I hope you noticed that the theme
of your bulletin today, your bulletin, was the greatness of
God. Each article illustrated, exemplified
that, I should say. This one verse from 2 Samuel
7, verse 18, from which I wrote my article, Then went King David
in and sat before the Lord. David was a king, but in the
presence of the king of kings, he came down and was glad to
do it. And he said, and this is what I would like if
God is pleased to do it, that he would use the message that
I'm sure he's given me. to produce this in your heart
and mine. David said, in the light of the
news that Nathan had brought to him concerning that everlasting
kingdom that a greater than Solomon would establish forever, after getting that news, David
went in and sat before the Lord and said, who am I? Oh Lord God. We sang a moment ago, I stand
amazed in the presence. Do you? Do you? Do you stand
amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene? Do you wonder? Do you ever wonder how in the world Could he love
me, a sinner condemned to unclean, and loved, as Bobby just now
sang, with an everlasting love? As long as God and I shall be,
I am his and he is mine. I'll tell you, that almost makes
me want to do like David and sit down right now and say, oh
Lord, who am I? Oh Lord God, that you would show
such mercies too. It is amazing, is it not? As I said, and as this psalm
will tell us in just a moment as we read it, the theme of the
bulletin was the greatness of our God. The greatness of our
God. What a comfort that is. What
a comfort that is, Louis. that our God is in the heavens
doing whatsoever he has pleased. That's a comfort to God's people.
Now that should be a terror to a rebel, those who don't know
God, if they had good sense, if God was pleased to reveal
that blessed fact to them like he did the rich fool that our
Lord talked about, I think, in Luke 16. But for the believer,
the fact of God's greatness, God's sovereignty, there is nothing,
I believe, that is of more comfort to them because you can stamp
sovereignty of God upon every promise. Because if God's not
sovereign, if He's not able to accomplish all that He purposed,
then what good is it? If he's not able to perform all
that he promised, then what good is the promise? Oh, but because
God is sovereign, he reigns, he rules, he'll do all that he
purposed, all that he promised. What a comfort, especially, now
listen, especially, when you're passing through troubled waters, When you're going through the
storm, and your little vessel is being tossed to and fro, and
you think, I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to reach the
other side. Oh, at such times to hear the
voice of that one who plants his footsteps in the sea, and
he rides. He rides up on your storm. You remember? What our Lord said
to those fearful disciples in John 6, one of my favorite passages. So when they had rowed, that
is the disciples, about 5 and 20 or 30 furlongs, they see Jesus
walking on the sea and drawing nigh unto the ship, and they
were afraid. They were afraid. But, but, he
said unto them, it is I, it is I, Be not afraid. It is I. Be not afraid. When
the world is tossing me like a ship upon the sea, thou who
rulest, rulest wind and water, stand by me. I like to hear men speak when
they're preaching or teaching about personal experience, their
own experience of God's grace. I enjoy hearing that. like Paul
did a few weeks ago. Paul Mahan. I love those illustrations. Personal experience. I looked
when I felt God led me to this passage, this psalm. I looked
at the messages that I had preached from the psalms on Free Grace
Radio where they're all posted. And I was glad to see, I didn't
know this, I never thought of it before, but I was glad to
see that of the total of the 384 messages I preached, and
most of them were here to you, some were other places, but of
those 384 messages, 40 of them, John, were from the Psalms. I
didn't know that. 40 of them were from the Psalms.
I was somewhat surprised, but I was pleasantly surprised. because
we read our own experience in the Psalms, don't we? We read our experience there.
We identify with them as believers. I think that's why we're drawn
to them so much. I mean, we know what it's like
when God, by his marvelous grace, allows us to experience what
David wrote in Psalm 23. Ooh, what a comfort to know The
Lord is my shepherd and I'll never lack anything because he's
my shepherd. We also know the experience. Again with David, we identify
with him when he says, oh, why are you cast down, oh my soul? Why are you cast down? Why are
you having this pity party? Why are you depressed? We know
that. And I found that the last one,
the last message I preached was to you on September 10th. And
it was from Psalm 34. And my text was verse 19. Many
are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out
of them all. I remembered the message, of
course, but not the date and so forth, until I looked on Free
Grace. September 10th of this year,
I had already began to suffer the affliction that put me in
the hospital. So, I didn't know it at that
time, But I would soon be afflicted, as the very text I preached from
said. But, but, I had this sweet experience
too. I would soon be delivered. And I'm thankful. God taught
me some things. He put me there on my back. And for a while, I couldn't even
get my legs over the edge of the bed to get to that walker.
Robin was there and had to do that, get to the bathroom. I'm
so thankful because only a sovereign God could do that. Only a sovereign
God. Now let's read this psalm together.
Let's read it together. I want you to read it with me.
Psalm 93, only five verses, oh, but how sweet and full they are.
And it begins with the sweetest note of all in this psalm, this
psalm. They were psalms. The Lord, notice,
they're all capital letters, L-O-R-D. The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. That's good
news. He is clothed with majesty. The
Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself.
The world also is established that it cannot be moved until
he moves it. Thy throne is established of
old, of old. The Lord has always reigned. Thou art from everlasting." I
remember my two sons when they were very young They had heard
me preach. We were driving home afterwards,
and they were sitting in the back seat. One of them asked
me, Dad, you preached about God having no beginning and no end.
I said, that's right. They said, Daddy, we don't understand
that. I said, Daddy can't comprehend that either. He had no beginning,
had no end. Thou art from everlasting. Verse
3, the floods have lifted up. Lord, the floods, oh Lord, the
floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their ways.
What are we going to do? Verse 4, the Lord on high is
mightier than the noise of many waters. Are you reading along
with me here? Yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Well, then
everything's going to be alright. Let's don't panic. Let's don't
have an anxiety attack. God is above the waters and the
storm. Verse 5, thy testimonies are
very sure. Very sure, very certain, thy
word, O God, is established forever. Holiness becometh thine house,
O Lord, forever. Verse 1 we read, the Lord reigns. In verse 2 we read that he reigns
from everlasting. Taking those two verses and just
those few words, you have the title of my message. The Lord
reigns everlastingly. The Lord reigns everlastingly. As Brother Scott Richardson put
it, God has none above him. God has none above him who can
control him and none below him that can resist him. If God,
by his supreme authority, saves us by the doing and dying of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who can reverse it? Who can reverse it? If everybody in the world would
forgive us and God withheld forgiveness, what would it profit us? What
would it profit us? What would it profit us? The
Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. He
is clothed with strength. First, the Lord, the true God
of heaven and earth reigns. Reigns. That's how this psalm
begins. That's how the Word of God begins. Not in those exact words, but
in the beginning, God. God. And that God, our God, the true
and living God reigns. He reigns supremely all the time,
everlastingly over everything. If he doesn't, I think I've said
this before, if there's ever not an hour, not a day, not a
moment, if there's ever a second, that God Almighty doesn't reign. If there's ever a situation that
God Almighty is not in control of, then He has to step off His
throne because He's not God anymore. Actually, if there was ever such
a time, He never has been God. Oh, but the God of heaven, He
reigns supremely. In other words, our God is sovereign. He's sovereign. When you look
at the word sovereign, you have the definition of it within the
word itself. You have the word reign, reign. R-E-I-G-N, and I'm so very thankful
that that's so. From Genesis 1 all the way to
Revelation, we're told over and over and over again, for our
comfort Your God reigns. That's what we read in Isaiah
40. Behold your God. This means that God is absolutely
in control. Without the word sovereign, without
the word reign, we have no hope, no certainty, no assurance that
what he promised he's able to perform. The gods of the heathen,
this is the quote in your bulletin, by old Matthew Henry, the gods
of the heathen can do nothing. They're imaginary. They don't
exist. What are they going to do? They're
the working of men's minds. You know, they used to in some
countries, places, they still do. They make their gods. Now,
they make their gods. They make gods out of wood or
whatever and then bow down and worship like the children of
Israel did. This is our God. But, Mr. Henry went on to say,
but our God, our God can do anything and he does do everything. Remember
when Elijah was on Mount Carmel, was it? And, oh what, he told all the prophets
of Baal to meet him there. And he said, we're going to sell
this thing. You build an altar and you offer a sacrifice to
your God. And then I'll do the same thing. Is that fair? And the God that answers by fire,
he's God. You remember that. And it went
on, what, from sunrise to evening that these hundreds, 400 prophets
of Baal offered their sacrifice and began to call on their God
and nothing happened. Nothing happened. They even cut
themselves, I think, and just prayed and nothing happened.
Because, as Henry said, those gods can do nothing. And Elijah
mocked him. He said, maybe you ought to talk
louder. Maybe he's asleep. Maybe your god can't hear you.
Maybe he took a vacation. And then he prayed, O God, show
yourself this day as God. And the fire fell from heaven.
It not only consumed the sacrifice and all the water that Elijah
had put on it, and the water and the altar, everything, everything. And they cried, Oh, let God be
God. This word LORD in our text, all
in capital letters, in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament,
and the Greek originally in the New Testament, It includes this
very meaning. It includes this. He's sovereign
in the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel chapter 1, when Hannah
was praying, she referred to the Lord as the
Lord of hosts during her deep distress. In Isaiah 6 and 1,
in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. setting up on a throne, high
and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. That's our
God. That's our God. Do you find comfort
in that? Do you find comfort in that?
If not, you can find comfort in nothing else. This name is
expressive of God's sovereign dominion, Lord. God revealed
himself by many names, but this one Lord, Jehovah God, It's expressive
of his sovereign dominion and power over all his creatures. That's what it means. That's
what it means. The Lord of hosts has his way
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
so it's no wonder that we read, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? In the New Testament, in the
original Greek, the word means or is translated, for example
in 2 Peter this way, 2 Peter 2 and 1, there were false prophets
also among the people even as there shall be false teachers
among you who probably shall bring in damnable heresies denying
the Lord, the Lord God that brought them and bring upon themselves
swift destruction. Lord simply means God rules. It refers to God's dominion and
power and authority. And the right of ownership, did
you hear that? And the right, and he claims
that right, of ownership over all things. Over all things. This is the word. I wanted to
get to this. This is the word, Lord, that
was commonly used to describe Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, I get... I get, it's
almost nauseating, John, to hear these hucksters, these people,
refer to Jesus as my little buddy. Remember that stupid song some
years ago? Me and Jesus got our own thing
going. Me and Jesus got it all worked
out. I don't need anybody else. Me
and Jesus. He's my little buddy. He's my
spare tire. He's my fire escape out of hell. I've made a decision for Jesus. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And people can make all the decisions
they want to make. They can trot up every isle in
Sylacauga or the United States and repeat the sinner's prayer.
If they've not bowed to the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't know
him. I don't care what some soul winner tells you. It's not so. That's a damnable heresy just
like we read from Peter. I don't want to get off on it.
You've heard me say it before, but I'll say this. Anybody, I
don't care what they claim to believe, if they memorized the
Bible all the way through, if they never bowed to Jesus Christ,
they're a rebel. If they live in rebellion against
Him, they're a rebel against God and they cannot be saved. You can't be saved without bowing
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask the rich young ruler. Ask
him. He found out. Oh, but this name
in the New Testament describes our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 10
and 36, the word which God sent unto the children of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ, can't come any other way. Not
real peace with God. He is Lord of all. While this
particular word in the New Testament translated Master or Sir, was
sometimes applied to men. When it's applied to Jesus Christ,
it implies His dominion and authority as Lord over all things. Let
me read you what Mr. Hawker, Robert Hawker, wrote
in his Concordance and Dictionary. It's good. His commentaries are
excellent, but I tell you what, so is his concordance. But under
this word, Lord, this is what he said. This glorious name is
peculiar and properly the distinguishing name of Jehovah, and ought to
have been so hallowed and sacred as never upon any occasion whenever
to have been applied to any other." John referred to it this morning.
They wouldn't even say it, John, would they? They wouldn't even
say it. Mr. Hawker went on to write,
for we read that Jehovah is very jealous of his name and will
not allow the very mention of it unless in a way of reverence
to himself without attaching guilt to the person that does
so. With what reverence and sanctity therefore ought the glorious
name of Jehovah the Lord be hailed? That's exactly right. I like what David said when Was
it Aaronaw? I'm probably not pronouncing
that name. But he wanted to give to David
his animals for sacrifice, his threshing floor, and just give
David everything to offer a sacrifice to God, which David wanted to
do. And David said, I won't do it. I will not do it. I'll pay
you. I'll pay you for it. Because I'm not going to offer
to God that which costs me nothing. I'm not going to try to worship
God in a way that costs me nothing. I'm just not going to go through
the motions and not really worship God. Isaiah chapter 44 verse
8, Fear ye not, neither be afraid. This is God speaking, the Lord
God. Have not I told you from that
time and have declared it? Ye even are my witnesses. Is
there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God. There is
no God. I know not any. Now if the Lord
God omniscient, the all-knowing God, says he doesn't know any
other God, you can be sure nobody else does. No matter what they
say or what they imagine that they would like their God to
be. There is no God beside me, he said. And I know you're aware
of this. Again, contrary to popular opinion,
who cares about popular opinion? I mean in the religious world
especially. Please know that the devil is
not God's equal or rival. He's God's enemy and ours, but
he is no match for the sovereign Lord of glory. Remember, God
made the devil. God made the devil. He's God's
devil, and God uses the devil to accomplish His purposes. And
when God is done doing that, He'll cast him into hell just
like He cast him out of heaven. Revelation 20 and 10, and the
devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall
be tormented day and night forever and ever. God did that. I like
these lines. Listen. Great is the mystery,
truly great, that hell's designs shall hail defeat. But here eternal
wisdom shines, for Satan works what God designs. Isn't that something? Does the
subject of God's sovereignty, as my pastor would say, Mr. Fortner, does it have any shoe-leather
benefits? Does it? Or is it just something
that theologians sit around and discuss and use big words that
nobody understands? No. No, it's not. It's not. Let me illustrate it
this way. John spoke about illustrations.
I hope this will be helpful. I read about a poor farmer that
went to service one morning, where he normally does, did,
and there was a guest speaker, and this man was so-and-so, and
he had degrees, and so many degrees, he was Dr. Twiddly-dee-dee-dee.
But this man sat down, had a hard week, had a hard week. He needed
to be fed. And this theologian just tried
to impress people. He stood at the door, and most
people, as they went out and shook his hand, just, oh, thank
you, thank you. Oh, that was just outstanding.
Most of them didn't have a clue what he talked about. But the
preacher, or I'm sorry, the poor farmer, when he walked by and
shook his hand, didn't say nothing, and the fellow said, did you
not enjoy the message? And the farmer just told the
truth. He said, there was nothing in it for me. There was nothing
in it for me. Nothing in it for me. Let me
tell you this child of God. This subject of God's sovereignty,
there's something in it for you. There's something in it for you.
Even if you're a believer or not, there's something in it
for you too. There's something in it for you.
Are you listening? If you don't know God, listen. The fact of
God's sovereignty, there's something in it for you whether you like
it or not. like the rich fool. He said, I'm going to tear down
my barns, as he laid on his pillow one night, and he said, what
am I going to do? I got so much stuff, I don't have room to put
it all. Well, this is what I'll do. I'll
tear down my barns, and I'll build bigger barns, and then
I'll put all my stuff, and then I'll just kick back and relax,
eat, drink, and be merry. But, our Lord said, that night
God required his soul of him. That very night God did what
only God can do and God does do and he's doing it right now,
ushering souls into his presence, just like that. The Lord said,
you're a fool, you're a fool for that. And the sovereign God
ushered him in. If God's not sovereign, listen
to me, if God's not sovereign, that man wasn't a fool. He wasn't
a fool, was he? If God Almighty's not sovereign,
that man wasn't a fool. Eat, drink and be merry because
tomorrow we die just like a dog dies and there's nothing else
and some people try to convince themselves of that lie. But it's
not so. But don't let me leave on that
point. Because God is sovereign, the Lord Jesus Christ, listen,
He's able to say to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. You, you too. That's, as Don
would say, some shoe leather benefit. Let me read what Mr. Fortner said in his commentary
on Mark. This is from chapter 14. This
is some shoe leather benefit. That God, that God alone who
is in absolute total control of the entire universe, we can
and should trust with implicit confidence. Oh God for grace
to trust you more. Lord help my unbelief. We should trust with implicit
confidence in all things and with all things. The word of
God, the promises of God, The prophecies of Holy Scripture
are all utterly meaningless unless our God is the God who rules
everything, whose will is always performed, whose purpose stands
fast, whose thoughts are irresistible. Here is the basis, Don wrote. Here is the basis of our faith
and the foundation of our comfort. We live in a world of woe, don't
we? And we are often We are often
tossed to and fro in this world, confused and perplexed by many
things. Is it not so? But let us ever
rest ourselves in our God. All things are of God. That's what the scripture says.
All things are ordered by our Heavenly Father for our good.
All things are arranged by God's infinite wisdom and omnipotent
arm for his glory. As the Lord Jesus Christ said
to his disciples when he appeared to them for the last time on
Mount Olivet, when he said, go into the world and preach the
gospel to every creature, that world that he spoke hates you
just like they hate me. Go into it and start at Jerusalem. Start at the very place where
the hatred was most. Start at that place where they
crucified the Son of God. Take the gospel which is the
power of God there and preach it to every creature. And remember
this, all power in heaven and earth is given unto me. Take that and preach the gospel. Mr. Spurgeon said, if one dear
saint of God should ever perish, so might all. If one of the covenant
ones be lost, then so may all. And then there is no gospel promise
true, but the Bible is a lie. And there is nothing in it worth
my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once
when I can believe that a saint of God can ever finally fall
away. If God has loved me once, then
he will love me forever. Now, secondly, and there's only
two, I only have two divisions, look again at verse 2. Verse
1 tells us that our Lord reigns, and verse 2 tells us that he
reigns everlastingly, all the time. He must. He must. Doesn't Carlos? If he reigns,
At all, He must reign always because He said, I am the Lord,
I change not. Our eternal God is that one whom
we trust. Child of God, listen to me. Listen. He's reigning right now. He's
reigning right now. No matter where you are, what
you're going through, God Almighty is reigning right now. Our triune
God is everlasting. Of Him we may sing, Thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. Rejoice, believer, in Jesus Christ
who said, I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever. That babe
born in Bethlehem was the eternal word. That one who said to John,
I am him which is and was and is to come. I'm he that was dead,
but behold, I'm alive forevermore. He ever liveth to make intercession
for us. Resort to Him, child of God.
Use Him. Use Him. Go to that throne of
grace. Crawl to that throne of grace.
Get on your belly, but get to the throne of grace and look
up to Him and say, Oh, Lord, confess to Him. Confess to Him.
I'm perplexed. I'm confused. I'm bewildered.
Help me. Help me. Oh, and He delights
to do so. He delights to do so because
He ever liveth to make intercession for us. If God should allow you
to live as long as Methuselah, and it's not going to happen,
969 years, you'll still find that his cleansing blood, that
fountain filled with blood, has never lost its power. You'll
find that that great high priest who filled the healing fountain
with his own blood lives to purge every iniquity when only your
last battle remains to be fought. Your last battle. Death. We'll find that the hand
of our conquering captain of our salvation has not grown feeble
to the dying saint. Man, I wish I could sing. Well, I do sing, but I wish I
could sing well. I might take off right now. Delilah
wouldn't play for me, because I've asked her to. I've teased
her about singing a solo, and she said, I won't play. I won't
play for you. Oh, but when you come to that
brink of Jordan, I do believe, I do believe that even there,
my faithful shepherd, as the hymn I'm thinking of says, He'll
hold to my hand. Makes you almost want to look
forward to it, don't it? We should. He'll hold to my hand as over
death's river I go, and safe I will be in beautiful heaven
I know. Let me give you an illustration
of perplexity as we spoke of, the storms of life, and so forth. Martin Luther. Oh, Martin Luther. He wrote that hymn in our book,
in our hymnal. Oh, my soul, I can't even think
of it now. That great, great old hymn about
God reigning and so forth. That same man was once, after
recovering from a severe physical illness, Martin Luther, he would
get Messages from people that Pope said he's going to kill
you for the sun goes down. And he said, hmm, well, let's
just sing a psalm and spite the devil. My, so what a man. What courage. But one biographer
described his condition on this occasion this way. Physically,
Luther was fine. But mentally, he was despondent. Hmm. He must have been flesh
like the rest of us. And he fell into a deep depression,
a lethargy. And nothing, nothing seemed to
bring him out of it. He sat and stared into space
and was sad, just sad. His wife Catherine tried everything
she could to bring him out of it, but nothing worked. The doctor
came by daily to talk to him and try to cheer him up. Something,
he told his wife Catherine, the doctor said, something's got
to happen to bring him out of this state of mind. There's just
no fight left in him. There's no fight left in him.
Martin Luther? And Catherine didn't answer his
wife. She just stared at the closed door to his study with
a thoughtful expression. That evening she went to her
room and dressed in her morning clothes, not morning, But this
morning, M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G. As a final touch, she also put
on a heavy black veil that covered her face. She went slowly up
the stairs and entered Luther's study. He was sitting at his
desk, his hands idle, his eyes staring vacantly into space.
When he saw his wife, his mouth dropped open. Catherine, what's
the matter? Why are you dressed in mourning?
And Catherine turned a sad face to her husband and she said,
oh, she said, it's terrible, terrible. What's terrible, Luther
asked. She said, God is dead. That's what she told Martin Luther.
God is dead. God is dead, Luther thundered.
What in heaven's name are you talking about? And she said,
are you not Luther? Are you not my pastor as well
as my husband? And he nodded. Then she said,
then judging by your actions these past few weeks, I can see
that God must be there. If he weren't, you would use
your great faith in him to help you out of this depression. Luther
stared at her for a long time, and then he said, you're right.
You're right. Catherine, you're right. Now,
if you will please change your clothes and leave me alone, I've
got work to do. I've got to get busy." And she
said, you're going to start working this very minute? And he said,
this very minute. Deuteronomy 33 and 29. Listen. Happy art thou over Israel,
who is like unto thee, O people of God, saved by the Lord. Verse 27 of the same chapter.
The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath you are the everlasting
arms, and he will thrust out the enemy from before you, and
shall say of them, destroy them. Another song. They help me. When overwhelmed with doubts
and fear, great God to thou my spirit cheer. Let not mine eyes
with tears be fed, but to the rock of ages lead. When storms
of sin and sorrow beat, lead me to this divine retreat. thy
precious righteousness and blood, my rock, my fortress, and my
God. When guilt lies heavy on my soul
and waves of fierce temptation roll, I'll to the rock of shelter
flee and take my refuge, Lord, in thee. When called to the veil
of death to tread, then to the rock may I be led, nor fear to
cross the gloomy sea, since thou hast tasted death for me, all
because The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Brothers and sisters
in Christ, and Larry Criss included, may God help us to hear this.
God, our God, is king. Don't you think it's time for
us to act like it? What do you mean, Larry? Don't
you think it's time for you and me, especially me, After all
he's done for me to start believing God's word, trusting his providence,
expecting God to perform his promises, anticipating the accomplishment
of his purposes, taking our burdens to the throne of grace. Isn't
it time for us to do that? And casting all our care upon
the Lord, our King, who cares for us. Let me read a few of
the Psalms. And I'm coming to a close. Psalm
5, verse 2. Hearken unto the voice of my
cry, my King, my God, for unto thee I pray. Psalm 44, verse
4. Thou art my King, O God. Command,
command deliverance, command deliverances for me. Just command
them and I'll be free. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. After I'd
been in the hospital a few weeks and biopsy after biopsy, they
would come in and say, we don't know. We don't know. We just
don't know. And I said, it's kind of tough to treat what you
don't know. They said, that's right. That's right. Don called
me many times. Some of you may have called me,
and I couldn't even talk. I wasn't in shape to even talk.
But on this day, I was, and Don called me and said, Larry, how
are you doing? Because he was reading. Robin was keeping people
informed and posted what was going on, and like I said, day
after day, we don't know, we don't know. And Don said, how
you doing, Larry? I said, well, Don, they don't
know. But Don, I believe, I believe,
and God give me grace to believe, that he can command deliverance
for me. John, if he's, if he will to
do it, he left me up just as fast as he put me down. And when
his purpose, his purpose for my stay there was ended, He lifted
me up. He lifted me up. And he brought
me home. Oh, my soul. I can't tell you. Well, yeah, I can. I can try.
How precious things I took for granted were, Lester. That first morning at home, and
I was still pretty feeble, but the set in my chair and have
a cup of coffee and look out the window. I thank God for that. To be able
to get out of bed and walk, I thank God for that. I took so much
for granted, so much for granted. That's one reason I believe God
put me down and there are probably others. I remember hearing Henry
preach a message one time. I was driving somewhere early
in the morning to preach myself. It was the day of the cassette,
not all this other stuff. But Henry was preaching, and
he made this statement. He said, concerning his son that
was in Vietnam, he said, I prayed for God to bring my son back. And he did, in a pine box. And Henry said on that message,
That was the best thing that ever happened to me. It taught
me some things that I could never learn otherwise. Now, this was
some years later, of course. And I thought, did I hear him
right? So I rewinded and heard it again. I rewinded and heard
it again. Oh, my soul, what an example
of God's amazing grace. Psalm 47. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises unto
our King. Sing praises, the king of all
the earth, sing praises with understanding. Psalm 95, the
Lord is a great God and great king of all gods. Psalm 145 and
1, I will extol thee my God, oh king, and I will bless thee,
bless thy name forever and ever. Let me come to a close with a
word first of all to you, who do not know Christ. I hope it's
not the final word you ever hear. Did you hear what I said? I hope
this is not the final word you ever hear. John 17 and 3, our
Lord said, and this is life eternal to know thee. I know it says
that they might know thee, but literally what he said was, and
this is life eternal to know thee, the only true God and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. I was watching the news the other
evening, or some time ago, and they were talking about Tom Petty,
that rock star that died. And his biographer said, they were
interviewing him, and he said, well, you know, music was his saving grace. And
I know he didn't mean anything about saving grace as we know
it. But I thought of that, and I thought, well, no, it wasn't
either. No, it wasn't either. And I thought to myself, what
a price to pay. Do you hear me? What a price
to pay. What shall a profit a man if
he gained a whole world and lose his own soul? What about you? What will be said of you when
you've gone the way of all flesh? Any more than that? I mean, I
hear preachers try to stutter, and they... Well, he was a good
man, and try to find something to give hope to the grieving family. Now,
to you, to everyone to whom God has been pleased to call out
of darkness and to reveal His Son to, look at verse 5 again
of Psalm 95. Thy testimonies are very sure,
very sure, That sounds like just what the Lord Jesus Christ said.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. I listen to the message, and
I do quite often. Because like John said in his
lesson this morning concerning a message either Don or Henry
preached, I listen to it over and over. I need to hear that
again and again. This message was brief because
it was the last message your former pastor preached from his
bedside in the hospital, or rather from his bed in the hospital,
from Isaiah chapter 53. Do you remember? And he would
mention a verse, say something about it, and then he would say,
what about that? You remember he would say, what
about that? Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. What about that? Fanny Crosby
who wrote so many, so many hymns, he wrote thousands of hymns.
She became blind at the age of six years old through mistreatment,
maltreatment to her eyes during a time of sickness. Six weeks
old, was blind till the day she died. Hebrews chapter 13, Paul
said, let your conversation, the way you live, be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he
has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Those who
knew Fanny Crosby, that's what they were struck by. She always
seemed content. No matter what, she was always
content. And the secret, she said, of her contentment dated
back to her first hymn, her first composition at the age of eight
years old. She said, I've made it the motto
of my life. And it was this, oh what a happy
soul I am. Although I cannot see, I am resolved
that in this world contented, contented I will be. She wrote
to him on page 502 of her handbook, my savior first of all. When
my life work is ended and I cross the swelling tide, when the bright
and glorious morning I shall see, I shall know my Redeemer
when I reach the other side and His smile will be the first to
welcome me. Oh, the soul-thrilling rapture
when I view His blessed face and the luster of His kindly
beaming eye. Oh, how my full heart will praise
Him for the mercy, love, and grace that prepared for me a
mansion in the sky. Through gates to the city, in
a robe of spotless white, He will lead me He will lead me where no tears
will ever fall. In the glad song of ages I shall
mingle with the light, but I long to meet my Savior first of all. What about that? What about that? God bless you. Amen.