Acts chapter 1. The title of the message tonight
is, The Acts of Our King. The Acts of Our King. We see
there in verse 1, Luke begins and he says, The former treaties
have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to
do and teach until the day in which He was taken up after that
he had done some things. Our Lord did not ascend to the
Father until after he did many things in his church amongst
his people that he had redeemed. When we began to study the acts
of the apostles, we first see the acts of our Lord Jesus Christ. All four Gospels give the account
of that which Christ did in the forty days between His resurrection
and His ascension to the Father. All four. And here a fifth time
before recording the acts of the apostles, Luke gives the
account again. It must be important. It must
be important. Why is it important to understand
what Christ did in those forty days before He ascended? It is
important because it teaches believers that what our Lord
did in those 40 days before He ascended is what our Lord is
doing right now. He is doing the same thing right
now. It is important to believe and
to understand that Christ is the Head of the Church because
it is as legalistic for a believer to look to self in the daily
affairs of the church as it is to look to ourselves to earn
a righteousness before God. Did you hear me? It is as legalistic
to look to ourselves in the daily affairs of the church instead
of Christ alone as it is to look to ourselves to try to earn a
righteousness for ourselves. Many do and teach as though the
preaching of the gospel, the calling out of Christ redeemed,
and the government of the church were all in the hands of men.
That's not the case. That's not the case. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. What our Lord Jesus Christ did
in the days when He work miracles on this earth and taught. He
taught His people that He is the salvation of God. That's what He taught and what
He showed in the things He did on this earth. And then when He came to the
apostles and to the disciples, He taught them that same thing
in what He did. Likewise, right now, seated at
the right hand of God, He does the same thing for His people.
The same thing. I want to show you three things
here from this text. It is Christ who brings His chosen,
His flock into the fold. It is Christ that does it. Secondly,
I want to show you how He does it how He is pleased to do it. And thirdly, I want you to see
that it is Christ who keeps us amidst all the tribulations that
we face in this world. He told His apostles, He said,
you must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God.
When He prayed that intercessory prayer in John 17, He said, I
don't pray that they be taken out of the world. I pray that
you keep them through thy Word in this world. He told his disciples,
he said, when he told them, you must through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God, he said, but be of good cheer.
Be of good cheer. Why? For I have overcome the
world. Who did he do that for? Did he
do that for you, Scott? If he did, You can be of good
cheer because everything that we face... Cheryl, you can have
good cheer when you wake up in the morning. When the kids are
about to make you pull your hair out, you can be of good cheer.
He overcame the world. He's going to do as He said He
would do. And we're going to overcome in
Him and by Him and through Him. First of all, let's look here
at this first point. It's Christ who must bring His
chosen flock into the world. What happened to the disciples
of the Lord after He laid down His life and was buried? What
happened? In Matthew 26, verse 31, Before
He went to the cross, then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall
be offended because of me this night. This was a fulfillment
of Scripture. He said, For it is written, I
will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered abroad. Left to themselves, the apostles
fled. The disciples were dispersed
abroad. Peter stood at a fire talking
to a woman, and she asked him three times, Aren't you one of
his apostles?" And he denied the Lord three times and left. And he was going back to his
profession. He was going back fishing. Now,
I want you to consider something. They walked with the Master. He called them. He chose them. He called them, affectionately
called them. And they walked with Him. And
He taught them. They were taught by the Master,
by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in person. And they had seen
the miracles He performed. Everything that He did and taught,
they were there. They saw it first hand. Yet, they did not possess power
of themselves to keep each other assembled together and trusting
Him alone. We've got something right here.
We've got all of their writings recorded for us. We can study
them. We can learn them. We've been taught them by God.
We've been taught them by our Savior, by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we know them by His grace, by the Spirit of God. We know
these things. But if He leaves us to ourselves for one minute,
we'll do exactly what they did. We'll flee. We'll go our own
way. How is it that they were brought
back together? How were they brought back into
the fold? How were they taken from their
own way and brought back to Him? How did that happen? Look in
verse 2. It says, after that He, before He ascended, He did something. He had to do something. Now,
He had gone to the cross. These people had been put in
Him before the foundation of the world, and He became their
surety. He came in the fullness of time, made under a woman,
made under the law, and lived perfectly righteous before the
law of God. He is the spotless Lamb of God.
He went to the cross and laid down His life as their substitute
and paid the penalty of the law before God. But he did something
before he ascended to the Father. And he had to. It was a necessity
for him to do it. Because when he was smitten of
God, when he laid down his life for the sheep, for these very
ones, and he was put into the tomb, and they thought he was
gone, they went their own way. They went back to where they
came from. And He had to come to them and
bring them back. He had to bring them back. Look
here in verse 3. It says, He showed Himself alive
after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty
days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God. What's the lesson here, brethren? The same One in whom
we were chosen The same One who was our surety from before the
foundation of the world. The One in whose book of life
our names were written. The Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. The Lamb's book of life. Our
names were written. His people, His elect, their
names were written in that book before the foundation of the
world. He came and He died for us. He put away our sin. He redeemed
us to God. Purged our sin. But this same
One, brethren, has to keep us every hour of every day of every
instant in our life. He has to keep us. Salvation
doesn't stop at the cross. When He said it's finished, He
finished the work of redemption. It's finished. But brethren,
He's still doing something. He's still calling out His people.
He's still gathering His sheep into the fold. He's still keeping
us in the fold. He's still preserving us by His
grace. And He shall do it until the
day that we're with Him. That's right. That's just as
much the government of this congregation right here is just as much His
work as redeeming those of you who've been redeemed. It's His
work. I'm an empty vessel that He's
filled and give me a charge and said, you go preach the Word. Go preach the Gospel to them.
Go remind them of me. Go rehearse this matter in their
ears continually. But I can't make you believe.
I can't give you a heart to believe. I can't keep you here. I can't
do anything to make you stay here. The Pharisees, they had
a way to make people stay. If you didn't obey them, they'd
kick you out of the synagogue. I can't kick you out of Christ's
church. He put you there. He wrote your name in His book
before the foundation of the world. If He is, I can't do a
thing to remove you from Him. All I'm sent to do is preach
the truth, to hold Him up before you. And you know how you're
going to stay? You know how you're going to
be kept? You know how you're going to delight to do His will?
You know what's going to constrain you? His love for you. That's what's going to do it.
That's what's going to do it. Listen, Ephesians 5.23. Look
there with me. I know that Paul is speaking
of Christ there, and he is using the example of a husband and
a wife. And I took the husband and wife out of that today, and
I just wrote these things down here of what he said concerning
Christ. And just look at these things
with me. Ephesians 5, verse 23. Christ is the head of the church,
and He is the Savior of the body. Look at verse 24. The church
is subject unto Christ. His shepherds that He sent, His
ambassadors. I'm not Lord over His heritage.
I'm sent to be an overseer. I'm sent to preach the Word.
He's the head of the church. We're subject to Him. Me, you,
all of us. Look here. Verse 25, Christ loved
the church and gave Himself for it. that he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but it should be holy and without blemish.
Look at verse 29. No man ever yet hated his own
flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it. Well, even so, the Lord the
Church For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of
His bones. Like a man leaves his father
and his mother and cleaves unto his wife and they become one
flesh, Christ and His church are one flesh. This is a great
mystery, Paul says, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. God has put all things under
His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him. And it's Him that filleth
all, in all. It's Him that does it. Now, let
me give you an illustration here. His people are called sheep in
Scripture. A sheep is dumb. They're dumb. has to have a shepherd all the
time. If a sheep doesn't have a shepherd,
they'll wander away from the flock. They'll just wander off
and be taken up by wolves or any other kind of predator. That's
a good description of us. We're dumb. We're dumb. He has to keep us. The good shepherd
has to keep us. How were you converted How were
you converted? How were you called into the
fold? You that know Him and believe Him and trust Him, how were you
called into the fold? Peter said, you were a sheep
going astray, but are now returned unto the
shepherd and bishop of your soul. Why? What was it that called
you out of darkness? What message was it? Was it the
message of Did somebody turn in Scripture and they take a
verse out of context in James and did they preach to you? If
somebody comes to your door and you don't give them a coat and
put it on their back and give them food and send them away,
you're not one of His? Did that call you out of darkness? Paul, James, Peter, all the writings
that we have, all the prophets of old, When they gave instruction
to the Lord's people on how to conduct themselves in a manner
of becoming unto the gospel of Christ, they didn't just write
a letter with that one thing, saying that one thing. They wrote
a letter speaking of who it is in whom we're saved. What He
did. What He's doing. Where He is
now. Why He did it. And they seasoned it with these
lessons and this instruction. Hope you hear when I'm preaching
to you brethren I'm wanting you to understand that there is a
manner in which we are to conduct ourselves and Brethren, I don't
know any message that'll do it like preaching Christ in him
crucified I'm gonna end up here, and I'm gonna give you an application
at the end of this But I'm gonna not give that to you till I tell
you about Christ in him crucified first what he's doing right now
Well, how does the Lord bring His sheep together? That's my
second point. How does He do this? Four things He does. First of all, He does it by showing
Himself alive by many infallible proofs. That's what He does. Even to us? Yes, even to us right
here today. He brings His sheep together.
Secondly, by speaking of things pertaining to God. That's what
he did. What did he talk to them about?
Things pertaining to God. And he makes it effectual in
our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit. And
fourthly, he uses men to do it. He uses our brethren to do it.
Everything the Lord did and taught was to show that he is the salvation
of God. Look here with me at Luke 24.
Luke 24. I'm going to have to go through
this quickly. This is a weeknight. I don't want to keep you. You
know when I say that, that means I'm going to keep you. But I'm
going to try not to. Luke 24. 15. The two fellows walk along the
Emmaus Road. It says, Jesus Himself drew near
and went with them. Don't you pray that He would
draw near to us? and go with us, walk with us. Verse 16, But their eyes were
holding that they should not know Him. And He said unto them,
What manner of communications are these, that you have one
to another as you walk and are sad? And one of them, whose name
was Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to
pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things?
What things? He's going to make us tell him
what he's taught us, isn't he? That's what he's doing here.
What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth,
which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and
all the people, have you not heard how the chief priests and
our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified
him? But we trusted that It had been He which should have redeemed
Israel. And beside all this, today is
the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women
also of our company made us astonished which were early at the sepulchre
this morning. When they found not His body,
they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels
which said that He was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulchre Peter and John took off. They
went to sea. And they found it even so as
the women had said, but him they saw not. Then the Lord said unto
these two men, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? This is me and you
on the Emmaus road. This is me and you, brethren.
They've been taught by Him. They walked with Him. They saw
Him. How many times have we seen Him and heard Him? And yet, we
get so sad. This was a trial for them. Their
Lord was taken away. They didn't see Him. How often
are the heavens like brass to you? You don't see Him. We get
so sad. We get so dejected. We are slow of heart to believe
all that the prophet spoke and all that the prophet has spoken,
and we need to hear him teaching us, don't we? Well, verse 27,
beginning at Moses, and all the prophets from Moses to Malachi,
from Genesis to Malachi, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself. There are the things concerning
the kingdom of God. things concerning himself. He started probably back there
with the garden and the seed of woman. He said, I'm the seed. No man was ever born of a woman
like I was born. I was born of a virgin. I'm the
seed. I'm the promised seed. I bruised
the serpent's head. He bruised my heel, but I bruised
his head. He probably spoke of Abel's blood,
that offering that Abel brought. That blood, that typified me. Not the work of man's hand, but
my blood. The Passover in Israel, when
Israel was brought out of Egypt, that pictured me. When God Almighty
sees the blood, when He sees my blood, when He sees the nail
prints in my hands, and the nail prints in my feet, When He sees
my blood, He'll pass over you." All the way through, all the
way through, He went with them and taught them. And then it
says in verse 30, He sat down to eat with them, and He took
bread, and He blessed it, and He break, and He gave it to them. Do you see the picture there?
He has to come, condescend to where we are right now, and take
Himself, the bread from heaven. and show us it's broken. He laid down His life for us
and He has to feed us. And what happens when He does
that? Look here. And their eyes were opened and
they knew Him. And He vanished out of their
sight. And they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within
us while He talked with us by the way and while He opened to
us the Scriptures? The Holy Spirit accompanied everything
that He said. We'll see here in a minute. When
He spoke these things to them, He said He breathed on them the
Spirit of God. And look what they did. They
rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem. Now it wasn't morning
time. They'd been traveling a while.
They're on their way to Emmaus. That's repentance, isn't it?
Just Him coming to them and teaching them and the Spirit making an
effectual in them. What'd they do? They turned from
their way, and they went back to Jerusalem. And they found
the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. And
they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known
to them in breaking of bread." You see how he uses the brethren
here? He comes and he makes it effectual in the heart of his
brethren, and they go back. They didn't go back. and try
to constrain the people by their own power and their own will
and say, we need to all come together now. We've been dispersed. We need to get back together.
Let's make us a great creed. Let's make us a great confession
so we can have something to obey. No. Christ taught them. He made it effectual in them.
He revealed Himself in them. And they went and they told what
they knew. They spoke of things pertaining
to the Kingdom of God. That's how He's going to save
His people. That's how He's going to keep His people. That's how we're
going to be kept right here. That's how a man can stand here
like last Sunday and say, I've preached at the same place now
for almost 29 years and I've never had a church membership
and never disciplined somebody. He hasn't. That doesn't mean
somebody didn't come to him asking for advice and he looked into
the Scriptures and said, here's what the Lord says. Here's what
the Scriptures say. But you know who disciplined
them? You know who rebuked them? You know who turned them? The
same one that turned these two fellows on Emmaus Road, the head
of the church, Christ. When he rose, what did Peter
say? This same Jesus hath God made,
both Lord and Christ. Christ means He's Savior. Everybody
talks about Him being a Savior. Guess what? He's Lord too. He's Sovereign King Jesus. He's doing whatsoever He pleases.
Whatsoever He pleases. He's working as much right now,
right here, in the midst of this people. If He's meeting with
us tonight, He's right here and He's teaching you in your heart.
He's the one that's doing it. Through the Spirit. Through one
of His brethren. Through one of His redeemed.
He's doing it. And He meets with us in our midst.
And He's the one that holds this thing together. It ain't up to
me. It ain't up to you. It's up to
Him. We're given some clear instruction.
He told His disciples, if a man trespass against you, rebuke
him that he may be sound in the faith. Do you think He's talking about
if he stole your car? Or he came and broke into your
house? I'll tell you what he's meaning first and foremost. If
a man stands up and says, I don't believe Christ is everything,
we've got to have the law too. Rebuke that man that he may be
sound in the faith. How else are you going to be
sound in the faith? How else are you going to be sound in
the gospel if I don't tell you the gospel and tell you the author
and finisher of our faith? How are you going to be sound
in the gospel? Let's look here and see what
happened when they got there. Verse 36, Luke 24. And as they
thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them. You see
that? These brethren ran back and they
started telling them what Christ had taught them. And what they
knew and believed and were persuaded by the Spirit of God in their
heart, their heart burned within them. And they went back and
told what they knew. And as they told it, Christ appeared
in the midst of them. They saw him. We don't see him.
But that don't mean he ain't here. What did he tell Thomas?
Thomas, you've touched my hands. You've put your hand in my side.
You believe because you saw me. Blessed are them that don't see
me and believe. He's just as active. He's working
just the same. Now look here. But they were terrified. He stood
in the midst of them. He said unto them, Peace be unto
you. Oh, we go running. Look in our
way. We're dispersed abroad by the
trial that comes upon us. And we hear His Word proclaimed,
set forth. And He appears in the midst of
us. And He says, Peace be unto you. And where He says, Peace,
there's peace. Just like those waves on that
ocean. When He said, Peace, be still,
there was peace. But they were terrified and frightened
and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And He said unto them,
Why are you troubled? through thoughts arise in your
hearts. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle
me, see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me
have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and
his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy." Some things
are just too good to be true. They couldn't hardly believe
it. He's alive. This is Him. He is the Redeemer
that redeemed Israel. He has bought us. Have you seen
His hands by faith? Have you seen His feet by faith?
Have you thrust your hand into His side by faith? Then you know
He's risen. He's living. And while they yet
believed not for joy and wondered, He said unto them, Have you here
any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of a honeycomb.
He took it. He did eat before them. All these
infallible proofs. All these infallible proofs.
And he said to them, things pertaining to God, he said, these are the
words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. He told them that before he went to the cross. I bet you
they believe it now, don't they? They understand it now. We hear
things a long time. And we got them. We got them
now. We can quote them back and forth to folks. We got them now.
But until we experience it, until He makes it real to us, until
we've gone through the trial and seen Him departed from us
for a season and left to ourselves and see what we are and have
Him come to us again and say, Peace be still. I redeemed you. I bought you. You're mine. I'm
not going to leave you to yourself. I'm ruling and reigning right
now." So we have Him teach us that in here. We don't get it. We don't get it. And then He
opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.
And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoove
Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day,
and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses
of these things." So guess what? He is saying, you are going to
go tell these things. You are going to go tell what you know.
Isn't that how we were converted? Somebody told us about Christ.
And He appeared in our midst and said, Peace be unto you.
And He showed us His hands and His feet and persuaded us that
He redeemed us. And every trial that you've been
through since then, what was the end of every one of them?
After you looked to your own way and leaned to your own understanding
and told all your brethren and spoke real piously and devoutly
and just tried to be humble as you could be and said, I'm just
trying to do what's good for the glory of God and the good
of His people. And God showed you, no you're not. You're trying
to fulfill the lust of your flesh. Now turn. Follow me. He followed him. And the end
of that trial was, I'm the one that's turning you. I'm the one
that's keeping you. Man's not keeping you. It's not
of the will of man or the will of the flesh. It's God that shows
mercy. That's what He teaches us over
and over and over and over. That's why we've got to pass
through much tribulation. The only way we're going to be
a good cheer is when we find out He overcame the world on
our behalf. Well, let's look at the last point here. How have
we kept together since He departed? Hold on until you have. Is this
a surprise to you? The same way. Everything we just
looked at, the same way. The same way. Look here with
me. verse nine of our text back in
Acts. I love this right here, and I
love one of the Gospels. I apologize to you, I didn't
write down which one. It's Matthew, Mark, Luke, or
John. You can go home and look them
up, look it up. But one of them, verse nine says, When he had
spoken these things, and while they beheld him, this Gospel
says that he held up his hand We don't have to hold up our
hands. If I hold up my hands, I don't have any nail prints
in them to show. But he held his up to God. And he blessed them at the same
time. There's the high priest standing between God and his
people. After he's off the cross, he's still doing the same work.
And as he blessed them, right as he was doing it, as they beheld
him and watched him, he was taken up. And a cloud received him
out of their sight. What's that teaching? What's
that teaching them? If He would have stopped everything
and just disappeared, it wouldn't have been nearly as convincing
that He's still blessing and working right now between us
and God as He's right in the midst of doing it. He's raised
up. He's taken up as He's doing it.
And He never has stopped doing it. Look here, and while they
looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken
up from you into heaven shall so come in like manners you have
seen him go into heaven. They are telling him, they are
telling him, Don't think he's gone away. Don't think he's gone
like he did when he went to the tomb. He's going to sit at the
right hand of God. He's living and reigning just
like He's shown you these past 40 days, just like He showed
you the whole time that He worked on this earth in His abode in
the flesh. He's doing it right now. And
He's going to do it until He's drawn every one of His sheep
back to the flock, just like He did all of you dispersed disciples
and brought you back to Him now. He's going to do that through
the preaching of His Word, through the Holy Spirit, in things pertaining
to God, preaching Him. And He's going to do it. And
when He's drawn the last one in, He's coming back, they told
Him. These men told Him. He's coming
back. How does He show us these infallible
proofs like He did to them? How does He do that? John 20,
verse 30. Look at John 20, right back just
to your left there, one or two pages. Look at John 20, verse
30. Here's what John wrote about
the Spirit of God. Many other signs truly did Jesus
in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this
book. But these are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life through His name. You want infallible proof? Here
it is. Right here. Right here. Everything
they saw, they wrote it down. Everything we need, they wrote
it down. All the things we need, they wrote it down. John said
if we had written everything down, the world couldn't have
held the books. The world couldn't help. I hear folks stand up and
they spend 30 or 40 minutes giving a history of a verse and never
get to Christ in it. And it makes me wonder. If the
history was so important, why didn't God record it in His Word?
Why didn't He put it here? Because He's concerned with the
things pertaining His Kingdom, with Christ and Him crucified.
And that's what He's concerned with. That's why we get right
to it. We get into it. Now, a few more things here. He keeps us through the Holy
Ghost just like He kept them. What does verse 2 say? after
that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments to the
apostles whom he had chosen. Being assembled together with
them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, Ye have
heard of me. Now he gave them the Spirit. He made this effect
on their heart as he taught them. Or else we wouldn't believe him
if he didn't. He made it effectual through
the Spirit. And he is telling them, get this
now, he is telling them, Go back to Jerusalem into the face of
that angry mob that you just saw crucify me. Think about that. Go back to them and wait and wait. You think that was a trial? You think that was a trial? What am I going back there for?
Why am I going back there? To speak the things pertaining
to God. Go preach the gospel. That's what you're going there
for. He told them when he was with them, before he ascended,
he said, you're going to go into all the nations and preach, baptizing
men in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
You know that's what true gospel preaching does? True gospel preaching
floods men and women with the name of God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Word baptizes them. And the
Spirit baptizes them. And then they say, I want to
follow the Lord's ordinance of water baptism. But He said, you go in there
and you preach these things. How on earth Peter, who just
denied the Lord three times, standing there by a fire, talking
to somebody who was no more anybody than he was, and he took tail
and ran. That's what he did. He took tail
and ran. How's he going to go into Jerusalem,
into the face of this angry mob, and stand up and declare the
truth of Christ? How's he going to do that? Well,
how they hear Christ at Jerusalem and believe on Him. They were
pricked in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. How are they going
to go? How is He going to go and do
these things? Through the Holy Ghost. He gave Christ the King. When a King gives a commandment,
people do it. They do it. Where are we on time? We are running out of time. We
are way overdue. I was working down in Barksdale
painting nose art on KC-10s one time. It's KC-10, it's the gas
station in the sky for the Air Force. They refuel planes in
the sky. It's a DC-10, that's what it is. And we were painting
nose art on the nose of it. The crew chiefs would call, they
named it what they wanted to name it. We had a Louisiana Swamp
Dog. It was one of them. It had a
big alligator on it, chained to a cypress stump. It had Louisiana
Swamp Dog written on it. I got my name somewhere up 30,000
miles, 30,000 feet up in the sky, I got my name on a plane
about this big somewhere. We were painting these planes,
this nose art. And I'm not in the military.
My friend was in the military. He's in the Air Force. And I
wasn't. I was a civil servant, hired by the Air Force to do
this. Those military men and women let me know that I wasn't
in the military. They treated me like I wasn't
in the military. And I went into a tool crib to get some stuff
I needed and ask them, you know, could somebody help me? You had
to check it out, you know, check your name off on the inventory
and all that. And they wouldn't even acknowledge I was in the
room. They wouldn't even look at me, much less give me the
tools I needed. And I walked out of there and
I just, oh, just down. You know, I can't make any headway
here. I can't get these people to do anything. I walked out
of there, just down. And I'm headed back to the plane
over there. This fellow walked up and he said, son, what's your
problem? I said, sir, I said, I'm trying to paint these planes.
I said, I need some tools. I can't get these fellows to
give me the tools I need. He said, come with me. So I followed
him and we walked into the tool crib. And we walked into that
tool crib and I'm telling you, Silence fell over that room,
and there was probably 10-15 people in there, and every person
in that tool crib snapped to attention. And I thought, who
are you? A full bird colonel. And he walked in there, buddy,
and I'm talking about, they snapped too. And he said, this man right
here, I represent him. And he said, whatever he asks
you for, whatever he wants, you give it to him. in my name. You give it to Him. And don't
you treat Him like you've been treating Him. And from the rest
of that week that I was there, you'd have thought I was a full-blown
colonel. I mean, they treated me so nice. I can sit here and preach to
you. And I can go home down and sad. We can witness to people. We can encourage one another.
We see a brother overtaken in a fault, We try to restore them
in a spirit of meekness and just get mad at one another sometimes.
We're in the flesh. We just get mad at one another.
We go home, we're just down. Feel bad about it. Can't do anything. But the captain of our salvation
can. And when he enters in to the
heart of a man, he snaps to attention. just like those people did in
that room. And He makes the Word preached
effectual in the hearts of His people. And we bow. And we obey Him. We follow Him. And we do what He commands. That's
what happened. He went and He preached. He stood
up and preached. He preached the Word. That's
what He preached. Paul told Timothy, all Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works. And then he said
this, And I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
in his kingdom, preach the word. Be instant in season. and out
of season. Whether I'm in this pulpit or
I'm at my house and you call me, I'm going to be telling you,
thus saith the Lord. This is what Scripture says.
This is what Scripture says. And if you don't want that, you
want something else, I can't help you. I can't help you. But if you're Christ, I'm persuaded. I've seen it. I've seen it happen. experienced it happen. He'll
teach us. He'll keep us. He'll grow us.
We're His. We're His. Well, I had a bunch
of other things here, but that's all right. These things, though,
I do want to say, they cause us to give a lot more consideration
to what Paul said, speaking by the Spirit of God. What he said
to the church at Philippi, when he said, Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. The day-to-day affairs. If, Eric,
you call me and something's happened and this is how I'm going to
handle it. And you tell me what you're going
to do. And I know. I probably made the same mistake.
I know it's going to run you headlong in the midst of a trial
and it's not going to be comfortable. It's going to be bad. I know
it's going to be bad. But because I have awe, reverence,
fear of the King who is reigning and ruling supreme right now,
I'm going to speak my word with trembling. I'm going to be very
careful in what I say. I might not say anything. I might
say something. But first thing I'm going to
do is I'm going to ask Him, give me some wisdom. Or teach Him. If it's your will, correct Him.
Teach Him. Rebuke Him. Chase Him. Correct Him. I'm not going to get up here
and preach on it. I'm not going to get up here and whip you from
the pulpit about it. I'm going to get up here and
preach Christ and Him crucified. And I pray that He, through that
Word, will rebuke you, correct you, teach you, strengthen you. He teaches us when to speak a
word in season. He has to teach us that. But
He does it. And we conduct ourselves with
fear and trembling, knowing that it's God that works in us, both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. His good pleasure. So we do all things without murmurings
and disputings. I'm not going to go tattletale
on somebody to somebody else and murmur against them. I'm
not going to go up against them and argue with them and dispute
with them over something. If I told somebody, you ought
to be living a more holy life, You might as well end that statement
with, like me. Because that's self-righteousness.
The only reason a man feels like he can... You know when the Lord
said, He said, get the beam out of your own eye before you try
to take it out of another one. You know what He did not say?
He did not say you'll ever get it out. If we always see what we are,
we won't be trying to get it out of somebody else's. We'll preach the Word. We'll
preach the truth. And He'll do the work. He'll
do it. And then who gets all the glory
for it? He does. He does. All right. That's it. Brother Eric, if you'll
come and lead us in a song.