Sylacauga, Alabama. Barry, you come preach for us. That's S-Y-L-A-C-A-U-G-A, Sylacauga,
Alabama. That word means buzzards roost.
It's true. Sylacauga is an Indian word.
I learned that I thought it was a prank. Mr. Fortner called me
not long after, no, he sent me a text not long after I went
there to pastor and he said, how's the Bishop of Buzzard's
Roost? So I picked up the phone and
called him, prank, I said, you trying to be cute? He said, no, it means
Buzzard's Roost, you ask your folks. And he was right, that's
what it means. Charming, charming. But it's
a delight to be with you. Will you turn with me to John's
Gospel, chapter 6. John, chapter 6. We'll read three verses of scripture.
Verses 43, 44, and 45. Those three verses. Thank you,
brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, for the work and the
labor I know you've done in preparing these meetings. It's an honor
to be here. It's been three years since I
was here. It was 2016 the last time. And
I didn't have that lady there with me, Miss Robin, my wife. And I'm so thankful that she
could come. So on behalf of her and myself,
we thank you. The room is just great. That big, big basket of goodies. Man, we're gonna be chattin'
down on that for a while, Darvin. It's a lot of good stuff in there. You didn't watch? Oops. Oops. Uh-oh. Don't come
knocking on my door yet. I didn't know. But we don't. I guess they're still at his
house, that's where I got mine last night. But thank you, thank
you, Pastor, for inviting me. It's an honor as Frank. said,
it's an honor to be here. Dropped by Darwin's house, picked
up that basket, and then had supper with him last night with
Larry Carroll Brown and Robin and I. Darwin's a good cook. Picked some chicken soup and
a big apple pie. It was just great. I told him,
man, he's got some skills. I wouldn't know how to begin.
make either one of those, but Darvin was, and thank you for
your hospitality, Darvin was at our house not too long ago,
and he was going to stay a day, and he ended up staying, I think,
three days. I pulled Robin aside and said,
quit treating him so good, he's never going to leave. Hope you come back soon, buddy.
Let's read these three verses. Verse 43, these people that Jesus
is speaking to have followed him. Many of them had been witness
and partaker of the miracle the day before when he fed the multitude
with the few loaves and fishes. He left there and they followed
him and they hunted until they found him. He said some things
they considered to be pretty tough. And they begin to grumble. After he says what he did in
these texts, I believe they grumbled some more. Verse 43, Jesus therefore
answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves.
No man, no man can come to me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. and I will raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."
I wondered when I was preparing this message, I even asked Robin, having a little tough time settling
on a title for the message. And I thought vital teaching,
that would work. Necessary knowledge, that would
fit. Higher learning, that would work. But I settled on this, the question,
have you been taught of God? Ask yourself the question. May
God ask it of you. Have you been taught of God? Notice in these two verses, verses
44 and 45, we have an equation, so to speak. Verse 44, in the
first sentence of verse 45, we read, drawn and taught. And then in the second sentence
of verse 45, plus this, heard and learned. And that adds up
to this. They come to me, Christ said. Everyone that has been drawn
and taught by the Father, having heard and learned because of
that, they come to me. He said every man does. every
man does, that has that sweet experience of God's grace. We know without exception, Christ
says so. This is certain. This is the
absolute outcome. And as Brother Frank said earlier,
may it be so tonight. If you've never heard from God,
If you've never learned of God, if you've never been taught by
God, may he be pleased to do so tonight. Christ says, everyone
that does, they come to me. Everyone. Nobody can come otherwise. No man can come otherwise, but
everyone that God is pleased to draw and teach, they'll come
to me. It's much the same thing he said
in verse 37 here in chapter 6. He said, all, all. No wonder they said, never a
man spake like this man, Darwin. My soul, he speaks so matter-of-factly. I mean, there's no elbow room
for doubt. He doesn't say, maybe it'll happen. I hope it'll happen. No, he says,
matter-of-factly, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. Not most of them, not the majority
of them, but all of them. You know, I play golf. If I would go out someday and
par half of the holes Man, I think that's something. If I would pour 75% of the whole,
my head would be so swelled I probably couldn't get in the car to go
home. I'd be content with that. But
the triune God, He's not satisfied. Neither is the Son of God that
came to do the will of the Father unless they all come to Him.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Oh, I like
that. You got a problem with that?
If you've got a problem with that, you got a problem. Oh,
we rejoice. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise
cast out. Let's look at these words in
these two verses. Just consider the meaning. First in verse 44, no man can
come to me except the father which has sent me draw him. Draw him. What exactly does that
mean? It has the idea of someone going
to a well with a bucket to draw water. Anybody ever done that? I did it as a kid. Couldn't go
in the kitchen and turn on the spigot. Nothing would have came
out. No. Had to draw water from a
spring, from a well. Anyone that does that doesn't
go to the well and beg and plead for the water to get in the bucket. Huh? No, no. You put the bucket
down on the rope, Put it down in the water, it's filled, and
you pull it up. That's what the Lord is saying.
That's what God Almighty does when He brings sinners to Christ.
He draws them by His power. He doesn't wait for them to jump
in the bucket. He puts them in the bucket and
He brings them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what our Lord said
in verse 63 to this same belly-aching crowd. It is the spirit that
quickeneth. It is the spirit that gives life.
If God's Holy Spirit doesn't give a sinner life, they stay
dead. No question about it. And a dead
man can do nothing. It is the spirit that quickeneth.
The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
the Lord said, they are spirit and they are life. You remember
when our Lord went through Samaria in John's gospel here in chapter
4. We read at verse 10 of John 4 these words, Jesus speaking
to this Samaritan woman, why would she come there at noon,
the very heat of the day, to draw water and carry it back?
She didn't want to be seen. It was most likely nobody else
would be there. They knew who she was. So she
thought she'd slip in there at the noontime of the day. Nobody else would be around and
she'd get her water and she'd go home unseen. Jesus was there. And he answered her, if thou
knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give
me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have
given thee living water. Living water. And this is her
answer, verse 11. The woman said unto him, Sir,
thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence
then hast thou this living water? You've got no way to get it out. You've got nothing to draw with. Oh, yes, he did. Yes, he did. And he doesn't need our little
buckets. of works, or merit, or will,
or self-righteousness. Oh no, he draws us to himself
by the power of his mighty, sovereign, reigning grace, and we find everything
we need in him. Oh, what a reservoir, what a
fountain, overflowing always the thirsty, needy sinners. This word, draw, is used a few
other places in scripture. And each time it's used, it always
implies force and sweet constraint. For example, we read these words
in Acts 16 concerning the demon-possessed girl that Paul cast the demon
out of. Those that lost their income
from using that poor girl, caught Paul and Silas and drew them
into the marketplace and to the rulers, drew them there. Likewise,
in chapter 21 of Acts, verse 30, the Jews took Paul and drew
him out of the temple and went about to kill him. They didn't
beg Paul to come, they drug him out. They forced him to come. Larry, are you saying that's
how God saves sinners? That's what the Word made flesh
said? That's what the truth of God,
the very embodiment of truth said? No man can come if God
doesn't draw them. And that's okay with them. They won't have a problem with
it. They won't have a problem if God in His mighty grace makes
them willing in the day of His power, that'll be all right with
them. Child of God, every child of
God here, weren't you glad he did? In chapter 5 of this same
gospel, he said, no man will come to me. Isn't it amazing?
I have people who are advocates of man's imaginary free will
turn to that verse to try to prove it to me. That's the last
place I would turn. It doesn't say you will. It says
you will not come to me. And here in our text, he says,
not only are you unwilling, you're unable to come to me unless God. unless my father draws you to
me by his power and grace. This will happen. The Song of
Solomon says, draw me, draw me, and we will run after thee. The
king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and
rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more
than wine. The upright love thee. Jeremiah
chapter 31. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. This is God speaking of his people,
his elect, those that Christ redeemed. God says, I've loved
thee with an everlasting love. Never been a time, Darwin, that
God didn't love you. Isn't that amazing? You mean after he saved him?
No. I've loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore I'm just going to do nothing to rescue you. I've loved you with an everlasting
love, but I'll not interfere with your will. Oh no, thank
God that's not so. I've loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Hosea, I drew
them with cords of a man, Hosea 11 and four, God again speaking. I drew them with cords of a man,
with bands of love. And I was to them as they that
take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat upon them. It
must be effectual, this drawing by God the Father, because look
what our Lord says. in verse 44, and I will raise
him up at the last day. It must work. It must be successful, and it
is in every case. Here's the second word in verse
45. It is written in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. If God's the teacher, we'll get
the lesson. God can get your attention, can't
he? He can get your attention. My
father used to say to me, son, if you can't listen, you're going
to have to feel. And he was an expert at it. He
was an expert at making me feel. God the Father makes those he
teaches to feel their need of his son. To feel their need of
His mercy, He brings them to Christ. I remember hearing a
story about Rolf Barnard. He was preaching somewhere. He
finished his message. They were singing a closing hymn,
and two young men came up, like to hear, and stood there. And Rolf, I understand, he was
kind of rough. He looked at them and said, what do you want? Oh,
we want to be saved, one said. Ross said, go back and sit down.
And one said, no problem, went back and sat down. The other
just stood there, weeping, weeping. What do you want? Oh, Mr. Barnard, I want mercy. I want mercy. I need grace. I'm a sinner, and if God doesn't
have mercy on me, I'm gonna die and go to hell. Mr. Barnard,
I've got to have mercy." And Barnard said, young man, I think
God might have something for you. He had been drawn by God's
grace effectually. If you're saved, you must be
taught of God. Our Lord said it's written in
the prophets. One prophet that he referred to as Isaiah chapter
54, verse 13. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. Jeremiah is another of those
prophets our Lord spoke of. Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31
through 34. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.
and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to bring them out of Egypt, which my covenant they
broke. Although I was a husband unto
them, saith the Lord, but this shall be the covenant that I
shall make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts. and write
it in their hearts, that's to be drawn, that's to be taught
by the Father, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know
the Lord, for they shall know me, they shall know me, from
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin
no more. No more. Add all this up and Christ says
the result is, the sum of it, it adds up to this. They come
to me. They come to me. All that are
thus drawn, taught, hear, learn, come to me. Oh, wouldn't it be a blessing if someone here through
these services over this weekend, God the Father draws them to
his son. How about that? How about that? Takes the blinders off and for
the first time in their life they behold the greatest wonder,
the greatest marvel, The greatest sight that a sinner can ever
see. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. God may be pleased to do that.
Remember what he said to that woman at the well. Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Is anybody thirsty? But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst again, but the water
that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. In John chapter 7, our Lord went
up to the Feast of Tabernacles. That was a week-long feast. In
verse 37 of John 7, we read this. In the last day, That great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
waters. This feast of Tabernacle of which
this was the last day that we read of in the text. As I said,
it was a week's celebration of remembrance. They dwelt in tents
as memory of the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, for seven days, had observed this. Had observed this. He'd watch
the people. On this last day of the feast,
there would be multitudes of people in the temple. And he
watched them. And he didn't need anybody to
tell him what was in man. He knew what was in man. He knows
what's in Larry Criss. He knows what's in you. He doesn't
need anybody to enlighten him. And he watched them go through
their religious exercises. He watched them. He watched them
just go through the motions. And they were convinced that
they were pleasing God. and never stopping to ask themselves,
what's this mean? Why are we doing this? What's
God's purpose in commanding us to do this? They were content
with the shadow, with the type, and never asking, what does this
mean? Does that sound familiar? Doesn't
that sound familiar? Most people are content just
to go through the motions. Let's go to church Sunday morning.
Why? Because, well, we always have,
and that's where mommy went, daddy went, and grandpa went.
I don't know. Let's just go. And our Lord watched
that. He watched that. And he stands
and cries. He looks out at those crowds.
just going through the motions of religious exercise. And he said, is anybody thirsty? Can you just picture the Son
of God as he stands with the heart overflowing with mercy
and grace and says, hey, is anybody out there thirsty? Does anybody
want a drink of living water? Is there anybody out there that's just tired? of the religious
ceremony. Anybody there that really wants
to know the true and living God? Do you? Christ says, come to
me. Come to me. Are you thirsty? Come to me and drink. Drink and live forever. Live forever. Moses said, or I'm sorry, John
said concerning Moses, the law was given by Moses, but, but
grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ. You can't have it any
other way. You have to apply it to him.
My case is so desperate that nothing but grace is going to
help me, David. That's just a fact. By grace
you're saved. Oh, that's good news. Without
grace, no grace equals no salvation. No grace equals no faith, because
it's a gift of God's grace. No grace equals no hope, because
it's only through the grace of God that we have a good hope. But without grace, I don't have
any hope. I don't have any hope. I don't
have any hope of standing before God Almighty unless I've been
drawn to the fountain of all grace. Oh, thank you, Son of
God. Thank you, God my Father, that
you drew this sinner to your Son. Thank you. Thank you. None of those things
without the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice again. It's hard not to pitch tent here.
Our Lord said, no man can come to me. My soul, that's the very opposite
of what most preachers tell you today. They try to convince you
how easy it is, how simple it is. I was somewhere listening
to your dad preach years ago, Paul, Brother Henry. And he said,
you know, fellas today think they can sneak up on a sinner's
blind side. You heard him say that. They
can slip up on their blind side. He meant they think they can
save them unawares. They can just catch them off
guard, these ambulance chasers, and get them to make a decision.
They can trick them into salvation. Hogwash. They'll trick him into
being two-fold more the child of hell than they were before.
That's all that that accomplishes. No, you're not blindsided into
salvation. You're drawn by God Almighty.
You're not saved in total ignorance and darkness. God turns the light
on. That's what our text says, doesn't
it? He teaches. He teaches. Teaches us our need
of a Savior. I was blindsided when I was about
13 years old. Me and a friend was going home. I was staying all night with
him. In the summertime, school was out, he would either be staying
at my house or I'd be staying at his. We were in this coal
camp. Anybody know what that is? Where
the coal mines was and everything just grew up around it. And every
summer, these hucksters would come and pitch a tent on some
empty lot. Me and Johnny were walking home
and there we could hear tambourines going and organ playing. Man, we got to go in there and
see what's happening. These Pentecostals trying to
fleece every dime they could before they moved on. We went
and sat down, got ready to get up and say, well, we've seen
enough of this. And the fellow up there, so-called preacher,
stopped and said, don't you leave this tent. Sit down, young man. You better sit down right now.
So we sat down. Sat down on the very last row
of seats. He said, I'm going to count to 10. I'm 13 years
old. I'm going to count to 10, and
everybody that's in this tent that's not saved, if they don't
come up here and get saved, going to be dead in 12 months. And he says, bow your head and
close your eyes. And he starts counting. Johnny
was a year or two older than me, and I looked up to him, you
know. And I looked over and said, Johnny, what are we going to
do? He said, ah, shut up. He don't know what he's talking
about. I said, one, two, three, four. I said, Johnny, we got
to do something. He said, shh. Seven, eight. And the fellow pawed six, seven,
eight. He said, I'm telling you, you look over at whoever's next
to you. If they don't look, you won't see them in 12 months,
they'll be dead. I'm shaking in my boots. Blindside me. He said, eight, nine, I looked
over, Johnny's gone. He done run up there. And I went
running after him. Made our decision for Jesus. Was as lost as a goose in a snowstorm. Is that what our Lord meant?
Is that all it amounts to? Oh, thank God He didn't leave
me there. Thank God He didn't allow me
to believe what I had been blindsided and was being told. Oh, you're
saved. You're saved. Go on your way.
You're saved, my soul. Saved? I didn't even know what
it meant. I'd never been lost. How could
I be saved? I'd never been stripped. How
could I have been clothed? I'd never been brought down.
How could God lift me up? That's not what salvation...
Listen. I hope you know. Salvation is
not something you do for God. It's what God does for you. That's
why the Lord said, no man can come to me unless my father does
something for them. Unless he draws them to me, they
won't come. No man will. No man will. I was having dinner just the
other night. But this past Monday, as a matter
of fact, my wife and I came home from West Virginia, and we got
almost home. We'd been gone a few days, and
I was hungry, and I said, honey, is there anything at home to
eat? She said, not much. And she said, I'm not going to
get anything and go cook it. I said, well, that's all right.
That's all right. You know, it's a long trip. And I said, well,
let's go down here to this little steakhouse, and let's eat. And boy, it was good. It was
good. And I went in before they served the meal to wash up in
the bathroom, and right there laying on the counter, on the
sink, was this track. See them everywhere, don't you?
Blindsided, blindsided. This is, I picked it up so nobody
else would get it. Ann Graham Lotz, I guess is how
you pronounce that. That's Billy's daughter. She's
following in daddy's footsteps. She said, as a young girl, I
once saw an old black and white movie by Cecil B. DeMille called King of Kings,
so-called Life of Christ. The film was very moving, and
when I watched the crucifixion scene, I began to weep. I realized
that Jesus had died for me and that my sin had been nailed him
to the cross, and my mother led me in prayer, and I confessed
my sin to God, and I told him I was sorry, and I thanked him
for dying for me, and asked him to forgive me, and I believed
on him, and I invited him into my heart. I don't remember any
dramatic sensation, you think, afterward, but I knew that all
my sins were forgiven. As a young girl, I don't know
if she's even alive now, but then she went on her way, blindsiding
everybody she could, just like she'd been blindsided. And you
know how this garbage ends. Well, if you'll confess and you'll
accept, sign on the dotted line and you're saved. Is that what
being drawn to the Father is? I sure hope not. I know that
it's not. I know that it's not. What does
God Almighty teach a man or a woman that he brings to his son? What
is it that we have to learn? Everyone that has heard and learned
has been taught. So what does God teach someone
in bringing them to his son? I'll tell you what he does. He
teaches them this. He teaches them, he convinces
them of this, they're the sinner. That's exactly right. Listen, if God doesn't make you
feel your need of mercy, you'll never seek him for mercy. Our
depravity is so deep, we'll be happy to be blindsided. Unless
God Almighty strips us, we won't want to be clothed in the righteousness
of His Son. So that's what God does. He teaches
us that we're a sinner. You reckon that's what old John
Newton meant? In that wonderful old hymn? After God had saved
him? Ooh, what a rebel he was. But
God saved him. That former captain of a slave ship,
God saved him. He thought, oh, what can I do? Oh, Walter Newton, what can I
do? Got to do something. So he dips his quill in ink and
he writes, oh, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm
found. I was blind, but now I see."
You know what he was talking about? Has God taught you that? He said, it was grace that taught
my heart to fear. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
go and learn what this means. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I've not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Go and learn what that means. and multitudes never have. They're
content just to go through religious motions. Like Simon, remember
him? Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7.
He was content just to go through the motions. He was a Pharisee,
he was a separated one. You don't believe him, you just
ask him. He'll tell you how separated he is, how godly he is. And he invited the Lord Jesus
Christ to come to his home for a meal one time. And the Lord
went, not for Simon. There was a certain woman who
was a sinner. That's who he went for. Simon
had never been stripped. He never could identify with
such words as Newton's old hymn. It was grace that taught my heart
to fear. He didn't have a clue what that
meant. He was content to be clothed in his own righteousness. Oh,
but there was a woman that came in. You remember the story, Simon
looked down his nose at her and thought to himself, how'd she
get in my house? Who invited her? This is embarrassing. That
woman's a sinner. Yeah, that's who Jesus Christ
came to save. Sinners, sinners. And he said
to that woman, he said unto her, right in front of Simon and his
Pharisee buddies, Thy sins are forgiven. Have you ever heard
that? Not from preacher or priest,
but from the Son of God Himself. I say unto thee, thy sins are
forgiven. Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. I can almost picture her, can't
you? She goes skipping out of Simon's house. Well, she's singing something
like this. Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. How you like
this, Simon? My sins, not in part, but the
whole, are nailed to his cross, and I bear them no more. Praise
the Lord, oh, my soul. Simon didn't have a clue what
had happened. What about that other Pharisee
our Lord talked about? He didn't either, did he? In
Luke chapter 18, two men went to the temple to pray. One, another
Pharisee. Man, folks, I read somewhere
that it was a common saying among the people of that day. They
believed that if only two people were saved, a Pharisee would
be one. They looked at him as, oh, aren't
they something? Look how they dress. Look at
him standing on the street corner praying. Aren't they holy? Aren't they religious? And that
Pharisee went to the temple, self-righteous, self-confident,
having need of nothing, and he left the exact same way. He didn't
ask for anything. He uttered seven times more words
than the public, but he didn't ask for nothing. He didn't need
nothing. But there was a public. He knew what it was when grace
teaches one's heart to fear? Oh, I'd like to find one. I remember
on more than one occasion, being in a service with Brother Scott,
many of you too, you can identify, you remember this, and old Scott
would come over and, oh, the gospel's good news. I've got
good news for sinners, if I could find one. I can't find one. You say everybody's a sinner.
When's the last time you talked to one? When's the last time
you talked to anybody like this poor publican standing afar off
and wouldn't even lift his head, his eyes toward heaven and just
smites up on his breast and all he can say is, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. When's the last time you talked
to anybody? Oh, I would love, oh, I'd love
to hear that. Wouldn't you? Preachers, wouldn't
you love to hear that? It'd be okay, wouldn't it? It
wouldn't be out of order, would it, darling? If someone stood
and said, oh, I'm the sinner, God have mercy on me, that'd
be all right. And our Lord said, I say unto
you, I'm telling you, this man went down to his house justified. You think he might have been
singing a song too, like that one that John Davis sang at our
conference a month ago? Justified, him and that banjo,
oh justified, oh blessed thought, and sanctified, salvation wrought,
something like that, and glorified I too shall be. public and went
home. My soul, David, I imagine he
slept the sweetest sleep he'd ever slept in his life because
he laid down, that sinner laid down, justified, having peace
with God, went to sleep singing, oh, I am his and he is mine. Spurgeon said when he left that
primitive Methodist chapel that morning, where God had opened
his blinded eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ, he went out and
it was still snowing, a severe storm, and Spurgeon said, I wanted
to tell every snowflake dropping from the sky what God had done
for my soul. Bunyan said, seeking God's mercy, being convicted, being stripped,
being brought down. God got him lost in Bunyan's
and he wondered, can there be mercy for a sinner like me? How
can God forgive old John Bunyan? And he said, I found when I came
to Christ, so far was he from rejecting me that there was a
party in heaven because old John Bunyan had come home, rejoicing
in heaven because he had come home. Let me wrap this up. Oh, being taught of God, learning
of God, we learn that dressed in Christ's righteousness alone,
we're faultless. Did the hymn writer go too far?
Oh, no, no, that's scriptural. to Him that's able to keep you
from falling and to present you without fault before the throne
of God, with His holy garments on, as holy as God's own Son. We learn of the Father, having
brought us to Christ, that the Son of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. We learn every
day, Paul, don't we? And don't want to, it's not a
problem. The problem is the little capacity
I have to understand it and to appreciate it. But we learn Christ
is all, like you preached. And we're complete in him. I'll
begin with the question, let me close with the question. Has
God got you lost? Has God stripped you? Christ
says, come unto me. Come unto me. Listen. Come unto
me, all ye that labor on heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You want rest? Oh, are you just
tired of carrying the burden and the load and the guilt of
your sin? You want rest? You want to lose
that burden? Christ says, come to me. Take
my yoke upon you. Learn of me. I'm meek and lowly
at heart. And you'll find rest unto your
soul. Children of God, how thankful
we are, as the Lord God said, if we can identify with these
words. Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor let the mighty man glory
in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but
let him that gloryeth, glory in this, that he understandeth
and knoweth me. Glory in that. Glory in that. Don't worry about going too far.
You can't glory in that too much. Glory in that. Oh, Simon Marjona,
do you know how blessed you are, Simon, the Lord said? The Lord
said to Peter, my father has done something for you. He's
taught you who I am. You're a blessed man, Simon.
You're a blessed man. About five months ago, On a Saturday
I was in my study preparing for Sunday, working on a message,
and my phone rang. It was the daughter of a very
good friend of mine, one of my very best friends,
Dave Coleman. He was my golfing buddy. Larry,
we had some knockdown drag outs on the course then. Oh man, me
and him, we'd go at it. Until he just got too feeble,
too sick to go. Amy called me and she said, Larry,
my daddy's singing in heaven. My daddy now beholds the one
who loved him and gave himself for him. Most of y'all have heard
Dave Coleman. Most of you know him, knew him.
Oh, he was a gifted singer, wasn't he? He was such a, I still am
blessed by his singing. Listen to it all the time. One
hymn he sang had this, I won't sing it. I'll just read it. I can see Dave at the piano singing
this. Oh, what's he doing now? I am so glad that God saves old
sinners. I'm surprised and amazed how
he sets them free. But the biggest surprise in God
saving old sinners is that he would save an old sinner like
me. Oh, I pray that God will draw
you to his son. God bless you. God bless you.