We're going to be in Mark 10
verses 46 to the end of the chapter. We're going to see how sinners
come to Christ. How sinners come to Christ. It's a story about blind Bartimaeus.
And it's such a straightforward example of the free and sovereign
grace of our Redeemer to a sinner in great need. So when you read
this text, And if I read this text, and we just notice the
history lesson, we surely miss the import of the text. If we
just note the doctrine only, then we're only looking at the
outer shell of our passage. But, if we see our glorious God
standing still, Bartimaeus cries, And in verse 49, it says, and
Jesus stood still. Now remember who this is that
stood still. He didn't stand still for anybody.
Matter of fact, there's only a few other places that it says
He did so. But what we see in this text
this morning is our glorious God standing still and liberating
blind and begging wretches like you and I. If you see that, if
you see yourself in this passage, what wonders you will behold
indeed. We must see Jesus and Jesus only. Let's look at
our text. In verse 46, And they, that is
Christ with his disciples, came to Jericho, And as Christ went
out of Jericho with His disciples, a great number of people, blind
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side, begging. And when Bartimaeus heard that
it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus,
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that
he should hold his peace. But Bartimaeus cried the more
a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood
still and commanded him to be called And they called the blind
man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, that is Bartimaeus, casting
away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered
and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my
sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy
way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received
his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now we've got several
points this morning and there's a whole lot in here. I was looking
at Pastor Henry Mahan's He has somebody, Pastor Tom Harding,
the pastor that's undergone all the flood problems down in Pico,
Kentucky. Tom has taken it upon himself to catalog and to publish
and to put in DVD form every message that Henry has ever preached
over 30-something years. Well, one of those pastors that
I know graciously gave me the whole set. So, last night, I
decided, of course, it's like a 14 DVD, and I don't know how
many messages per DVD. I put it in the player to get
the index. And Henry preached about six or eight times in his
pastor at 13th Street from this text. So, it means a lot to a
lot of God's people. One, because it's in the Word,
but sometimes it has particular meaning to each person. because
this could be how God has dealt with them. So we're going to
look at several points, and there's more points in here that I'm
going to be able to bring out. But let's just go through these,
and then I pray God would do something for us this morning.
The first thing we notice, look in verse 46. And they came to
Jericho. If you know anything about the
Word, anything about Old Testament Scriptures, you know that Jericho
is not a good place to be at. It's a wicked city. It's a city
full of debauchery. It's a city that's cursed. And nothing good can come of
it, through it, or from it. Yet our Redeemer and our Savior shall do a glorious and good
work in Jericho. A sinner years ago found mercy
at the hands of our gracious God. Her name was Rahab. Rahab
the harlot, the sinner, found mercy in Jericho years previous
to this. And now, the electing grace of
God will come once more to this one called Bartimaeus. But isn't
this just this place, this Jericho? It's just like you and I. The
Lord Christ must come to this cursed world to seek and to save
His lost sheep. Just like Jericho, a cursed city. Nothing good there. Our Master
purposely goes through Jericho because he's going to call out
one of his chosen. Bless God the Father who sent
God the Son into this Jericho. There just might be some Bartimaeuses. There just might be some Rahabs
in Jackson, Missouri. Well, there is. There is. And did you notice He came to
Jericho? Jericho didn't come to Him. Did you notice our Savior in
sovereign providential purpose came to Jericho? And as he went
out of Jericho, so he goes, they just go through it. Salvation is completely on purpose,
God's purpose. Like that woman, that Samaritan
woman, remember how that whole passage started? And it said,
and Christ must needs go through Samaria. Why? Because there's
one of his elect there. There's one of his stray wandering
lost sheep. And our Redeemer is going to
fetch. He is going to fetch. Some of the old writers used
to call it fetching grace. He's going to go after his sheep
wherever they're at. Whether it be Jericho, Jackson,
doesn't matter. He's going to fetch his people.
And he's going to be successful as we see in our lesson. Secondly,
let's look at this man, verse 46. And they came to Jericho
and Christ went through and went out of Jericho with His disciples
and a great number of people with Him. And there's this one
man called Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway, begging. Sat by the highway, begging. Look at verse 46, and we talked
a little bit about Jericho. Now we come upon this character
named Bartimaeus. He's sitting by the highway side,
begging for sustenance. So at this particular point,
he's more concerned about his natural condition, begging for
sustenance, than he is his spiritual condition. He's just trying to
make a living. He's just trying to live. He's trying to survive.
But notice this, there's a few, there's four things that we know
about this man, just in this verse, four things we know about
him. But before I get to that, I want you to realize this, he's
sitting on the roadside and he's begging. So I'm sure, as it would
be in this country, if you've ever been in the city, you know,
I don't notice too many beggars in Jackson, but when I go from
time to time to St. Louis or a large city, you'll
see, you'll see situations like this. And I suppose, as there
were, Opportune times, few people would walk by this bear, Bartimaeus,
and would give him some money. Or maybe they had a little bit
of food, and they would give him that food. And maybe they
had a few things that they would impart to him. But everything he got never changed
him. Right? He's begging, somebody
comes by, they throw him a little money. They throw him a little
food. And maybe they give him a hat. But he never changed. Because
man can't change man. When I stand up here and I preach
to you and I proclaim to you, the only way that sinners can
be made whole is through Jesus Christ. And then for me to have
you come forward and shake my hand or make some decision or
whatever it might be, I can't change you. I can't change your
nature. I can't change who you are. If
you come in here only to hear a doctrine, or if you come in
here only to hear of the weather, if you come in here only to whatever
it might be, if that's all you come in here, you're going to
leave the same way. But may we come like Bartimaeus, and may
we cry And when our friends, and our family, and our other
religious people who don't understand us, and they say, you know, you
go in there and hear about Jesus, and Jesus, and Christ, and Him
crucified, and the Sovereign Redeemer, you just keep crying
louder. You just keep coming, and you
just keep crying, and you just keep coming, and you just keep
crying. Remember, this is a picture of how God saves sinners, but
this is also a picture of how sinners come to Christ. Four
things we know about this man. He's poor. If he wasn't poor,
he wouldn't be on the roadside begging. This is just like you
and I. This is just like you and I. We're born in sin. Poor. He's blind. He cannot see the Redeemer. All
he can do is hear of the Redeemer, which we'll get to that in a
minute, but he's poor. Poor in spirit. He's poor physically,
but he's poor spiritually. And everyone who is born of Adam
is born poor. Now, there's most people don't
realize that. And most people you talk to, oh, I've made my
decision for Jesus years ago. I'll get my baptismal certificate.
I'll do something. They don't realize they're poor. Second thing we know about this
man is he's blind. He's blind. He can't see. He can't see Christ. He can't see the way to Christ.
He can't see the grace of Christ. He can't see it because he's
blind. And he's a beggar. He's a beggar. He doesn't hold
a seat in the house. He doesn't hold a high seat in
the council in the city. He's a beggar. He's a beggar. He's sitting. He's quite comfortable. as it were, in his position,
in his situation. He's sitting. But what I thought
was interesting, he's called, he's the son of Timaeus. Bar,
apparently, in the Greek means son of, and he says this man
is Bartimaeus, in verse 46, the son of Timaeus. It tells about
his lineage. This Bartimaeus can trace his
roots through Timaeus, who can trace his roots to You see that? Can you trace your roots here
this morning? I can say this because I used to work for, until
a couple weeks ago, the company I worked for was owned by a private,
was owned by a family, owned by a bunch of Mormons. And they're
big in their genealogy. The only problem is, and I've
told them, not them, I've told a few people, the only problem
is they don't go back far enough, Terry. They don't go back to
Adam. And guess what? In Adam, we're
all dead. You can trace, everybody this
morning can trace your lineage back. We can trace our roots
back to Adam. And what are you going to find
there? Death. Not freedom. Not liberty. Well, I'm not... I've heard people
say this, well, I'm not, you know, you're saying I'm a sinner
based on representation. You sure are. Your federal head
is Adam. My federal head, though, is Adam.
In Adam we die. Look at Romans. Well, I wasn't
there when Adam disobeyed, Eve disobeyed God, and then Adam
disobeyed, and they both disobeyed God with their eyes wide open.
I wasn't there. So I'm not responsible for that.
And then in which do I reply, were you there at the time of
Christ's death? No. But you want the benefits,
and the efficacy, and the propitiatory work of Christ? When God and the Holy Spirit
begins to work on a sinner, we take our place next to Adam.
Say, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I died in Adam,
and I cannot come to you. By God's grace, He shows us we
weren't there when Christ died, but He died in my stead, as my
representative. So we know these things about
Him. But He's sitting on the highway. He's sitting by the
highway side begging. Perhaps he's sitting on the highway
of religion. I used to be a good boy and girl,
and I know I'm not what I'm supposed to be right now, but I remember
years ago I did something good, my mom and dad were happy with
me, and I found Jesus, and I did all this, and I did all that.
He's sitting on the highway of religion. It's not doing him
any good. He might be sitting on the highway
of doctrine. Well, I can debate with any doctor
of divinity. I can debate the grand doctrines. I can debate all these different
things, end time things, and superlapsarianism, and all these
different things that I remember reading about, and all these
different things. And I have a glorious library.
Perhaps this person is sitting in the highway of ordinances,
but I've been baptized. I've taken the Lord's Supper.
Thinking that that's going to change them. Thinking that that's
going to do something for them. Anything but the truth. Anything
but the truth. Sitting on the highway side,
begging. Ordinances don't save. Doctrine
can't save. Religion can't save. And the
Holy Spirit is going to show Bartimaeus who can save. Paul says, I know whom I have
believed. Now, doctrine is very important. You know me. You know me. Doctrine
is very important. It's essential. It allows us
to describe our Redeemer, to speak of Him in terms that the
Scripture lays forth. But I know people who know and
are so infatuated and excited about just doctrine. Christ makes
doctrine alive. See what I'm saying? If you don't
have Christ, you have nothing. If I don't have Christ, I have
nothing. Third thing, let's look at this
cry. Verse 47, And when Vartimaeus
heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth He began to cry out and say,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged
him that he should hold his peace, but he cried out the more a great
deal. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. There's three things about this
cry. Who told Bartimaeus about Jesus? Who told him that he was
Lord, like he says in verse 51. What should you do for me? And
he said, Lord, that I might receive my son. Who told him that he
was Lord? Who told him that it was Jesus of Nazareth? Who told
him that it was the son of David? Who told him that he could obtain
mercy at this one's hands? He's a man like any other man.
Oh, to most people He is. To most people, Christ is a good
man. To most people, Christ is a wise
man. To most people, Christ is a prophet. Never a man spake like this man. Because there never was a man
who was also God. And I'm not going to try to explain
that. Who taught Bartimaeus this? Where did he hear it from? Why would he continue to cry
and not be stifled? I say it's one who was led by
the sweet whispers of the Holy Spirit. Which the scripture says
the Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and makes them real
to us. Turn to Psalms 110. Psalms 110. And verse 3, Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. You got this Bartimaeus who's
on the highway side, begging day after day after day, getting
things from people, never changed his status, never altered his
status. Now he hears there's one called Jesus of Nazareth
that comes by and something happens. I say the work of the Holy Spirit. It was the day of God's power
on His people. Thy people shall be made willing.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of His power. Secondly, He heard. You see how it's there? Verse
47, And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing the word of God. May we never
underestimate, may we never take too lightly or treat too lightly
the reading of this book and the speaking, the preaching of
the gospel. Because you can look at Nicodemus, In these other instances
in the Scriptures, and they had been taught from children about
the Old Testament Scriptures. So I'm sure that Bartimaeus had
heard as a youth things concerning the Messiah
and things concerning the Redeemer. He heard it was Jesus of Nazareth. And the third thing about this
cry Don't stop crying to Christ. Don't let anything stop you from
Christ. One pastor said, need determines
action. And if you're content in your
religious state affairs, and you're not necessarily a beggar,
and you don't think you're a sinner, and you're not poor, and you're
not blind, then you won't cry. And that's the problem with false
preachers, is they're telling everybody about a false Christ,
through a false gospel, and people are just in their stupor. They're
blind leaders of the blind, and they're both, they're all going
in the ditch. They don't have a need. You must be talking to
somebody else. That's why the gospel is so offensive,
and I don't mean to offend anybody, But I must tell you the truth. Don't stop coming to Christ. And I'm going to add, you find
a place where the Gospels preach, get there. Commit to it. Be a part of it. We've seen many
come. Not too long ago, Not too long,
we've been looking for a church like this, and they said all
these different things, and then Bruce actually talked to the
gentleman a lot longer than I did, and doctrinally, they just, and
then just doctrine, doctrine, all these different things, so
it sounded like the right things were being said. Came two or three times. Didn't have enough people. We
didn't have any single, I'm not making it, didn't have any single
women for the eldest son. And they didn't like this song
book. I didn't hear anything about
the preaching of the message. We gather together to worship
Christ around this book as the message as Christ is proclaimed. Bartimaeus wouldn't allow excuses
The excuses abound. Don't let anything get in the
way between you and Christ. And don't let anything get in
the way between you and the brethren. Because you're going to go out
tomorrow, I'm going to go out tomorrow, if you go out in the
world, or if you work, and you're going to hear all sorts of things
that are not edifying, that are not glorifying, It's not the
same. Fellowship, you can't have fellowship
with darkness. You can have friendship and have all these things we
do with our family. But it's not the same. It's not the same. Fourthly, verse 48, you have
the naysayers. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. But Bartimaeus cried the more
a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. Oh, let someone
begin to hear the true gospel and to start to fall in love
with Christ and His unerring truth, and then all of a sudden
comes out the so-called friends and relatives and religious folks. That's not really how God is. He's not totally sovereign. He's
sovereign over the weather, but He's not sovereign over you.
You have a free will and a choice. That's not how he saves sinners
by his pure, free choice of them. That's not how they're kept and
brought to heaven. We preach that Christ is the
Alpha and the Omega in salvation, and once he saves you, he's going
to keep you until the end. You're not going to lose your
salvation. That's not really how you're brought to heaven.
You have to do something yourself. Don't listen to that preacher.
Don't listen to his sermons. And then they begin to attack
the character of the preacher, oftentimes, and the message.
and the Messiah that is preached. Well, I don't know that Jesus.
Well, this is the Jesus of the Scripture. Don't... They say, don't get so excited
about redemption in Christ. They want to crush the awakenings
of the soul and stifle the way of grace. I've seen it time and
time again. I've experienced it time and
time again. It was called a fanatic. And
I thought, you go to a basketball game here,
or you go to a football game in Jackson, you're called a fan. And if you're not pumped up about
the, especially football, you must not. You sure you're from
Jackson? And they start to talk about the Cardinals, Let's
talk about this, let's talk about that. You're a fan, short for
fanatic. You start being a fanatic to the Lord Jesus Christ. Stay
away from me. Hold your peace. He is my peace. I'm not letting
go. And many charged him. There's
many of them. Many well-meaning friends, like Job. Job had those
three and then the Lord brought Elihu in who really told it the
way it was. And then Job's wife, curse God,
die, get over with. And many charged him, be quiet. Whether there's one or two or
two hundred. By God's grace, helping me, this is all I'm preaching. I've
had people try to get me off on end time things. I've had
people try to get me off on to something else. People come and
say, you're just preaching the same thing, preaching the same
person. The comment was made about Charles
Spurgeon, one of his critics. They used to, in England, you
know how they're really good about drawing characters, and they ripped him,
like the comics, political satires. They ripped him and they got
a picture of him one time in old England, 1800s. There's old
Spurgeon. He's got a guitar. He's got one
string on it. Bum, dum, dum. Christ, Christ, Christ. That's
fine. That's fine. What old Martin Luther said,
here is where I stand. I can do no other. Joshua, as
for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. and you gotta work, and you gotta
pay taxes, and you're rendering to Caesar what is Caesar, you
gotta obey the laws, you do that. You'll be an upright and outstanding
citizen, but don't let anything come between you and the Redeemer,
and don't let anything away with the excuses come between you
and gathering together where God's people are. They said, quiet, quiet! I love it here. He cried out
the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. If you ever
read the book, and I highly recommend it, Pilgrim's Progress by John
Bunyan. There's several that are illustrated
as well, but there's one where he's the Lord's beginning to
do a work in his heart. And Bunyan, of course, the person
in the book is called Christian, Pilgrim's Progress, And there's a scene where he's
in the city of destruction, and the Lord's beginning to awaken
him. And he knows if he stays there, he's gonna die. But he
knows his family's there, his friends are there, and he's trying
to warn them. The Lord begins to open his eyes to the truth
of the gospel. He's telling them to flee from
the wrath to come. And they're just sitting there, and he says,
I was as one of them that seemed that mocked. Can you imagine
Noah? That's what happened to Noah.
Get in the ark. It's never rained before. The
scripture says the water came up from below. They've never
seen it rain. He said it's going to rain and
they mocked him building this ark. But he says he was a preacher
of righteousness. And so, old Pilgrim, a Christian,
he's warning. Pilgrim is warning to get out
and they just mocked him and he said, I had to leave. And
there's a picture in one of the books Behind them is the city
of destruction, and he's running away, and he's got his hands
like this. I'm not going to listen anymore
to this falsehood, to these lies of Christ. And they mean well. And I'm not saying you don't
love them. You love them. If there's anybody that can love
a lost person, it's a believer who knows what pit we've been
dug from. But you can't abide. You cannot
abide. And he's running away, looking
for the celestial city with his hands on his ears, weeping. The fifth thing, God's grace
is always sufficient. Many charged him that he should
hold his peace, verse 48, but he cried the more, a great deal,
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. True grace, said Robert Hawker,
the more it is exercised, the more it will manifest itself.
What we have here, and you can turn to Romans 8, whom He called,
those who foreknew them He called, and then He called, He predestinated,
He called. He's going to do the work. It's
effectual. An effectual call is a successful
call. He called. He stopped. He stood
there. He stood still. Why did Christ
stand still? Well, John tells us, in John
chapter 6, and there's many references to this, and you know this, John
chapter 6, and in verse, let me get there, verse 37, All that the Father
gives to me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will
in no wise cast off. He stood still. You see, Christ
is constrained by His own mission He will not desert His children,
but He will meet our every need. It says, He stood still, and He commanded him to be called.
And guess what's going to happen? He's going to come. He has to,
because the Master is calling. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, But God hath chosen, for you
see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, blind
Bartimaeus, beggars. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are
not to bring to naught the things that are. Why? that no flesh
would glory in His presence. If there's any way that you and
I could get any attachment of this thing called salvation,
we would, and we would try to glory in it. So, He calls, and then look at
what it says continuing on. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called, so He's called. And then they called the blind
man, saying to them, Be of good comfort, rise, He calleth thee. With the call comes comfort. See, there's a warfare going
on. And then He gives peace. Be of good comfort. And then
lastly, under this Christ standing still, or He's calling, He asked
Bartimaeus a question. You ever wonder why He asked
that question? What do you want? Verse, And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto you? And the blind man
said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Why do you
think he asked that question? Why do you think he asked Adam
in the garden? Adam, where are you? Do you not
think God knew where Adam was? God sees everything. He knows
where everything is. He knows where everybody's at.
You can't hide from God. You can't hide your sin from
God. Why would he ask, Adam, where art thou? In this situation,
what do you want me to do for you? Two reasons. Always two. So we would know ourselves. Adam, where are you? I'm hiding. Why? Because I've sinned. What do you want me to do for
you? I'm blind. He will have you in
the Holy Spirit. This is the way the grace of
God works in sinners. I'm not trying to say ABCs. I'm
not saying that at all. You will know what you are in
the sight of a thrice holy God. He humbles before He brings up. See, the way the world is to
be great is to be great. The way of the Scriptures to
be nothing is to be great. To be poor is to be rich. To be empty is to be full. And
He says, what do you want me to do for you? Two things. So you and I may know exactly
how much we need Him. And two, know that He's the only
one who can do it. I've been sitting on this roadside
a long time. I've been playing religion for a long time. I've
been playing, I've been a good boy or a good girl and I've been
all these things. But that's not salvation. You
need to know and I need to know that the only place that a sinner,
vile, corrupt sinner, and a holy God could meet, as one man said,
is on the blood-splattered altar of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is our altar. It's the only place God will
receive any sinner is in Christ. The sinner comes. The master
calls. He comes. But look at this. Verse 50, and Bartimaeus, casting
away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. The Savior calls, you're going
to come. And you're going to come specifically
to Christ. You're going to lay aside your
garments. Why? What's that significant?
Again, before I get too much into it, and I, you know, sadly
enough, I've seen beggars, and they're usually not, they're
not dressed very well, they don't smell real well, they don't look real
well. And they all have, depending on the time of year, they'll
have a shawl, a blanket, something that they've got. That's all
they got. Keep them warm. In some places,
like my union station, you get a bunch of people throwing a
bunch of money. That garment is used to hide. They don't want a bunch
of kids coming around and stealing the money. So they have that.
They trust in that. It makes them up. It's their
protection. It's everything. I'll tell you
what, when you see the Savior, you're going to get rid of everything
that you thought you had to have that promoted you to God. You
say, I've got this. Get rid of it. I was raised a
nice Christian. Get rid of it. I was raised,
you know, I'll show you our dollar bill on the country. It says
in God we trust. Get rid of it. You're going to get rid of everything.
You're going to cast everything aside that you thought helped you,
made you more likable in God's eyes. Anything that you thought
positioned you in a state to be saved, get rid of it. Get
rid of it. And that's what he did. He cast
everything. You see, our problem is we've
got so much baggage. We've got so much, so many things
that the Lord has to, we've got to keep on learning and growing
in grace. Because we're, by nature, the
old man, who's not getting any better, the old man, he'll say,
well, you know, no, you did a good job there. You know, he'll try
to, you know, he'll pat yourself on the back, or do these different
things, or do those different things. Lay aside those clothes,
and those clothes could be and are our self-righteousness, our
works, or the law, or anything of self that tries to promote
us to God in the way of salvation. And simply by faith, he says,
and Jesus said, thy faith may be whole. The sinner comes to
Christ, he comes to Christ, he lays aside everything that he
thought, whether something, you know, and I know we don't think
this, but some people do. I was okay because I was sprinkled
as a kid. It's not scriptural for one thing. Baptism, the word
literally means to immerse. So you weren't baptized as a
baby. Something happened there, but
it wasn't of God. So we lay aside all that. With
me, I was raised in the Methodist Church, and it was just confirmation. Once I was confirmed, then Terry
and I was in. I made it in. I never went back
to church. I did what my mom and dad told
me to do, was confirmed, and then lived pretty well how I
wanted to live. So when I started getting concerned
about and scared about the reality of my soul, my mind ran back
to my comfort. But I was confirmed. The Lord
just smashes that to pieces. That's a good thing. It's a scary
thing, but it's a good thing. Because you're about to get mercy.
You're about to receive sight. You're about to receive pardon
for millions of sins. Some that you know about and
some that you don't know about. He came by faith. Always by faith
in what the Savior's done. And faith is a gift of God. It's
not something that we earn. So when I close, when I look
at this, I think about what Jonah said. Truly, he said, salvation
is of the Lord. Don't delay. Come to Christ for
life, peace, and forgiveness. And if the Lord is doing something,
and people just say, you'll get over it. You don't listen. You just, by God's will, you
just keep, you just keep coming to Christ. And the Lord does
something for you. You'll desire to follow Him in
His ordinance of believers' baptism. and be a part of those who worship
Christ and honor Him and adore Him. And what do I got to do?
Just be yourself. Follow Christ. Worship Him. Love Him. Do all that you do
to the glory of God. We got so many rules and regulations.
Follow Christ. Love Christ. I haven't really
seen. I haven't seen it yet. I've seen
it of people who said they loved one another and then they didn't.
But those who truly love one another, husband and wife, I've
never seen it where they got so many rules and regulations.
If you don't do this, I mean, I know there's gotta be order
in the home and stuff, but if you're staying with your spouse
because you have to, things are just trouble. If you're staying
with one another because you want to, It's a hard thing. It's a matter
of the heart. And I can't touch the heart.
And I don't dare touch the heart. But I know who can and who does. And once he has that heart, he'll
never let you go. He'll never let you go. Bruce,
would you close us please?