Well, I thank you for everything
you've done for us. I know I speak on behalf of these
preachers. Thank you. all that you've done
for your hospitality, for your service, the food. Ladies, it's
just marvelous. Just wonderful. And men, all
the work that goes into putting on a conference. Just thank you
so much. It's been a blessing. It's been
good. Thank you, men, for these messages,
each and every message. Thank you. It has been a blessing. You're going to hear that word
a lot this morning. Bless him. Thank the Lord for your beloved
pastor. I love this man. You're blessed to have this man.
Greatly blessed. Not only is he a beloved man,
a Christ-like man, a dear man, a loving man, a kind man, a merciful
man, a gracious man. Boy, he's a preacher. That's the blessing of it. And
I know you feel blessed, don't you, Brother Darvin, to have
these people. I have some people that actually love me and like
me. Brother Chris, you've got to
like a fellow to listen to him preach. If you don't like him,
you're not going to hear a word he says. Turn with me to Numbers chapter
6. I'm the last message, I guess, and I'm the least. But I thought
about it before Brother Darwin told me. the schedule. And the last message. What I want to do is give the
benediction. The benediction. We've heard
five wonderful messages. Benediction means blessing. And I want to give the blessing
to close the service. And in Numbers chapter 6, Numbers
chapter 6, Look at verses 22 and following. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto Aaron and unto his son, saying, On this wise ye
shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless
thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. the Lord, lift up his countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. And they, that is Aaron and his
sons, shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I
will bless them. This is the blessing. We want
to be a blessing, don't we? The Lord has blessed us this
week, hasn't he? We've been blessed through the
preaching of God's word. Preachers want to be a blessing.
We want to bless the Lord. The word bless, if you look it
up, means to bend the knee. Bend the knee. When we bless
the Lord, when we bless our Lord, and Scripture is just full of
that, isn't it? Oh, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul,
and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. We bow our
knee to him, don't we? We worship the Lord. We praise
him and give him thanks. We bend the knee or bow the knee
and bless our Lord. Well, how does the Lord bend
the knee to us and bless us? By condescending to us, by stooping
to where we are, like that woman caught in the, and the act of
adultery, the Lord stooped down and he blessed her. And what's
the blessing of all blessings? I can't wait to say this. I just
quoted Psalm 103, didn't I? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Number one, the
blessing of blessings, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. He told
that woman, didn't he? Thy sins be forgiven. Everything
else, just gravy. That's the blessing. That's the blessing. Preachers
want to be a blessing, we want to be blessed. Well, here it
is. He's made it easy on us. We want
to be a blessing, we want our preaching to be a blessing. He
tells us what to tell them. I used to be, didn't like the
term, say the blessing. You know, that's an old, you
know, somebody's going to close in prayer, would you say the
blessing? I didn't, used to like it, but
I, I've been, I've been corrected. Right here it says in our text,
say the blessing. This is the blessing you're supposed
to say to them. The blessing. Now the world,
uses this term a lot. You hear it, it's very popular
today. Have a blessed day. You hear that and you go into
a convenience store and a girl behind the counter, have a blessed
day. Maybe she means that. I guess people mean well, but
I think they're just trying to tell you they're religious. Don't
you? Maybe they mean it. What they
mean by that is I hope everything goes well. I hope you don't have
a flat tire. Blessings. But not one material
thing is mentioned here. Not one material thing is mentioned
here. When Paul talked about the blessings of the Lord, he
said, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed, he blesses God. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. Spiritual blessings, where are
they? in Christ Jesus. That's what these men have been
saying. They've been so blessed because we've heard the blessing,
the blessing of blessing, the greatest blessing of all. We've
heard the gospel preached to them. We've heard Christ lifted
up. Ryan, young Ryan said, we've been blessed. Oh, we're so blessed
to hear the preaching. This is the blessing. The blessing
of blood. Isaiah 65, 16 says, he that blesseth
himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth.
We're so blessed to hear the truth. What is the truth? It's
not a what. It's a who. Christ said, I am
the truth. We've heard Christ lift it up.
Listen to that. I've quoted this for years and
I've quoted half of it. When Jacob said, I'm not worthy
of all the mercies. Have you ever quoted that? I'm
not worthy of all the mercies you've shown me. It reads like
that. I am not worthy of all the mercies
and of all the truth that you've shown unto your servant. That's
the blessing, the truth. Paul said, blessed, blessed be
our God and Father who hath blessed us, hath chosen us in Christ,
electing grace, predestinating grace, adopting grace. These
are the blessings. This is the blessing. Accepting
grace, redeeming grace, forgiving grace, abounding, revealing grace,
gathering grace, gathered us. We're blessed to be gathered
here. You know how many people are
sitting under a false gospel right now? You know what people
are hearing all over the land right now? You know how few people
are sitting, worshiping the true and living God, and hearing Christ
pray? You know how few people there
are? Many are called, but few are chosen. This is the blessing
in it, be chosen by God, elect of God, precious to Him, and
gathered together to hear this gospel of His Son, of His darling
Son. Gathering grace. Oh, my inheriting
grace, sealing grace. These are the blessings. This
is the blessing. Bless God for the blessing of salvation. Psalm
3 verse 8 says, salvation belongeth unto the Lord and His blessing
is upon His people. His chosen people. The blessing
which we find here in our text in Numbers chapter 6. is for
the Lord to speak unto us through his word, to preach unto us the
truth. It's all found right here. Look
at verse 22, look at it with me. The Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, speak unto Aaron and unto his son, and on this wise
you shall speak to them, bless them. The Lord spake, the Lord
spoke his word. How blessed we are to have God's
word. Do you know what it took for
us to have this book? I mean, men have laid down their
lives, been burned at the stake for us to have a copy of this
book. Do you know how blessed we are?
Our Lord said in Revelation 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ
said, blessed are they that read this book. Do you know how few
people read this book? Do you have a desire to read
this book? Do you know how blessed we are to read this book? Do
you love to read the word of God? Do you love to hear it read?
He said, blessed are they that read the words of this book.
And he went on to say, blessed are they that hear the words
of this book. You know how blessed we are to hear the preaching
of God's word? Preach the word, Timothy. And
he says that to all of his people. What's the word? It's person.
How blessed we are to hear God's Word preached. Blessed are they
that keep it, that lay hold of it, that believe it, that understand
it. You know how blessed we are to
have an understanding of what we hear, huh? The people in Nehemiah,
when they heard Ezra and all of them give the sense of the
reading, they all at the same time were laughing and crying,
weren't they? Because they understood. What a blessing. This is the blessing. The blessing.
For the Lord to speak to us. for the Lord to speak his word
to us through a preacher of the gospel. He sent Aaron, he sent
his son, he sent these men to preach the gospel to his chosen
people. Look at it. He says in verse
23, on this wise you shall bless the children of Israel. Jacob,
the sons of Jacob. I'm the God of Jacob. You know,
he calls himself by that name more than any other. Did you
know that? Jacob have I loved. Jacob have I chosen. And Jacob
said, I'm not, oh, how blessed I am to all the mercy and truth
that you've shown. He sent his word unto Jacob.
He didn't do that for everybody, but unto Jacob. Oh, the Lord to the prophets,
to Moses, to Aaron, the high priest, to his sons, God, who
at sundry times in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his sons. Oh, he's committed his word to
men to preach the gospel, bless the Lord for this preaching of
the gospel. Why haven't you been blessed
so far? Look at verse 23 here in our
text. He says, speak unto Aaron and unto his son. On this wise
ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, the
Lord bless thee. Now this is not a hope, this
is not a wish, this is not even a prayer. He's saying this, I
will bless them, I have blessed them, I am blessing them. This
is a pronouncement of a blessing. He's not hoping, I hope they're
blessed by this. No, God is pronouncing a blessing
through these preachers of God. This is the blessing. The Lord
blessed them. This is to the children of Israel.
Here it is. The Lord bless thee. The Lord. Who's that? The Lord
God. The Lord God merciful and gracious. The Lord God long-suffering,
abundant in goodness and what? Truth. Keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. You hear one material
thing? Not yet. Now we bless the Lord, we thank
the Lord for all things, don't we? He giveth us all things richly
to enjoy. He satisfies our mouth with good
things, doesn't he? He really does. And we thank
the Lord for these things, for food and raiment and family and
all of that, but that's not the greatest blessing. This is the
blessing of all. Well, the world thinks, you know,
to have health and wealth and abundance of these things is
the blessing of the Lord. You're blessed of the Lord to
have these things. When in fact it can be a curse. A curse. And God's blessing upon
His people can be to remove these things. Right? Trials and tribulations and trouble. All of God's people go through
tribulations and trials. He removes these things. All
right, give you an illustration. Here's a man, here's Job. Lying
in, sitting in ashes, scraping his skin, the boils on his skin. He's lost his family, he's lost
his home, he's lost all his material blessings. He's lost everything
that this world has. Lost his help. And here's three
fellas over here who hadn't lost any of that. You've still got it all, got
their health, got their families, got their possessions and all
that. Who's the blessed one? Who's the blessed one here? Now
here's another illustration. An old 95-year-old woman, my
mother, 95-year-old woman, lost her husband, lost her daughter,
lost her son, about lost her health, Only place she can go to is church
and Walmart. Here's a young lady in her prime,
young, going off to the finest school in the land, got all of
her life ahead of her, youth. Who would you rather be? Hmm? Things are not as they seem,
are they? Blessings are material, spiritual. to know the Lord,
no cry. Oh, bless them, bless them. On this wise ye shall bless the
children of Israel, the children of Israel, saying unto them,
the Lord bless thee. Look at this, the Lord bless
thee, verse 24. The Lord, the Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ bless thee. Millions clamor for and seek
the blessing of a man in Rome, don't they? Millions upon millions
think they need this blessing by this man in Rome, when in
fact they're under the curse. But brethren, God's people have
a man in glory at the right hand of the majesty on high who can
and does indeed bless his people. They are absolutely, completely,
certainly and surely blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. The Lord bless thee. The Lord Jesus Christ bless thee. when the Lord Jesus Christ blessed
His disciples by choosing them, by revealing Himself to them.
He said, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man am? And they
began to say things about it. Many say this, many say that.
He said, whom do you say that I am? And Simon Peter, one time
he spoke up and I'm glad he did. He said, listen to what he said.
He said, we believe, no we're sure. that thou art the Christ. The Christ, the Son of the living
God. The Christ, that's what David prayed. The Christ, we
believe and are sure, aren't we? Huh? Aren't we? No ifs, ands,
or buts about it. No, don't we? Don't you? Nod
your head if you do. We believe that this is the Christ,
the Christ we've heard, the Christ, the prophet, the priest, the
king, the intercessor, the mediator, the atonement, the blood atonement,
the savior, God manifesting, Emmanuel, God with us, the woman's
seed, and on and on it goes. We believe that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ, don't we? Why? He said, flesh and blood
didn't reveal that to you, but my father, which is blessed are
your ears. They hear blessed are your eyes.
They say, blessed is your heart. You've received blessed, blessed,
blessed, blessed. He conferred that blessing. You're
blessed. You know, me, he said, the Lord blessed. Oh, and look
at the next step. The Lord bless thee and keep
that. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. Oh my, listen to what Peter said.
You know, these apostles, they all preached Christ. They preached
the same message, didn't they? And Simon Peter, like Paul in
Ephesians 1, he said, here's what, first thing he said, elect. Didn't he? First thing out of
his mouth. He knew fishing was his life, boats were his life,
John, James, Andrew, fishing, these things were their life,
but Christ came to, they were dead in trespasses and sin, but
Christ came to give them life, true life, spiritual life, life
more abundant, that doesn't consist in things. but consist in Him
who is life. And Christ who was their life,
is their life, came along and chose them and called them from
death unto life, didn't He? Called them out of those things
to Him. And Simon Peter, he knew that. All of God's people know that.
Does a person have to believe an election to be saved? Yes! Come on! If you've been elect, ask Abraham that. Did you choose
God or did he choose you? Are you kidding? I was a 75-year-old
idolater. Ask Simon Peter, did you choose
Christ or did he choose you? Are you kidding? Are you serious? I'd heard about that rabbi, that
Jewish rabbi. I didn't give a flip for him.
Boats were my life. You can't preach the gospel without
saying these two words, but God. Christ came to where I was and
called me and chose me. They that are with him are called
and what? Chosen and faithful, full of faith in him and faithful
to him, his glory and his honor. Peter said, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God through sanctification of spirit. Oh,
God has chosen us through sanctification of spirit to what? Believe the
truth, to believe Christ. He said, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant
mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance. Sounds just
like Ephesians 1, doesn't it? It is. To an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away. Here's that inheritance, that
reservation. By the way, Brother Bruce Crabtree
coined a new word, Chris, you'll love it. Perseverance of the
saints. That's what he called it. Perseverance. That's exactly what it is. Persevere
because they're preserved. That's what he said. To an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith. And faith's not of yourself,
it's a gift, it's an act of God. upon you, in you, unto salvation. Just ready to be revealed. It
just remains to be seen. It's all over with the shouting.
The Lord keep thee. The Lord keep thee. The word
keep means a few things. The word keep means to retain,
not throw away. The word keep means to protect,
watch over, guard, defend. The word keep means to provide
for. The Lord keep thee. The Lord keep thee. The Lord
is going to cast out many people in this world. Scripture says
he's going to fold up this earth like a vesture and throw it away. But God is going to keep some of them. Why? Are they worth keeping? Some he's going to keep reserved.
He said, I've reserved unto myself, Elijah, reserved unto myself,
for me, for my glory, for my honor, to the praise of the glory
of my electing, keeping grace. I've reserved unto me. 7,000 have not bowed the knee
to Baal. They all bowed the knee to me. Kept by me. Hmm. Who does he keep? You know, we got some fishermen
in here. Chris is a fisherman. Anybody else? I know Arkansas. Everybody in here is a fisherman,
I guess. But when you go fishing, you catch some little ones, don't
you? Little bluegill. What do you do? Throw them away.
It's not a keeper. You don't keep those, do you,
Mike? Throw it out there. And then you catch a big old
bass, you know. Remind me, Chris, to show you
a picture. I just caught one. But you keep these big ones.
That's the ones you keep, isn't it? Huh? So why? So you can show
them. So you can show everybody. So
you can send pictures. That's not who the Lord keeps.
The only ones he keeps are the little ones. That's the only ones that keep.
You see your calling, brother? Huh? How not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. God hath chosen the weak things. The little ones, the
nobodies, the nothings that confound the things that are mighty, the
base things of the world, things which are despised hath God chosen.
Hath who chosen? God hath chosen. Yea, things
that are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. But of God are you in Christ,
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. The Lord keep thee. Not worth
keeping. They all ought to be cast out,
shouldn't they? Huh? Let the Lord keep that. Here's
the blessing. Here's the promise. The Lord's
gonna keep you. He has, he does, and he shall. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come unto me, and he that cometh to me, what?
I shall in no wise cast out, under no circumstance, for any
reason whatsoever, I will not cast him out. Oh man, I remember as a preacher,
Brother Henry Breedlove, you remember Henry Breedlove, down
in Sillicog, Alabama, down in Buzzard's Roost, Alabama. Brother
Henry, when I was a kid, I'd go there and a man be preaching
like Henry Mahan or Pharoah Griswold, some of these men be preaching.
And Brother Henry, and I had, I was a preacher's kid, I had
to sit on the front row. I had to sit on the front row. By the
way, young people, nobody in the history of preaching I don't
think has died in the services. So don't, it's almost over. I'm the last. But I'd be sitting
there on the front row and I'd hear this man, somebody, a preacher
would say something, I'd hear this man laugh. He'd laugh. And I thought, I didn't hear
that joke. I didn't hear the joke. You know, did you hear me laugh? I catch myself laughing now.
What is it? Well, Psalm 126 says, When the Lord turned again our
captivity, we were like them that dreamed. It's too good to
be true. Then our mouths were filled with
laughter. And we said, The Lord hath done.
The Lord hath done great things for us. We're glad. The Lord is going to keep you.
He's promised that. If you come to Christ, and the
only reason you came is because He brought you. He's going to
keep you. That's His Word. No ifs, ands,
or buts about it. You know, all the promises of
God are in Christ are yea and amen. Amen means that's the
way it is. Yea means yes. And I think of
yea like this, as a cheer. Yea! Is it good news to you? Yeah!
Amen. That's the way it is. Nobody
can change it. The Lord's going to keep you.
He promised. If you're in Christ, if you trust Christ, you look
to Him. None of them that trust in Him shall be cast out. Not
one of them. Keep means to protect. Keep means
to watch over. Keep means to guard, to defend. Keep means to protect. Listen
to this. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from
the Lord. Brethren, Egypt is a vain place
for safety. Pharaoh. Some trust in horses. Some trust in chariots. Some
trust in arms. Some trust in the United States.
Some trust in their riches. Some trust in the government.
It's a vain thing. It's all coming down. Smith and
Wesson doesn't protect you and your family. The Lord does. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth, who? Israel shall neither slumber
nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. He's
a shade on your right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this
time forth and forevermore. The Lord preserve thee and keep
thee. You have his word on it. Is this a blessing? This is the
blessing. Now unto him, and you quote it,
now unto him that is able to what? Keep thee from falling
and present us faultless before the presence of his glory. The
Lord keep thee. That's the blessing. The word
keep means to provide for. Some of you have cattle in here. I know if you're Arkansas, you
fish and you have cattle or horses. You say about a horse or whatever
that he's an easy keeper, don't you? Is he an easy keeper, you
know? Never say that about wives or
husbands, Jan. We're high maintenance. We're
the bride of Christ, you know that? We're high maintenance.
We're not easy keepers. We need everything. The word
keep means to provide for. Everything given to you. Everything
done for you. We're not easy keeper. We need
everything. We have nothing. Christ said,
I preserve you. I keep you. I defend you. I protect
you. I give unto you. I give. I give. I give. He's made unto us all
things. Everything we need. Provided
for us in Christ. The Lord keep thee. Look at the
next line in our text in Numbers. It says, The Lord make his face
shine upon thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee. Now no man hath seen God at any
time, but The only begotten Son, which was in and is in the bosom
of the Father, he had the clarity. God was manifest in the flesh.
Brother Chris quoted it. God who caused the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God, the person, the work
of our God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing of blessings. Our
Lord said, He that seeth the sun. This is the will of the
Father. He that seeth the sun and believeth on him. Nobody's
seen God with these eyes, but some have seen God in the flesh
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Job said, I'm gonna see Him with
my own eyes. Not another. I'm gonna see Him. We're gonna
see God. Well, who is God? Jesus Christ. You're gonna see Him as a man
in glory. God-man. Oh, what a blessing! We see him
with the eye of faith. The sun of righteousness has
arisen with healing his wing to shine upon his people. Moses
saw the Lord, didn't he? Moses saw the Lord in the cleft
of the rock. Moses saw the Lord in the burning
bush, didn't he? What's that? Christ crucified. That's where he saw him. That's
where he proclaimed his name, merciful, gracious, long-suffering,
forgiving, and iniquitous. Christ and him crucified. Moses
saw him. Moses saw his glory. And when
he came down from that mountain, his face shone, didn't it? When
God shined his face upon Moses, Moses' face shined. And so it
is with God's people. When they hear the gospel, when
they finally hear the gospel, they pass from death unto life.
Their countenance changes. We have an old, he's not old,
he's younger than me. A fella who rode the rodeo circuit
for 15 years. Rode hard and put up wet, Walter.
And he looked it. He'd broken every bone in his
body. And he looked old when I first met him. The Lord revealed
himself to him. And buddy, I've seen, we've seen
a change coming over that man. The dew of youth on his back,
this whole countenance has changed. Christ in him. That's the way
it is when the Lord reveals the truth to you. You see Christ
and Him crucified. He's made His face to shine upon
you. Look at the next line. And be gracious unto you. The
Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
If He has shown you Christ and Him crucified, He has been gracious
unto you. It doesn't say offer grace unto
you. Grace is not an offer of God, it's an act of God. It said
the Lord be gracious unto you. Be gracious, show grace, confer
grace, bestow grace. Every epistle, listen to the
epistles of Paul. Every epistle begins and ends
this way. Grace, mercy, and peace be unto
you. And it ends that way. Grace,
be unto you. Not I sure hope the Lord is gracious,
he offers you. No, no. Be unto you. Grace is an act of God. An act
of God the Father upon us, an act of God the Son for us, an
act of God the Holy Spirit in us. It's something God does to
us and for us, doesn't it? It's an act of God. Grace, mercy,
and peace be unto you. The Lord be gracious unto you. The blessing, the blessed unspeakable
gift of God is the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
unspeakable gift is Christ in Him crucified. If you understand that, if you
believe him and trust him, the Lord is gracious to you. Grace
of all graces. The Lord be gracious unto you.
Look at the next line. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon them. Smile upon them. That's what
that meant. The Lord lift up his countenance
on you. God does not smile on this earth. And you probably noticed it,
but his preachers don't smile too much. Because it's too serious. They're not clowns. This is life
and death, it really is. If you watch my father's video,
most in here esteem him highly, you watch his video TV, he never
smiled one time. You'll never see him smile one
time. Is he angry at people? Is he
mad at people? No, it's just too serious. The
opposite is indicative of false preachers in it. It's just too serious. On the
radio, the TV, you're preaching mostly to lost people. It's not
a game, is it? This is life or death. Preachers
are dying men to dying men. The Lord is not smiling, like
false preachers say. The Lord's not smiling on this
earth. He's angry. Scripture says He's
angry. You can't be angry and smile at the same time. You can't
do it, can you? The Lord hateth all workers. You don't smile
at somebody you hate, do you? The wrath of God abideth right
now on the ungodly. Everybody knows John 3.16. Nobody
knows John 3.36. The wrath of God abideth right
now. He's not smiling. He's angry. When the Lord looked down on
the sons of men to see if there were any that did seek God, any
that did give Him thanks, anybody thankful to me for all that I
do for them. Anybody? None of them. He's not smiling. I'm not mad at you. I'm just
saying this is the truth. Right before he destroyed this
world, and he said, as in the days of Noah, it's going to be
the same way. They're all going to be eating and drinking, and
God is their belly, and nobody giving God a thought. Except
a few chosen ones. But it says, God, see if, look
down, he said, the whole earth had corrupted my way. What's
his way? What's the way? The gospel. Christ,
the truth, his word, corrupted and full of violence. Not smiling. Can you imagine the mockery if
there had been a bumper sticker on that ark? Smile, God loves
you. By the way, somebody built a
replica of that. Don't go see that. Seriously,
need to burn it, don't we? If there had been a bumper sticker
with Smile, God Loves You, it's on the inside. I'll tell you
who God was smiling on. Everybody in that ark. God loves those that are in Christ.
The love of God is in Christ, isn't it? Yes, it is. Outside of Christ, God's a consuming
fire. angry with the wicked. There
is no anger. There is no wrath. There is no
judgment. There is no frown. There is no condemnation. Then
they're in Christ. There's mercy. There's grace.
There's love. God loves those that are in Christ.
Smile if you're in Christ. Smile. I'm going to smile now.
If you're in Christ, God loves you. I've got good news. This
is the blessing. The Lord's lifted up His countenance
on you. He's smiling at you. You love His Son. He loves you. I got to tell it, Larry, it's
a good illustration. I told it at your place. I went
to see Brother Donnie Bell, and Donnie was talking about his
great-granddaughter, Riley, and his first great-granddaughter.
And he was just talking about her, you know, building her up
to me, and anyway, I went to see him, and she was coming over
that day, and I was in the house with Brother Donnie, and she
came, and boy, he ran out there to get her. He went out and got
Riley, you know, and brought her in. And Donnie had a smile
from ear to his face, showing, looking right at me, Mark. What
do you think? Ain't she the prettiest girl
you ever seen? Huh? And I smiled. Yes. Yes, she is. She's beautiful. And Donnie smiled
back at me, and we've been friends ever since. I think we'll always
be friends. God loves those who love his
son. If this is what God holds this
world accountable for, they're not interested in his son. And there's some people gonna show
up at the wedding. Why are you here? Food and fun. Bind them
up. This is about my son. God made the whole world as a
monument to his son, to the glory of his son. Let everything that
hath breath praise my son. And people say, not interested.
Brethren, we talked about God laying down his son's life, giving
his son. I would not give my only daughter
for anybody. Would you? Frank, you got two
of them. Wouldn't do it. There's nobody I love that much. But God didn't. Now, buddy, it's
going to count for something. And everybody He laid down His
life for, buddy, they're gonna be saved. And everybody Christ
laid down His life for, they're gonna love Him. They're gonna
give Him all the glory. And everybody in heaven's gonna
be shouting His glory unto Him that loved us and washed us from
our sins in His own blood. Him, it's all about Him. Everybody
in heaven is there because Christ loved them and died for them
and they love Him. Ain't nobody gonna be there that
doesn't love you, son. Those that do, God
smiles on them. And peace, look at the next time. And the Lord give thee peace.
The Lord give thee peace, peace with God. Oh my, don't you get
angry with what preachers are saying about our God and saying
to people, lying on God, lying to people, make your peace with
God. This is what brother Chris was saying. It took one thing
to make peace with God, the blood of his son. It's not just error
and doctrine, people talk about the universal atonement and all
that. It's saying there's something
else, there's some other way. It's what it's saying, the scripture
says, if righteousness come by the law, if you be circumcised,
if anything, Christ died in vain. He didn't need to die. He didn't
need to come, right? And for God, one way to put away
sin, to send his son, And for somebody to say, I got a better
way, it's like Cain. Okay, buddy. The Lord Jesus Christ made peace
for his people by the blood of his cross. That's what it took.
What did it take for us to have peace with God? Why does God
have peace with us? Why are we reconciled? The blood
of God, son. Peace, peace, Christ said, Peace
I leave with thee, my peace I give unto you. The chastisement of
our peace, necessary for us to have peace, was laid on him.
By his strife we are healed. God is not angry because he took
out his anger on Christ. Peace I leave with you. And the
last time. And he says, and they shall put my name upon the children
of Israel. Put my name on it. Oh, behold,
brethren, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. I am blessed. My last name is a blessing. You
love Henry Mahan. I do too. And I am blessed that
he's my father. But there's a much greater blessing
than that. God of heaven is my father. And he said that to his
people, to his people. You pray this way, our father. He said, I go to my father and
your father. You call him father. Why? Because
we received the spirit of adoption through Christ. the elects, the
firstborn among many brethren. He's not ashamed to call us brethren.
Call him your father. He's your father. He loves you.
Put my name upon him. Christian. Don't you hate what
people have done to that man. But don't, you know, we don't run around
telling people we're a Christian, but I don't want to be ashamed
of that. I am a Christian. I'm a Christian. Am I, by the
grace of God, a follower, a believer, a student of, one who trusts
in, believes and looks to the Lord Jesus Christ, that Christ
is my all, Christ is my salvation? This is what it means to be a
Christian. Yes, yes I am. By the grace of God. Put my name
on it. He gave this illustration, too.
You know, the marriage of God's people is the bride of Christ
married to the Son of God, the Son of God. And when you marry,
and you get married, the woman takes their husband's name. And
I know your wives, you're not ashamed of that name, are you? When you fell in love with that
man, and he, and you came to be married, and now your name,
you wear his name, and you walk around, you tell people, don't
you? I'm Mrs., I'm David Edmonds' wife, huh? You better be non-twisted. I mean. Don't we? Years ago, I heard
somebody do this during the wedding ceremony, and I've done it ever
since. At the end of the ceremony, after they've kissed and it's
all over, and you turn them around, and I've done it. And I say,
ladies and gentlemen, I present unto you Mr. and Mrs. Frank Tate. The new Mr. and Mrs. Frank Tate,
and everybody applauds, you know, and it's wonderful. Brethren, this is gonna happen. The bride of Christ. And by the
way, we're not the ones gonna be coming down the aisle and
everybody, the bridegroom is. Oh, we're gonna be making over
him. And the Heavenly Father, is gonna present us under the
multitude of heavenly host. I present unto you, Mr. and Mrs. Jesus Christ. Put my name on it. Put my name
on it. The Lord, our righteousness.
That's his name, that's what you preached on, and that's her
name. And he says in closing, and I will bless them. No ifs,
ands, or buts about it. I've spoken it. I'll do it. Like
old Isaac said about Jacob, I blessed him. He's blessed. Nobody can
change. Aren't you glad? I hope this
has been a blessing. And all I can say in closing
is, the Lord bless you.