Well, it's good to see everybody. I'm afraid to say it's good to
be home because they're going to listen to this tape and I'm
going to be in trouble. Turn with me to the book of Titus, Titus chapter 3. On the walls, deep within the
inner chamber of the tombs of the great pharaohs of Egypt, there was a story told. Not on
the outside. The outside was just a big pyramid. But deep inside, Larry, down
in the burial chamber, on the walls, was a story. And this story told about the
great king whose tomb this pyramid was. And it told all about him. It told about his birth, his
lineage, told about his battles and the foes he conquered, told
about his accomplishments. Hidden out of view of the common
man, only those who entered into the death chamber were able to
see the story. But there was another problem. Nobody understood the language. The story told by those faithful
witnesses was left in a language no man could read. It was a kind of spiritual language
made up of pictures and symbols and figures. Oh, they were common
enough in the day of the Pharaoh and in his kingdom. But to those who weren't from
that day and weren't associated with that kingdom, it was a mystery. It was a mystery. And many were the learned men
who looked at the writing and had their speculations and
their theories and their suppositions. They all had ideas and such.
And so books were written, many, many books over a thousand years
written about the great pharaohs, told by the storytellers themselves
who could not read the writing. So they told what seemed right. Rex read that proverb a while
ago. There's a way that seemeth right unto a man, and so he tells
the story. They told what natural reasoning
and logic led them to believe. They told what seemed to be indicated
by the picture. And then about a hundred years
ago, or a little bit more, a man found a stone, common, ordinary
stone. The storytellers overlooked the
stone and laid it aside. None of the tomb raiders, they
didn't even think it was important. None of the historians saw any
value in it. Those who claim to know the civilization
the best and know the kings the best took this stone and laid
it aside. But engraved on the stone was
the key that unlocked the mystery of hieroglyphics. And this man
found the stone, and looking at the stone, he could read the
story. and reading the story, he could
enter into the glory. That's what this book's all about. That's what it's all about. Anyone
who looks on the stone can enter into the glory of the great king
around whom these mysteries were written. Over here in Acts chapter
4, let me just quote it to you over here in verse 10. The apostle said, Be it known
unto you all, and to all the house of Israel, that by the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you have crucified, whom
God raised up from the dead, even by him does this man stand
before you whole. Now listen, this was the stone
which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the
head of the corner. Is there salvation in any other? Well, there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Christ is the stone that the
builders disallowed. They looked at him for a while,
and they said, well, he's not worth keeping. That's what they
said. They looked at his appearing
for a little while, and then they said, I don't think he's
going to fit in with our plan. You see, we don't need a key.
We've got a simple gospel. We don't need a key. We've been
to seminary. We don't need a key. We had the
greatest scientific minds this world ever produced. This is the stone which God himself
made head of the corner. But to those who set him aside,
he said he's a stone of stone. and a rock of offense. When that
man found the Rosetta Stone, you could pretty much take all
the books that were ever written and throw them away. That's what
happens when you hear the truth. I remember doing it. I remember
gathering them all up. Oh, I used to go to the bookstore. Couldn't hardly wait for Friday,
get my paycheck cash and go to the bookstore. And I didn't know
what to buy. And so I'd go to a few key passages,
you know, and I'd grab that book and take it home, and I'd read
it, and it wouldn't be worth anything, and I'd throw it away.
And I'd go get another one, and I'd read it, and it wouldn't
be any good, and I'd throw it away. All the books. All the
books. All the speculations. But then
one day, by the grace of God, I found this book. And this is the message of Titus
chapter 3. Ricks read it from Proverbs 16
a while ago. The preparation of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. That's what I'm talking about.
That's exactly what I'm talking about. When salvation appears,
when salvation appears, I don't have any hope in convincing anybody
in here of anything. I've got no hope to argue anyone
into agreeing with anything. I've got no hope to persuade
or educate or talk you into something. I'm going to tell you this story
that I know because I read it with the stone. And I'm going
to wait and see what God does. And my prayer is that he'll make
him appear. And then we can enter into His
glory. When Christ appears, life appears with Him. In Him is life. And that life is the light of
the world. He that hath the Son hath life. When Christ appears,
life appears. Can these bones live, Son of
man? Oh, Lord God, thou knowest. That's the way I feel every time
I get up to preach. I don't know. I don't know. But
I do know this, if he makes Christ appear, life will appear with
him. When Christ appears, darkness
flees the room. It's gone, Bobby. It's gone. When Christ appears, ignorance
turns to wisdom. When Christ appears, infatuation
turns into glory. And his appearing, it says here
in our text, is altogether of God. Only one could be found
to appear who was worthy to take the book from he that sat upon
the throne and unloosed the seals. Only one appeared. Do you remember? Only one could appear in the
end of time on this earth as both God and man in one person
and accomplish that eternal redemption that he took from the hands of
God before the world was. Only one could appear in the
presence of God for us. Whoever liveth to make intercession
for us and whose intercession is successful always. Always. And only one will appear
the second time unto those that look for him without sin unto
salvation. And that's that appearance that
Paul's talking about here in Titus chapter 3. when the kindness
and love of God our Savior shall appear toward man." When's that
going to appear? When's that going to appear?
Well, that's what we're going to talk about tonight. Now let
me read the entire text so you can get the gist out of what
he's talking about here. In Titus chapter 3, let's begin
up here in verse 1. Now he's talking about believers
here. If you care to go back into chapter 2, you'll see that.
But he says, put them in mind, these believers, put them in
mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
and to be ready to ever good work, to speak evil of no man,
to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all
men. Why? Why not just peel the hide off? That's what they do. Why don't
we just stand up and just peel the hide off? Why not just rip
and tear? Why be gentle with all meekness
unto all men? Look here in verse 3. For we
ourselves also were sometimes foolish and disobedient deceived,
serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy and
hateful and hating one another. That's where God found us. And constantly we're reminded
in the scripture, remember where you come from. How often? Remember. Remember. But he says in verse four, after
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us. Now listen, this is the heart
of what I'm going to tell you tonight. By the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. There must be, it's absolutely
necessary to be, a washing of regeneration. And I want to just
briefly tonight give you five things that this washing of regeneration
has to do with. What it's talking about. A washing. We're washed in the blood of
Christ. So what's he talking about here? A washing of regeneration. Well, here's the first thing.
The first thing this washing of regeneration does is that
it brings us to an awareness of our sin. It washes away that
imagination of religion that tells us we're righteous. It
washes it away. You never could figure it out
before. Well, all of a sudden, how many people have you heard
say, all of a sudden, I've seen it. Wow. Huh? Because He washed you. He washed
you. He washed you in regeneration.
Let me tell you where the Lord found me. This describes me to
a T. I was talking to a young minister
down in Arkansas the other day. He drove down from Little Rock,
or Benton, which is right outside of Little Rock. And we'd been
having some fellowship. He's coming down and promised
to come down to some of the meetings. He's been down to hear Don preach
before. And we were sitting in there talking about these things.
I asked him how he'd come to know the Lord. I'm always interested
in how a man comes to be acquainted with the Lord. You know, and especially this
young preacher. And he starts talking to me about
this and that. But he never talked about an
awareness of sin. Now, I'm not saying he didn't
have one, I'm just saying he didn't talk about it. And that's
what led me to tell him this. It just popped into my head while
I was sitting there and I started telling him, I said, you know,
when I was just a little fella, I don't know how old I was, but,
and I thought I was helping my mother. Actually, she was giving
me something to do to get me out of her hair, is what it was.
And we ate a lot of, we ate pretty simply back in those days and
we ate a lot of soup beans, what we called brown beans. We ate
soup beans. And that was my favorite thing
to help her with because we'd take a newspaper and she'd put
it out there on the table and she'd take that big sack of beans
and dump them out and then it was my job. I'd spread them all
out flat so I could see them. And I'd look in there and There'd
be a black one over here and a half a bean over here and I'd
go through and pick up everything I could see, I'd pick it out,
get it all picked out. And then we'd take the newspaper
and she'd pour them into a bowl and she'd fill it about half
full of water. And then you'd take your hand
and kind of swish the beans around and the beans that were bad that
you couldn't see from the swishing would float to the top. And so
we'd take them out. And then what was left was good
beans. That's how religious men, that's how your natural man and
most men I've ever met, that's how they think about sin. They
come to what they call conversion and they deal with the obvious.
They deal with the black beans and the hack beans. And they
deal with that. They deal with those things.
idolatries and adulteries in their life and the drunkenness
and all that, they deal with that right away. They get those
things out of the way. And then the preacher gets up
and begins to swish with a legal reform. He begins to swish the
beads. And things that wasn't real obvious
at the beginning begin to float to the surface. And so you deal
with those things. And then if you can stand the
process, Everything left. Good beans, right? Huh? It's good beans. So in their
head, eternal life is, from that point, just a continuation forever. Because they've already gotten
rid of the bad stuff. That's not eternal life. That's
not eternal life. Here's what eternal life, this
washing of regeneration, when it comes in it shows you that
God takes bowls, beans and all and throws them out the door.
He's not going to keep any beans. Isaiah said we're all together
like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses, all our
good beans are filthy rags. Get rid of them. Get rid of them. Ah, he washes away that self-righteousness
of religion. He gets that out of the way. Nothing left. Nothing left. Just seeing none righteous, none
good, none that seeketh after God, none that understands. All together become unprofitable.
Put them all together in one stack. You couldn't get a nickel
out of them. Turn with me over to Matthew
chapter 6. Let me show you something over here. In order for God to
reconcile a sinner, now I know reconciliation to God is of Christ. He reconciled us, not imputing
our trespasses unto us. He was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's not what
I'm talking about. I'm talking about this rebellious
sinner out here who thinks he's somebody who will never on his
own seek the Lord. How's he going to reconcile this
sinner? Through the washing of regeneration. And one of the first things he's
going to do is wash away that facade that there's anything
in him that will make him acceptable to God. in order to reconcile
him, when he's convinced that there's nothing in him of any
value, nothing in him worthy of looking at, then he'll begin
to turn from himself and turn toward the Lord Jesus Christ
and look to him. As long as he thinks there's
a spark in there, he'll look in there and blow on it. He's got to be convinced that
he's altogether an unclean thing. Now all through Matthew chapter
5 and early in Matthew chapter 6, the Lord's dealing with this
thing, this facade of religion. He's dealing with it. Because
his disciples didn't understand. They were raised among these
Pharisees. These Pharisees were counted
as people in renown, just as most of us were raised in religion.
And we held the deacons and the pastor and those men in high
renown. We held those seminaries and
places that taught, and they, I mean, after all, they did a
lot of good. They fed the poor. We had missionaries. They did
all those, somebody would have a fire, they'd have some kind
of a get-together, and they'd get some clothes and money to
help them. They were going about doing good. Going about doing good. And we
had these thoughts in our mind how good these people were. And
our Lord's dealing with that with them, and He's telling them,
first of all, He said this thing's superficial. The only thing they
see when they see the law is the act. They don't understand
that that law, it's not the act. It's the heart that produces
the act that the law deals with. Paul said, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, when it came in truth through
this washing of regeneration, He said, sin was revived and
I died. I died. They see things on the
surface. They're hypocrites. They draw
nigh unto him with their mouth. But their hearts are far from
him. And he began to deal with these religious men. And suddenly
he stops down here in Matthew chapter 6, verse 22. And he illustrates. He gives us an illustration here.
I want you to look at this. I've looked at this for years
and never really entered into the truth of it until I saw it
the other day while I was teaching Sunday school. He says here in verse 22, the
light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light. Now he's not talking
about Cyclops, somebody with one eye. That's not what he's
talking about. He's talking about the eye being the only source
of light in the body. That's what he's talking about.
You got no light coming in your ears, well, maybe some. None through the nose, all through
the eyes. If thine eye be single, that's
the only source of light. You go into a dark room and there's
a table out there in the middle. And you put a candle right in
the middle of the table and you light it. The light from that
candle fills the room. But look down there at that next
verse. What if that light be evil? What
if that I be evil? You never even considered that. What if everything you ever thought
was light was darkness? Huh? What if that everything you ever
felt, everything you ever associated
with God, every aisle you walked, the baptism
you experienced, what if everything you ever called light was darkness? He said, how great is that darkness?
How great is it? Oh, you won't look inside no
more. When God shows you that, you'll turn away from self. There's
nothing in there. I got a young man, and he's just
been baptized not very long ago, and he don't have any assurance.
And I don't know what stirred him up to this thing of assurance,
but it just, oh, it's just pulling him down and pulling him down.
I told him the other day, I said, let me tell you something. I'll
tell you why he don't have any assurance. I said, you're searching
for it in the wrong place. See, you're looking in an empty
box. There's nothing in it. You yell down there and it just
goes down and echoes and comes back. You're just hearing your
own voice. There's nothing in there. It's
like a cave. It's just empty, dark, damp. There's nothing in
there. Life's in Christ. Assurance is
in Christ. All the light's in Him. It's
not in you, it's in Him. All in Him. In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men. Regeneration's being given
the ability to see what you never could see before because you
looked for it in the wrong place. Life is in Christ. That's where
it's at. It's all in Christ. And it's
not just what you do, it's what you are. Oh, we sin. We just sin because we're sinners.
And we look in there and we hunt for light, and there's no light
in there. There's no light in there. We won't talk about goodness,
but there's none good. And we won't talk about understanding,
but there's... Nicodemus said, I know, we know
that thou art a man sent from God. The Lord just stopped him
right there, didn't he? He said, you need to be born
again. You don't know anything, Nicodemus. You don't know anything.
So the first work of regeneration is to wash away our refuge of
lies and fleshly hopes. He tears down the refuge. He
casts down the imaginations. And then secondly, with the washing
of regeneration, he cleanses us from the sentimental superstition
of religion, those old experiences. We've got to deal with them.
You've got to deal with them. You're going to hang on to them
for a while. Sure you do. Sure you do. Oh,
that was the hope back then. That was the hope. I remember
the old altar. I remember this old fella. He
said, there's no efficacy whatsoever in this altar. It's just a place
where men meet God. And I was thinking to myself,
boy, you find a place where men can meet God, it's got more efficacy
than you know what to do with. Those old religious experiences.
Oh, I was just down. You should have felt the spirit
that time. All those feelings, we remember. We remember the
aisle we walked and the prayer we prayed, the hand we shook,
the altar we knelt down before. Remember that old baptism? I was baptized in that old muddy
creek. I was so foolish, I took a man
out one Sunday, and it was 20-something below zero, and we took an ax
and cut a hole out in the creek and baptized that man in the
creek. I guarantee you to this day that man's still looking
to that old refuge of baptism he did in that ice. He thought
he did such a thing, such an act of humility before God to
be baptized in the ice. Got to wash them things away.
Reality, it chases away superstition just like light chases away darkness.
Listen here to what the Apostle John says over here in 1 John 1. 1 John 1, look here
in verse 5. This is just so clear to me.
He said, This then is the message which we have heard of him, and
declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness
at all. Now listen to what he says. If
we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, We
lie. Tell you what they say. We lie. We don't do the truth. Well,
I'm following my Lord. Now, if you ain't walking in
the light, you're not. Huh? Ain't no darkness in here. Where's the darkness? In here. Look here in verse 7. But if
we walk in the light, as He is the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses
us from all sin. If we walk in the light, as He
is the light, we're going to go to the substitute. We're not
going to come down an aisle. We're not going to shake somebody's
hand. I'm going to go to Christ. That's walking in the light.
Walking in the light. You can't know God and walk in
darkness. I just don't want to hear it.
I don't want to hear it anymore. I've heard it so much and it's
not true. The light of the gospel of Christ
applied to the heart in regeneration washes away all the superstitious
activities and those sentimental experiences of religion. And
then thirdly, the washing of regeneration washes away our
doubts and fears. When God comes in and regeneration
comes, And you're washed with the Word, and the Word comes
alive because now you've got the key. And you can understand
what it's saying. You can enter into the glory.
You can read the story. And you've seen He's washed away
that self-righteous claims that you thought you had. He washed
away that righteousness, and He washed away that facade of
religion. He took that out of the way.
Now what? Now you're sitting there at his
feet, guilty before God. Guilty before God. Can't find
anything in yourself to recommend you to God. Can't find a place
to put your foot. Oh, God'll never have mercy on
me. I know what I am. That wasn't
what you singing two weeks ago. You're singing, Jesus loves me,
this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Huh? Oh, but then God strips the sinner,
and now he's naked. He got nothing to hide himself. He's naked before God, and he's
stripped of any hope in himself. He sees himself now. bound by
his nature and bound by a holy God and bound by a law that he
can't keep. And he's got nothing to reckon
with. He knows God could save him, but he knows God won't because
of what he is. And there he sits trembling in
his fear. He just trembles before God. Have mercy on me. He couldn't. You remember the man that prayed,
the Pharisee prayed looking straight up in the front with his hands
held high and his head held high. Not the sinner. The sinner couldn't
even look him in the face, he had his head down. Have mercy
on me, the sinner. You ever met the sinner? Well,
I'll tell you if you ever do, I'll tell you where you'll be,
just like Romans 3 leaves them. Every mouth shut, guilty before
God, trembling, naked, nothing inside to recommend you. And
then comes this washing of regeneration. And what's he do? What's he say? He tells us where we were. Huh? We ourselves also were, up there
in verse 3, sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
divers lust and pleasure, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating one another. You can read about it over in
Ephesians chapter 2. And you had the quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, and you were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." That's where God found us. But what
happened? What happened? That's where he
found you. And you knew how he found you.
You've experienced it. If you've been born again, you
have. But after that, the kindness. Huh? What did they find? They
found the kindness. After the kindness of God and
the love of God, our Savior, that's where His love's at in
His Son, appeared. After He appeared. I'll never forget that message
Henry preached tonight. The Lord touched my heart. the
prodigal son, and all the things the prodigal fixed in his mind.
But I've been the prodigal, and I know in the back of that boy's
mind, he figured his dad was going to tell him to hit the
road. That's what he thought. But the best he could hope for,
the best he could muster up in his little thing, he was going
to tell his dad, well, just let me be like one of the servants
and I'll just live out there because they're living there.
Your servants are living better than I am. I'm not here with
the hogs. But what happened? What happened when he approached
the house? Merle, the father was looking
for him, I swear to God. Expected him. Had the cap already
tied up being faded. Had the ring set. Ran! Can you imagine God the Father
in a hurry running to meet him? Throwed his arms around him Kissed
him and told him how much he loved him. Go get the ring. Put it on his
finger. Go get that calf. We're going
to have a feast. We're going to celebrate. We're
going to celebrate. Oh, when the kindness and the
love of God toward man appeared, where did it appear? It appeared
in eternity. It appeared on this earth. It
appeared in glory. And it appears right here when
regeneration comes. And when it appears, you'll be
filled with the kindness and love of God. And those fears,
He'll wash them away. That's just the law of satisfaction. What do we fear? What do we fear? The law? He's the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. You fear sin? We have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins. Gaining his favor, is that what we fear? We're accepted in the beloved.
Gaining his love. He loved us while we's yet enemies. Do you fear His sovereignty?
And we know all things work together for good. High to them that love
God, to them who are the cause according to His purpose. It's
the kindness and mercy of God that appears in Christ, that
love that chases away all of our doubts and fears. And then
listen to this. Here's the next thing. I believe
this washing of regeneration washes us from a worldly and
a fleshly attitude. I believe that's what this third
chapter here is all about. That's what he's talking about.
Being kind and being meek and being gentle. To be no brawlers. Be careful, he said. Be careful.
Every good work you do, remember it. Remember it. I think, in my mind, the most
hypocritical thing in the world is a proud believer. What have
you gotten that you haven't received? And if you received it, if God
gave it to you, why do you act like you didn't? Why do we act
like we did something big? You know, the Lord had one of his
chosen and raised him up to be the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar stood out
there on the porch. I don't know if there were bib
overhauls in the kingdom, but I can picture him out there with
them thongs behind them bibs, saying, boy, look what I've done. But God brought him down, brought
him down, washed him, washed him in regeneration. And he said,
when I come to myself, I remember who gave who what. Oh yeah, there's a washing. It
has to do with that attitude. How often in the scripture we
admonish to remember where God found us. Dug out of that miry
clay, out of that horrible pit, chief of sinners, strangers from
the covenant. You could go on and on and on
without hope, without God in the world. But he quickened you. He quickened you with Christ.
Can you see how he cleanses in regeneration? I looked at that
for the longest time. I thought, what in the world
is he talking about cleansing? It cleanses. Because here's the
problem. The problem is who I am. Who
I am. That's my problem with righteousness.
That's my problem with attitude. That's my problem with fear.
That's my problem with no assurance. That's my problem why I don't
seek God. Me. Me. Huh? So what's he got to change? Me. How does he do it? He washes
in regeneration. That's what he does. How does
he cleanse? Well, turn with me over to Ephesians
chapter 5. Let me show you something here.
Ephesians chapter 5. This is a verse you're all familiar
with down here in verse 25. He said, Love your wives even as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of the water of the word. That's how he does
it. What word? What word? Well, in the context of Ephesians
chapter 5, the word of the union of his love. As Christ loved his church, you
love your wife. He gives us these earthly relationships. They're going to be dissolved
in a short time. They're going to be over. That don't mean we
don't enjoy them and it don't mean we don't take them seriously.
It just means that we need to view them with an eye on eternity. And that's what Paul says. He
said this is a great mystery. He said a man will leave his
mother and his father and he'll be joined unto this woman and
they too shall be one flesh. He said it's a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church. It's that mystery
of eternal union. Oh, here's the assurance. There
never was a time when I wasn't in Christ. I had nothing to do
with it. He put me in Christ. Why? Reasons found only in himself.
But I'll tell you what I think. I think he uses the base things. That's what I think. I think
he uses those things on the bottom. I think he looks around and finds
the worst, the unfixable problem. And he said, that's how I'm going
to show my glory. I'm going to put him in Christ. Sinners. Sinners. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I'm what?
The chief. The chief. Words of eternal union. Eternal
bonds. Eternal love. The giving of himself. The giving of himself. And then
last of all, the washing of regeneration cleanses us from worldly fear
of death. Worldly fear of death. Paul had
a longing to be made like Christ. You know what that is? I told
the folks down there the other day. I said, I had a perfectly
good car, Kathy and I, one time. There was not a thing wrong with
it. In fact, the banker made me mad one day. I went in there
to get a loan for a new car, and he said, there's nothing
wrong with the one you had. And there wasn't. It was a perfectly
good automobile. We didn't owe any money on it.
It was really easy on gas. Didn't have a dent on it anywhere.
Old 64 Plymouth value. Had a little shifter on the dash
and all that. And I was perfectly satisfied with the car. I loved
the car. We drove it everywhere we went. But one day, we went
into the car lot. Huh? And there on the car lot
was this brand new car. And it had leather upholstery
in it, and it had a stereo in it, and it had all this stuff,
GPS and all these things. Man, it just, whoo. It had everything
on it. And boy, I never looked at that
old car the same again. I want that new car. That's what happens when you
see Christ. You go home and throw rocks at
the old you. He's got to go. He's got to go. And the more
you know about Christ, the more you long to be made like Him. That's the purpose of God. That's
why He sends these trials and his troubles and all these things
to us, Merle, preparing us for that day. By the time we get
to that point, we're so sick of this world, we can't understand
it. That's what Paul, I just read his writings over there
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Oh, he said, I just, I long for
this new house. I'm in this one and it's needful
for now and I see God's purpose in it, but this is not my house.
My house is up there. He said, I long to be clothed
with it. You got no pain and no sorrow. It's just like Him. Just like Him. Oh, we see that. Death ain't so bad. Huh? Death is going to usher us into
His presence. We come in here sometimes and
the Lord will open up this place and open up your heart and pour
out His Spirit and you can't understand it. You just sit there
in a pew and the tears just roll down your cheeks and you're just
drinking it in and he's feeding you. What's it going to be like
in glory when this flesh is completely gone? Think about that when you're
laying on the bed. Clothed with, not to be unclothed,
not to be naked before God, but to move into the house that he
prepared for me. Just throw these beans out. make me the bread of God with an anxious heart to look.
I tell you, I prepare and pray and hope that God will help me
to present his gospel. And I've got to try my best. And it's a struggle. But I try
my best when I stand up to preach, to preach that message the best
I can to glorify his name. If something else happens, yippee,
I'm for it. And with an anxious heart, I
look out and wait to see that miracle of inward change. And
he does. I speak of it like it's all done
in an instant. It's not all done in an instant.
This washing, this washing of this new life, it just keeps
on washing. It keeps on cleansing. It keeps
on turning. It keeps on growing. Keeps on
maturing. But it's a hope. And that hope
doesn't look in here. That hope's up there secure at
the right hand of God. And so that's where I point you.
I point you up there. But with an anxious heart, I
look out here, see what God's going to do. See what He's going
to do. Can these bones live? I don't
know. He said preach to them. Now preach
to the wind. And the wind blew, and what happened
to the bones? They lived. They lived. Our Father, bless Your Word. Take these stammering, stuttering
things that I've said with this country mind that can't
grasp all the things it needs to lay hold of. But take these
simple illustrations and these things that I've said and use
them for your name's honor and glory. We ask it for Christ's
sake. Amen.