I'd like for you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to Exodus chapter 15. Look down with me to verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from
the sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. And they
went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when
they come to Merah, they could not drink of the waters of Merah,
for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was
Merah. And the people murmured against
Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast
into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for
them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and
said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord
thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt
give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I
put none of the diseases upon thee which I brought upon the
Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. They came
to Elam where there was twelve wells and three score and ten
palm trees and they encamped there by the waters. I want to talk to you tonight
on the subject of being brought from the sea. It says that Moses brought them
from the sea. Now, the sea was their confession
of faith. That was their baptism. The sea
was to them this spiritual union with the Lord. They passed through
by faith. They passed through with the
Lord, through the sea, with Moses, and was brought up from that
death, that burial and resurrection with Him. And the sea is where
they were united as one and raised up together with Him. And the
sea is where they saw their enemies defeated and utterly destroyed.
There can be no journey to Canaan until you pass through the sea.
That's where the journey begins. That journey of faith begins
after passing through the sea. A man must pass from death unto
life before he can walk. You're not going to walk this
walk. There was thousands among them who tried to walk this walk
through the wilderness. You're not going to walk through
the wilderness except by faith. Because there's nothing in the
wilderness to sustain you. Nothing to sustain you. And there
can be no journey to Canaan until there first be a passing through
the sea. And this is the story of every
true believer. He's brought from the sea. He
brought through that death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We're
buried, Paul said, and risen with Him through the faith of
the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. The same as
He raised Him from the dead, He raised us from the dead. Not
only were we raised with Him by that eternal union in Him,
when God raised Him from the dead and justified us in Him.
But by the Spirit of the living God, He's united us with Him
and raised us unto spiritual life. And this resurrection is
to a walk. It's to a walk. It's to a journey.
He didn't resurrect them and they were in Canaan. He resurrected
them and they started walking through the wilderness. They
didn't know the wilderness was a wilderness. until God let them
out into it. And that's the same with us.
We're born of God. We don't know anything about
this world. We experience it as we go. And it's interesting
to me, and I think more than just a catchy point, that it
backs up. It says that they went to Merah,
but it also says they went a three-day journey. Whenever you see that
number three, you can stop and just almost wager that it speaks
about the resurrection. The number three speaks of that
resurrection. So this journey denotes a resurrected
walk. They were raised to walk in newness
of life. Now I've got several things I
want you to see here tonight in this story and these few verses
that I've read to you. And the first is this, that life
is a journey. It's a journey. We're born in
this world, but this world is a wilderness. We're not born
to stay here. We're not born to live here.
We're journeying through here. All these patriarchs in Hebrews
chapter 11, it said that they were sojourners. They sojourned
in that land. And they looked for a city which
had foundations whose builder and maker was God. They didn't
look to these temporary things in this wilderness. This world
is a wilderness in which no man can live forever. And it's at
best just a temporary home. You know, the Israelites, when
they journeyed through the wilderness, never came upon a house. Never came upon a city. Never
came upon a village or a tribe. They traveled through that wilderness,
and that's exactly what it was, a wilderness. Nobody lives there
forever. Not a place fit to live. It's
called in Exodus 15.22, the wilderness of Shur. Now, I looked that word up because
he refers to this wilderness by two names. He calls it the
wilderness of sin, and he calls it the wilderness of sure. And
so I looked that word sure up to see what it means, and it
comes from several words. A lot of these words that we
see and discover here in the first time is usually the primary
word, and then after that, it begins to take on more and more
meaning. So if you really want to know
the meaning of the word, you've got to go back and look it all
up. And if you look at all these words, it means place of travelers. Place of travelers, that's what
the word means, sure. It means a wall. What is a wall? A wall is a dividing point, isn't
it? You have a wall in the house. You don't put walls in the middle
of your living room. You put walls to separate bedrooms
and kitchens and things like that. You put a wall up as a
divider. was a division. It was a divider
between where they were and where they wanted to be. And it was
a place of traveling. God put us here. We have to travel
through it. You're not going to get to Canaan
except through the wilderness. That's the only way you're going
to get there. And every believer is called to pass through this
world. And this is where God will prove
His people. I read that to you. He said,
I have proved you. I proved you here. And this is
where he's going to prove his people and prove the work he
does in them and expose all who try to pass this way without
true saving faith. It's a wilderness that separates
Israel from Canaan. And the only way to receive their
inheritance is to pass through this wilderness. So life is a
journey from time to eternity. We live in time here, don't we?
We have no sense of eternity. But that's where we're headed.
That's where we're headed. Believers or unbelievers, you're
headed for eternity. And that's what this journey,
all the way through this world. And then, when we talk about
going through this wilderness, let me tell you about that. You
discover it as you go. You couldn't stand on the Red
Sea shore and see across this wilderness. You'd see out there
a little piece, maybe a mile or two, if it's flat. like you
do over in Oklahoma. You can look out and you can
see a mile or two out there, maybe ten, but that's as far
as you can see. And the only way you're going
to know what's in that wilderness is to travel across it. And there's
where you're going to learn something about this wilderness. You're
going to learn why it's called a wilderness as you experience
it. And that's the same thing with
this world. I can stand in here and tell young men, I told my
kids when they was young, I said, I'm going to tell you something.
I've already been down the road, and I can tell you where all
the holes are. Or you can drive down the road yourself and fall
in every one of them, whichever one you want to do. I can tell
you where the holes are. God will tell you where the holes
are. He'll tell you. He'll tell you where the pitfalls
and snares. He'll tell you all that stuff,
but most of us learn it the hard way. We fall in the hole. That's
right. That's how we learn. But there's
something new. It's discovered as you go. And
there's something new and there's something different around every
corner, across every hill. Things you're not looking for,
things you don't expect, boom, here they are. Here they are.
And faith reacts a certain way to these things. And unbelief
reacts a certain way to these things. And God proves His people
as they cross this wilderness. He proves who His people are. Something new. And I'm telling
you, you just can't see what's out there. You discover it as
you go. Life is a journey. And then secondly, this journey
is the whole of the way through a desert wilderness. Everything
in the desert is identified. I just sat and closed my eyes
when I wrote this and tried to imagine what exactly is in a
desert. Cactus, thorny bushes, thistles,
dry sand, no water, serpents, scorpions, everything that's
typically connected with the curse of God is in this wilderness.
The serpents, the scorpions, go through the description, the
droughts, no water, all these things, all connected to the
curse. And that's this wilderness. This world has nothing in it
to contribute to the salvation of the soul. And as Israel passes
through this land, they're given by the grace of God everything
they need to sustain them. They had to be given. There was
nothing there. The smitten rock, it says over
in the Corinthians, which was Christ, followed them through
the wilderness. They drank from that rock. And
that rock was Christ. And I'm told by those who are
supposed to know about these things that the desert has a
strange attraction to men. You would think that this is
a dry parched wilderness. Why would anybody go into it?
Because it subtly tricks men. It has a strange attraction to
it. It has a strange beauty about
it that attracts men. It has a strange effect on men. It makes them see things that
ain't really there. Mirages and all these things
you read about travelers through the desert. And then this I learned
myself on my journey out west one time. I crossed the big deserts.
And I'm going to tell you something. When you start out across that
desert, you can see the mountains. And you think to yourself, well,
I'll be there in about an hour. And you drive for about three
hours, and that mountain's still right where it was. And you drive
three more, and that mountain's still right where it was. And
it really fools you. You think this is just going
to be a short walk. Well, they went three days into
this thing and found no water. And that mountain was just as
far away as it ever was. Just as far away. The desert
appears friendly, but it's filled with poisonous reptiles. And
that's life. Life is a journey through a wilderness. There's nothing in this world.
I'm telling you, there's nothing here. Everything here is fleeting. Everything here is temporary.
You're healthy one day, the next day the doctor comes in, doesn't
he? You feel good one day, the next day you can't hardly walk.
It's temporary, it's fleeting. It's like, he said, we're like
steam on tea kettle. You sit there for a minute and
it's gone. It's gone. Kathy and I were talking about
my dad this afternoon and I said, you know it seemed like he died
last week. It's been 20 years. Boy, I mean a blink of an eye.
Just a blink of the eye. It's a journey through wilderness.
And thirdly, I want you to see this. It's in this wilderness
that true faith is proved. Proved. If you're not equipped
of God for this journey, and if God don't go with you, you're
going to have a hard time with this journey. You're going to
be unsuccessful in this journey. If you attempt to try to cross
into Canaan alone, you're not going to make it. The path of
faith is arranged of God. It's arranged of God. They were
brought to Merah. They were brought there. Why
would God bring them to a pool of bitter water? Make them sit
out in that hot scorching sun in that desert. You know, it
gets hot here, but it ain't hot like it is in that desert, in
that eastern desert. People die out there in just
a matter of days. Three days' journey into that
wilderness, over a million of them with their cattle and animals,
no water, nothing, and come to this pool, probably saw it from
a ways off, ran up there to it, bent down, and it's so bitter
you can't drink it. This path is arranged of God,
and it's arranged in such a way that all who walk through the
land glorify the God who brought them there. the salvation of
the Lord. This whole journey through this
wilderness is going to glorify Him. It's going to glorify Him. There was not one thing in that
entire journey to glorify man. Nothing. Man grumbled, man murmured,
man complained, man accused God. It all went across this whole
time. Everything that sustained them,
everything that pushed them and led them and whatever you want
to call it, brought them. That's a good word, broad. Broad. But every step we take, every
snare we encounter, every obstacle we come to requires divine intervention. And those who do acquire it,
Paul said they obtain this inheritance. That's what Israel was headed
for, their inheritance. And those who obtained it, he
said, we have obtained. being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will. And He does this to manifest
everything that comes to pass to be to the praise of His glory
who first trusted in Christ. God was the first one to trust
in Christ. You think He's going to let us
do less than He did? Huh? He first trusted in Christ. Now, I'm telling you something,
if God can trust you in Christ, you can. You can. All of this journey is designed
to glorify His name, and all of this journey is designed for
our good. It was for their good that He
led them to Mero. It was for their good. And the
further into this journey we go, the more I know that this
is true. It's for our good. And I've come
to learn something about that. I've come to learn that no matter
what it is, you can't see the good in it. Don't you try to
take what God cast before you. You couldn't take them bitter
waters and taste them bitter waters and look at it and find
anything good in it. You found the good in the sea.
You found the good standing on the shore seeing the enemies
dead. And you have to trust God that these waters and being brought
there is for your good. And that's the same with all
these things that confront us. You ain't going to find out.
I tell you all the time, it's like dumping out a big puzzle
and picking up one piece and trying to tell everybody what
the picture is. You can't find it in that one piece. And you
can't find it in that one confrontation. It's designed for our good. I
don't understand how. It is that this works except
to say that divine wisdom and sovereign grace so arranges it
so that it has to be for your good. Has to be. I know it's
for your good because God said it was. That's good enough, isn't
it? Huh? He says it's for your good. For your good. And it's arranged
for His glory. It's arranged for our good. And
it's arranged to prove the gift of faith that God has wrought
in our hearts. He's going to prove that work.
I tell you that all the time. I believe. We'll see. We'll see. They all come out of the sea.
They all stood on the shore. And Moses took off and they took
off right behind them. We believe. We'll see. We'll see. Everything the believer
encounters in this wilderness reveals their relationship to
God. Unbelievers look to the earth and fret. That's what they
do. They look to the waters and fret. Not the believer. Believers look to God and hope.
That's what they do. One murmurs against God, the
other cries to God for the remedy. One looks to the trouble and
complains, the other looks to God and finds a solution. It
says right here, the people murmured against Moses saying, what shall
we drink? What'd Moses do? He cried unto
the Lord. Huh? That's the difference. That's
the difference. Trials in the wilderness reveal
true faith. All men travel through this wilderness,
but it's not perceived the same way by all men. Things that they
discover in this wilderness is not perceived the same. And it's
only as the man of God discovers the world for what it is that
he learns to pass through the land like he ought to. I'll tell
you, if those waters were fresh, I don't think you could have
got Israel to leave Mero. They'd have stayed right there.
Why? If they found that land fertile,
they'd set up camp right there. They wouldn't have went nowhere.
If God made it that way to us, we wouldn't want to leave this
world. We'd just stay here. It's pleasant and nice and good.
But I tell you what, He lets you get old. He lets you hurt. He gives you diseases. He gives
you these things. Why does He do that? Because
He's taking you to Canaan. That's why. And He's going to
make you sick of this world. The journey of faith is through
the wilderness. And then, fourthly, the first lesson of faith teaches
us that the waters in this place, not all of them are fit to drink.
Now, God has put a few wells down here. He's got a few wells.
He's got one up in Danville. He's got one right here. He's
got a few wells. God sets His wells, even in the
wilderness, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the rest. He sets
wells. Why? Abraham, because he's God's
elect, he leads him to the well to drink. But not all the waters
in this land fit to drink. And that's the first thing he's
going to teach you. When he brings you out to sea, the first stop
is Merah. The first stop is at the bitter
waters. You're going to learn right then
that everything that you drink in this world, that's of this
world, ain't fit to drink. It ain't fit to drink. Faith
is brought here straightway from the sea, and it's the first stop
on the journey. What are these bitter waters
of Merah? Boy, there's a lot of things
you can say. I'll just let you fill in the blanks on that. But
I think they represent here the providence of God who brought
them to this place. I think that's what they were
complaining about, was God's providence. All across this thing,
these people are being brought. They're being led of God. And
all the way across this thing, 10 times, the same exact number
as the plagues of Egypt, Israel is tempted in this wilderness.
They're tried. And each time, they spoke negative
against God. And that last time, he said,
there's not going to be another time. And he judged them. But I think he's talking here
about the providence of God which brought them here. And the providence
of God is always bitter to the natural man. He doesn't like
it. He doesn't even want to talk about it. He doesn't even want
to talk about the idea of God's providence. You mean God said
these things? God said these things? I remember
when my daughter Cynthia was hurt on a three-wheeler. She
cracked her skull underneath from ear to ear. It just happened. Somebody said it was You're so
lucky," he said, they told me, that there was a world-renowned
neurosurgeon in Alexandria, Louisiana about that time who was giving
a talk to the neurosurgeons there, and he took her on as a patient.
Well, they gave her up for dead before they ever got her to the
hospital. She was leaking spinal fluid out of her nose and both
ears and all these things. Well, you've seen her here. She's
living a normal life. But the first thing they told
me when one of the fellows got up to the hospital, he said,
now, he said, you know this is of the devil. I said, no. My God sits on the throne. Devil
don't sit on the throne. He don't sit on the throne. This
is of God, and it's OK with me. It's OK with me. But the providence
of God is always bitter. He's got no appetite for God's
sovereignty. He's got no taste for God's wisdom.
He's got no hunger for God's glory. And he has no heart to
trust in the Lord. This is what the Lord requires,
that you trust Him. He's the one who sent them the
ambassador. They're down there making bricks.
They're down there in the iron furnace when God found them.
What did they have to do with splitting the sea? What did they
have to do with walling the waters up? What did they have to do
to overcome that great king? Greatest king in the world at
that time. God overthrew him and put him in the sea and they
never drove back a bow, never swung a sword. God sent an ambassador
down there, sent a preacher down there and destroyed a nation
with a single man. And this man now leads them across
here, and they don't get but three days, and they're just
eating him alive. Who do you expect us to drink
out here? I expect you to wait on the Lord.
I expect you to wait on the Lord. If He don't give us something
to drink, we've got nothing. This is a wilderness. We need
to trust Him. But the natural man has no heart
to trust in the Lord. All the waters of this world
are going to leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. You're going
to come away as thirsty as you were when you went. Faith is
brought to the bitter waters, and they're not brought there
as a cruel punishment, but they're brought there to reveal the sweet
remedy of grace. Moses cried unto the Lord, and
what did the Lord do? Showed him a tree. Huh? Oh, I
tell you, I hope He shows me the tree, don't you? Huh? I want to see the tree." No sooner
had Moses cried unto the Lord, having drank those bitter waters,
than God showed him the tree. And the tree is the cross. That's
what it is. It's the cross. The cross is
the ultimate work of God. It's the work around which all
other works find their purpose and glory. It's the cross that
purchased their inheritance. They were headed for an inheritance.
Well, how'd they get it? God trusted in Christ. He first
trusted in Him. He'll purchase it with His own
blood. It's the cross that purchased
the inheritance. It's the cross that prompted
their deliverance. And it's the cross that sweetens
every bitter pool. It sweetens the pool. I don't
care how rough it is, I don't care how bad it is, the cross
sweetens the pool. What would it be worth to you
if you laid down tonight, knew this was your last night, huh? What would it be worth to you
having to face that? How sweet would those waters
be if he revealed to you that cross? How important would it
be? I think everything else would just fade away, don't you? All
these other things we worry about. That cross. Listen to this, Romans 8.32. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Is there anything God is going
to withhold? He didn't withhold his son. The only reason God
will withhold something for you is for your good and His glory. Your good and His glory. If God
spared not His own Son, He'll spare nothing else. You think
God would subject what He's redeemed to anything that's not necessary
for their good? Huh? Will He allow anything to
cross our path that's not for our good and His glory? Well,
our nature is such that God must lead us to the bitter pool to
make us see and taste the sweet remedy of grace. That's why He
leads us there. If He just leaves us alone, we'll
never give a thought to the cross. Never give a thought. But He
takes you and puts you at the bitter pool. And one taste from
the pool, and boy, how you look to that cross. Our nature is
such that we need often be reminded that He alone sustains us in
the wilderness. And our nature is such that if
we were not made to taste the bitter waters, we'd never pray
to Him for sweetening of the cross. Faith is brought of God to taste
the bitter waters. Oh, how that anguish of heart
is made sweet by the cross. Paul said, our light affliction.
I don't know of anybody afflicted like he was. That man beaten
everywhere he went. Everywhere he went. He was in
prison. And we ain't talking about the
hotel down here that they put him in today. We're talking about
a prison. He was in prison. Spent a lot of his years in a
prison, falsely accused, beaten, all of that. But oh, how sweet
it was. with that knowledge of the cross. And He says, our light
afflictions. And then let me ask you this,
how does the cross sweeten the water? How does it sweeten the water?
With the words? Now, I heard the words sitting
in the waiting room. I heard the words, it didn't
sweeten our water a bit. It didn't sweeten our water a
bit. I believe the cross sweetens
water by giving them reason and purpose. It gives them reason
and purpose. You can't find a reason. Something
strikes you down. You've got to have this operation.
You have to have this. You have to have that. And you
start hunting reasons in it. You can't find any, can you? You can't find any. You can't
find any. You can find reasons in the cross.
You can find purpose. And then God lets us drink of
this bitter pool to let us know this is no place to sink down
roots. That's why He did it. He's telling
them don't get comfortable in this land. This land's cursed.
And while there might be a well here and there supplied by God,
all the other waters ain't fit to drink. God's divine purpose
pushes us toward Canyon. Gently pushes us toward Canyon.
You know, there was a drought came in and Naomi had to leave
Jerusalem. And after she suffered all the
things she suffered, the drought was over. God brought her right
back to where she started from, didn't He? Right back to the
kinsman redeemer. God's divine providence pushes
us onward to Canaan. He said, lay not up for yourselves
treasures in this world where moth and rust doth corrupt, but
lay them up in heaven where nothing can break in and steal or destroy.
No matter what comes your way in the wilderness, Canaan is
yours by the promise of God who cannot lie. God who cannot lie. That's what Paul said. There's
your hope. And the cross gives reason and
purpose to sweeten the waters, and the cross sweetens the waters
by encouraging us to pray. I tell you, unlike this unbelieving
world, we have a right. Can you hear me? We have a right.
a right to come into this holy place. We have boldness, Paul said,
boldness to enter in to the holiest by the blood of Jesus. And to
this whole unbelieving religious world, he says in Isaiah chapter
1, he said, when you come to appear before me, I don't have
any people. We're going to put you on a prayer
wall. We're going to put you on a prayer list. We've got a
cloth somewhere that we anoint and pray over. And we've got
this and that, and they're talking about all these numbers. Somebody
told me on the phone today, they said, there's people all over
the world right now praying for you. We've got this thing in
our church, and it goes out all over the world. You've got hundreds
of thousands of people. Well, to this whole unbelieving
religious world, he said, when you come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Did
you even give thought to the right to be here? Did you just
rush right into the throne room of God with all these requests
and this shopping list you have and call out these names with
no knowledge of who they are or what the trouble is or why
you ought to expect some return? Who required to come in here
raising your hands and swaying back and forth and coming in
here with all those old blades? Who required, who told you to
tread my courts? When you spread forth your hands,
I'll hide mine eyes. That's what he said. And when
you make many prayers, that's what they were talking about.
When you make many prayers, he said, I won't hear you. I won't
hear you. Because your hands is full of
blood. You come into his presence, you come there justified in Christ. You come there by the right of
Christ. You come there by that right
that was purchased for you. Think what a sweetness it is
to the trouble to have the ear of God. Huh? My soul. To close your eyes and know that
God himself hears you. What a privilege. I want the comforting hugs and
the kind words of those who share our pain But oh, what a comfort
to know that God Himself hears my cry. God makes us to drink from this
bitter pool to cause our hearts to seek Him. How does the cross
sweeten the bitter waters? By giving those bitter waters
reason and purpose, by encouraging us to prayer, and then thirdly,
by revealing to us the remedy. I tell you, the trouble is not
always the same, but the remedy is. The remedy is always the
cross. Always the cross. And what is
this? Accusing conscience of bitter
experience, persecution, sickness, whatever the trouble is. It says
He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from
this prison, evil world, according to the will of God, our Father.
And then, forcefully, the cross sweetens those bitter waters
by making us trust Him. God shuts you up to His grace. Did you know that? Yes, He does. He shuts you up to His grace.
And if He don't, it ain't His grace. It's not His grace. Grace is grace. It's grace. It's all grace. It's all unmerited. It's all free. And to all those
who trust Him and obey Him and believe on Him and follow Him,
He is, He said, He told those people, He said, I am Jehovah
Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. That's My name, He said. That's My name. Will He heal
this body? Well, He has. And He does. And He can. He can. But whether He does or not, He
heals our soul. That's worth more than healing
the body. This body is going back to the dust. It's the old
tent. The old tent. And I tell you,
one day the old tent is going to go on the ground. It's going
to go on the ground. And should I leave this present
world, I have His promise. I awaken His presence. He is
the Lord that healeth thee. What makes these waters in this
place so bitter? We come in here on Wednesdays
and Sunday mornings, and we talk about our sovereign God, and
we talk about His grace, and we talk about His glory, and
we talk about all these things. And then all of these things
seem so bitter. Why are they so bitter? Why are
they so bitter? What makes them taste so bitter?
Ignorance of Heaven's glory. Huh? That's right. If we had
a solid sense of Heaven's glory, we'd pine away wanting to be
there. I'm telling you the truth. You wouldn't want to stay one
more minute in this world if you had a true sense of Heaven's
glory. Not one minute left. Paul said,
I have a desire to depart and be with him. Huh? That's right. A desire. A desire to leave. That has to be given of God.
You ain't going to whip that up. That has to be given of God.
But here's what makes the water so bitter, is our ignorance of
heaven's glory. We're one with Christ. We're
joined heirs of God with Christ. Heirs of God. Children of God. Think about it. The angels don't
have that right. The angels don't have that honor.
We're children of God. The father ran out and met that
prodigal, didn't he? The prodigal was ready to go
live in the barn. Huh? That's us. We've got no
sense of heaven's glory. We was telling ourselves, well,
We used to sing a song years ago. That's how ignorant we were,
talking about a cabin in the corner of glory land. We'd sing
that song. How stupid. He said, there in
my father's house, there's many mansions. There ain't no huts
in the corner. They're all mansions. We're children
of God, heirs with Christ. Oh, we got no sense of heaven's
glory. That's why the water's so bitter.
And then I tell you this, we're ignorant altogether of the love
of God. Huh? God spared not His Son. God so
loved His own. You know what that Scripture
is. Scripture ain't talking about every man, woman, and child in
this world. He's talking about His elect. God so loved those
He chose out of every nation, kindred, and tribe under heaven
that He sent His only begotten Son into this world. Permanently
took to Himself a human body. Suffered all that He suffered.
Obeyed all that he obeyed. Rose from the dead and ascended
into glory. Huh? Oh, we're ignorant of the
love of God. And I'll tell you something else
makes it so bitter. We're ignorant of the sufficiency
of Christ. We're just ignorant of it. Ignorant
of it. His grace is sufficient. His
offering is sufficient. His righteousness is sufficient. His love is sufficient. His power
is sufficient. You've got nothing to worry about.
You've got nothing to pine away about. Oh, we're ignorant of
the sufficiency of Christ, and we're ignorant of the power of
the Holy Spirit. One fellow told Spurgeon one
time, he said, oh, preacher, he come weeping. He said, I don't
have dying grace. Spurgeon said, are you dying? Well, no. He said, well, you
don't need dying grace. When you come to die, From your
God's own, the Holy Spirit will give you dying grace. He'll give
you dying grace. Now, let me tell you something.
There's only two things that you're going to leave behind
when you leave this evil world. Two things. You're going to leave
behind this body, because this body is going back to the dust
from which it was taken. It will be raised. It will be
raised. And in your flesh one day, like
Job, you'll stand on the earth and see God. for yourself. We're
going to leave behind this body, and then we're going to leave
behind our testimony. That's right. All this journey
across here. Listen to this. This is the first
man after Adam to die. Now listen to this. By faith,
Abel, actually this was the first man to die, wasn't it? By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gift. Now listen to this.
And by it, he being dead, yet speaking. His testimony, the
first believer to ever die in this earth, his testimony still
lives. And I tell you, your testimony
will live forever. It'll live forever. Right on
into eternity. It'll live. It'll live. He writes about it over in Revelations.
They sang a song. Huh? They sang a song. And they
all sang the same song. The same song. It's the Song
of the Lamb. Oh, what grace our God has given
us. Father, we thank You for Your Word. And we thank You for Your Spirit.
And we thank You for the trials and the pools of bitter water.
And oh, but most of all, we thank You for the cross that sweetens
them. We thank You for Christ and His sufficiency and an inheritance
promised, laid up for us in heaven, reserved for us, who are kept
by faith through the power of God. Teach us how to worship
You. Teach us how to walk through
this world. And teach us that it's temporary.
Teach us to number our days, because the day is coming when
this body is going to lay down. Bless the service tonight for
Christ's sake.