more thought. You might not have that problem, but I
do. Matter of fact, I have started buttoning my shirt and have gotten
down to the bottom and found out I started in the wrong buttonhole.
If I'd started at the bottom and work up, and I know that,
then I'd never make that mistake. But every time I make that mistake,
it's because I started in the wrong spot. So God is perfect,
and all of his thoughts are perfect. Now, listen. That included all of the fish
in the sea, all of the fowl in the air, all of the trees on
this earth, all of the leaves, all of the fruit trees, all of
the fruit, everything, all animals. You just go, oh, no wonder. We
read in the Scriptures that if all the things that our Lord
Jesus had done were written in books, the world itself could
not contain what He has done. But here, listen, He thought
on us. Isn't that wonderful? He gave
some thought to His chosen people way back before the world ever
began. He thought about everything that
was needed for us to come out of that awful pit that we were
in when we came into this world, all the way through this life
that He's ordained for us to live in, all the way to glory,
He thought on us. And in His appointed time, He
revealed our need of Christ, and revealed that Christ is all
we need. That's amazing, that God Himself
would think on anything that he wanted to come to pass, and
it comes to pass just exactly like he thinks. And he tells
us in this 24th verse, he purposed it. He says, as I have purposed,
so shall it stand. Who's going to stop him from
doing what he purposed? He's God Almighty. I don't care
what these people here on this earth who are steeped in false
religions are saying. They can't do anything to disannul
what God has purposed. They can't. They cannot even
change one little thing that He has purposed. He's God. and he's to be worshipped as
God. I want to take you back to Genesis chapter 6 now, because
I don't want to spend too much time on one subject, although
we could spend an eternity on this subject of God's perfection.
But I want to show you on this second point, speaking from the
heart, the natural man and how he speaks from the heart and
what's in his heart. Now folks, any doctrine that
promotes man's doings in the salvation of God's elect is false. It's false. That's including
the doctrine of man's so-called free will. Man doesn't have a
free will. The will isn't bound to his nature.
And we have a fallen nature because of Adam's sin, and we come into
this world with that fallen nature, and that inward man His nature
is to do evil, and the will is in bondage to that. When God
sends His Spirit into our heart, the Spirit of Christ into our
heart, we're partakers of His nature, a new nature, and the
will is in bondage to the new nature. There's a struggle going
on, but that new nature is able to
do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And so we
need to know, and I know you know this, I know you're aware
of what I'm about to read. I said Genesis 6, but I'll drop
back to Genesis 5 for a moment. No, Genesis 6, I made another
mistake. Verses 7 and 8. And the Lord
said, no, verse 5 and 6. and God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, now listen to this,
and that every imagination Every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually, and it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And that's language that we can understand, God speaking in language
that we can understand. But every imagination of the
thoughts of man's sinful heart is only evil continually. You say, Preacher, are you saying
my mama was evil? Are you saying my grandparents
are evil? Are you saying my children are evil? No, I'm not saying
that. God says that. God himself tells us that all
of us come into this world and we're strains from our mother's
womb going astray and speaking lies. We learn to lie at a very
early age. We lie to keep from getting punished. God doesn't have to lie. He's
pure. He's holy. He never did anything
wrong. Whatever He does is right, and
it's perfect, and it's pure. He has no fear of being punished.
What can He be punished for? We lie to try to gain things
in this world. You say, well, I don't. How many lies do we have to tell
to prove that we're liars? Yes, we do. We do. People file
their income taxes just full of lies about things. I'm not
saying you do, but most people do. But God doesn't have to lie
to gain anything. The world and the fullness thereof
is the Lord's. The cattle and a thousand hills
belong to Him and that just means every hill and every cattle and
everything else is His. He owns it all and He gives as
it pleases Him to whomsoever He is pleased to give it to.
We lie to gain higher positions in this life. make out our resumes and sometimes we just don't tell
all the truth. God holds the highest position
of any position. He's on His sovereign throne
of power. Everything's under His sovereign
control. And he's working all things after
the counsel of his own will. Can't get any higher than that.
So we have to learn, and I know we know this if God has enlightened
us, that the natural man is enmity against God and there's nothing
in us that pleases God. The scriptures teach us that.
Now here in Genesis chapter six and verse eight, We read, but
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now there are people
who foolishly and sinfully say that Noah was seeking for God's
grace. That's not what this word found
is referring to. God didn't find grace in the
eyes of Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Now that's not right. God found
grace in the eyes of Noah. And he wasn't seeking that grace. God looked upon Noah with unmerited
favor. That's what the word grace means.
If Noah could have sought God and found God and found God's
grace, it would have ceased to be grace. It's unmerited favor.
If he could have purchased it, if he could have earned it by
his doings, it would cease to be grace. Grace is sovereign
grace. I like the way Todd Nyberg put
it. He said if it's God's grace, it's sovereign. If it's not sovereign,
it's not God's grace, and that's exactly right. So we have found
grace in the eyes of the Lord, and it's all because of His eternal
purpose. He purposed that. He saved us
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. And God reveals that to
His people. Now, if you will, turn over to
John chapter 17. Let's consider the incarnate
Christ speaking from His heart. John 17, the incarnate Christ
speaking from His heart. Our Lord Jesus was sent from
the heart of God. He is the heart of God. And there was a voice that came
from heaven while He was walking on this earth that said, This
is my beloved Son. Hear ye Him. We're to hear the Lord Jesus
Christ. He spoke to His people through
the prophets in olden days, but in these latter days He is speaking
unto us through His Son. We're to hear the Lord Jesus.
And he speaks clearly from his heart. There are a lot of scriptures
we could go to in John 6 in verses 37 and 38. Our Lord Jesus said,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in all wise cast out. And He tells us why. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone that seeth
the sun shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Those
are the words from Christ Himself. And we're to hear Him. He told
His people and us, in this generation, every generation from the time
He said this, He told us that He lays down His life for the
sheep. Not the goats, for the sheep. Then he told some unbelieving
Jews who said, if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. And
he told them, I told you plainly, and you believe not. And here's
what he said to them that we need to lay to heart. Ye believe not, because ye are
not of my sheep. He makes a clear distinction
between His sheep and those unbelieving Jews, between His sheep and the
goats, between the wheat and the tares. He makes that distinction. God does. And we're to listen
to the words of our Lord Jesus. Now, He's praying this high priestly
prayer. Here in John chapter 17, he has
not yet gone to the cross, but it's right before him, and he's
praying as if the work was already done. And in verse 1, we read,
These words speak Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven,
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy
son also may glorify thee. This is from His innermost being,
from His mind, where He thinks. He's praying to His Father. He's
in subjection to His Father. He came to do His Father's will.
And He's praying to His Father and declaring that He is... that the hour has come and that
The Father has promised to glorify Him. He says, Glorify thy Son,
that thy Son also may glorify thee. Now I ask you, has God
glorified Him? You can nod, or you can say Amen,
or you can agree with me. Listen, He's on His throne, Jesus
Christ, the God-man. was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Therefore, because of that, God
has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things
in heaven. That means he's sovereign of
things in heaven. Every knee should bow of things
in earth. That means he's sovereign over everything on this earth.
Every knee should bow if things are under the earth, and I don't
know how to explain that except whatever's under there, he's
over that too. And we're to confess that he
is Lord. Capital L-O-R-D. Lord, supreme controller over
everything. Jesus Christ has been glorified. And he says in verse two, as
thou hast given him power, as God the Father has given his
Son power over all flesh, that he, the Lord Jesus, should give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given him. He has
power over all flesh. That was Jesus Christ speaking
back in Genesis 6, when we read an all-found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. There's only one Lord, three
divine persons that make up one glorious God, yes, but one Lord,
one God. And Jesus Christ, the second
person of the Blessed Trinity, is equal with the Father in essence,
in power, and in purpose. And you cannot glorify God if
you do not honor His Son. even as you honor the Father.
And he says in verse 3, this is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
So we're to hear the words of our Lord Jesus, and these are
His words. Look at verse 9. I pray for them. Who is He praying for? His elect,
His chosen people, those the Father gave Him. I pray for them.
I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given
Me, for they are Thine. I wonder why those who are taking
the word world in John 3.16 and making that universal, John 3.16,
yeah, making that universal, and refused to take the word
world in other places where it's used in a limited sense and point
people to that. The writer of the book of Acts,
Luke, he said the gospel turned the whole world upside down.
And that was used in a limited sense. He didn't mean the whole
wide world. He meant the world of that area where the gospel
was preached. And so the Lord He's speaking
from his heart here. Look at verse 24. Father, I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am
that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Now folks, we're
going to be with him. If our faith is in Jesus Christ
and only in Jesus Christ, if we believe He's Lord of all,
if we believe that He humbled Himself, was born of a virgin,
walked on this earth in perfect obedience, establishing a righteousness
for His people, the only righteousness that God will accept, if we believe
that He went to that cross, and He laid down His life for us,
redeeming us in His precious blood, that all of our sins have
been put away from God's sight forever by the blood of Jesus
Christ. If we believe that God has raised
Him from the dead and put Him on this earth, if we believe
that, brethren, we're going to be with Him. I know we sorrow
when our Lord takes a loved one from us, and it doesn't matter. if it's one who's in Christ or
isn't in Christ. Death is a painful experience. And if you've lived as long as
I have, you've seen death in a lot of
loved ones. But those in Christ, we sorrow
for them, but not as those who have no hope. We have a hope,
a living hope, a hope that God has put there, which is Christ
in us, the hope of glory. And our Lord assures us, giving
us His promise, that we're going to be with Him. And He tells
us while we're here in this life, Lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world. What a God! What a promise! All the promises of God are in
Christ and they're all yea and they're all amen. For His people,
His chosen people. Now, let me give you one more
point. I'll bring this to a close. Turn
to Mark. the book of Mark chapter 5 and
I thought about this as an illustration to this closing point and we
could go to many places in the scripture but in Mark we have
the account of the man possessed with a legion of demons and our
Lord tells us in His Word, that the reason
He went there was for that man. The reason we know that, because
as soon as this man was healed, the Lord got in the boat and
His disciples and left. It was for that man. And He was
possessed. He was possessed. He loved the
fellowship of those in the cemetery more than He loved the fellowship
of living people, and that's us. We'd rather, in our natural
state, spend company with spiritually dead people than the Lord's people. And the Lord came to him, and
then he drew that man to himself, and he commanded those demons
to leave him, and they went out. Then we find this man at the side of Jesus Christ our
Lord, sitting and clothed and in His right mind, where we think. And I believe that the word sitting
points to the rest that we enter into. When our Lord Jesus calls
us out of darkness, we enter into His finished work. We enter
into His eternal rest. And when we do, we cease from
our own works as God did from His. Jesus Christ is our Sabbath. And this man was sitting. That's
what we're doing here. We're sitting before the Lord
Jesus Christ, worshiping Him in spirit and in truth. He was
clothed, not only his naked body clothed with clothes that covered
that naked body, but he was clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That's our clothing. That's our
garment. We have the righteousness of
Christ imputed to us by God himself if we believe that Jesus was
delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. That's perfect righteousness. With all of those stitches, if there are
any, but it's a woven garment from top to bottom, no stitches.
But no stitches for man's doings. All of God's doings. All of God's
grace. And this man, wanted to go and
be with the Lord Jesus. So, we read here in Mark chapter
5. I've got to get to Mark 5. Starting at verse 9. No. And they came to Jesus, and see
him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion sitting,
and clothed, and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And
they saw it, told them how it befell to him that was possessed
with the devil, and also concerning the swine, and they began to
pray him. to depart out of their coast.
Now these are wicked people, owners of the pigs. They would
rather the Lord would leave than for him to mess with their pocketbook.
And that's what this is all about. And that's what false preachers
are all about. Money. They want money. Money,
money, money. They don't care about man's souls.
They don't care about the glory of God. They want your money.
And verse 18, we read, and when he was coming to the ship, that's
our Lord Jesus, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed
him that he might be with him. How be it? And you know, I don't
blame him. He's got a new master. He wanted
to go with his new master. Isn't that the same with us?
We want to be with our master. That's just characteristic of
every enlightened child of God. We want to be with Christ. And
this man wanted to go with his Savior. Howbeit, we read in verse
19, Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy
friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for
thee, and hath had compassion on thee. That's what our Lord commissioned
him to do. Go tell your friends what great
things the Lord hath done for you. And he obeyed the Lord. And in the next verse, we read verse 20. And he departed. and began to publish and decouple
us, how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did
marvel. Now that's not a contradiction. Our Lord told him, go tell thy
friends what great things the Lord hath done for thee. And
he told his friends what great things Jesus had done for him.
He knew Jesus Christ was the Lord. And rather, that's our
testimony. We tell our friends and our neighbors,
our loved ones, every gospel preacher stands before people
telling them what great things the Lord Jesus has done for us. That's our message. Christ and
Him crucified. Christ and Him crucified. Christ
and Him raised from the dead. Christ on His sovereign throne
of power. Christ giving salvation to all
of His chosen people. God enlightening our minds, giving
us a testimony that gives our Lord Jesus all the praise and
all the glory. We don't tell people what we
have done. We don't tell people that without your monies, we
can't do anything. The Lord's done all He can. The
rest is up to you. Can you imagine this man going
to his friends and making those kinds of statements? I'm so thankful
I was a master of my own destiny. I'm so thankful I had the wisdom
to know that I could make a decision for Jesus and I had a free will.
Can you imagine him saying that? That's blasphemy. We don't do
that. We give Jesus Christ all the
praise and All of glory. Now I told you this would be
my closing passage, but I've got to show you something else
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and I promise I'll quit. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, if you would turn there with me please. We don't know the mind of Christ. We don't know the mind of people
around us. I sometimes think my wife can
read my mind, but we've been married 61 years, and so we know
one another pretty well. Aren't you thankful people can't
read your mind? We don't know what's in the mind
of God until he reveals his mind to us. And that's what the Apostle
Paul, writing under divine inspiration, is saying here. In 1 Corinthians 2, look at verse
11. For what man knoweth the things
of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Now I know what
I'm thinking, but you don't. Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
That's how we know what's in the mind of God. That's how we
know what's in the heart of our Lord Jesus. That's how we know
the truth. We compare spiritual with spiritual. Look at the next verse. Which
things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. This book, this Bible, this Holy
Bible, all the way from Genesis 1 all the way through the book
of Revelation is His story. Jesus Christ all the way through,
all the way through. Every passage of scripture leads
us to Jesus Christ and it's the responsibility of every gospel
preaching man that God sends to get our hearers on that path
to Jesus Christ as soon as we possibly can. Now folks, if it
hadn't been for God sending the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. This gospel would be nothing
but foolishness to us. Look at verse 14. But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. This gospel that gives our Lord
all the glory is foolishness to the natural man. foolishness. And it was to us, as well, before
our wonderful, slovenly Lord took residence up here in the
inner room. That's who we think. The heart
is who we think. We have a new heart. And that
new heart delights in the truths of the Gospel. This assembly
here has sounded out from your hearts this true gospel for many,
many years, reaching the ears of God's assembled people all
over the United States and in other parts of the world as well. And I count it a great honor
to be amongst you. fellowshipping with those who
love the truth. I really do want to encourage
all of us to keep looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith, giving Him all the praise and all the glory,
telling others what great things our Lord Jesus Christ has done
for us. Thank you again for allowing
me and my wife to be with you, and may He be pleased to keep
these wonderful truths embedded in our hearts, and as we have
the opportunity, testify of His amazing grace through the merits
of Christ alone. Amen. Thank you.