One of the sweet pains of pastoring
people is carrying their burdens and their heartaches and their
troubles. Pain, yes, but a sweet pain. I have a dear friend who's just
recently buried his mother after watching her suffer a long time.
Yesterday I spent a good while talking to a dear friend in another
town. She and her husband have been
walking with Christ for a long, long time. Longer than I've been
here. Going through some real heartaches.
Trying to help them. I have a very dear friend. I took him to camp when I was
in West Virginia. I took him to camp since he was six years
old. His children breaking his heart.
He's a grown man now. Just so much pain. After supper
last night, Doug and I were chatting about some of these things and
he said, God has a way. of teaching us what's really
important, doesn't it? And I've been thinking about
that ever since. Tonight I want to talk to you about some important
things. I'm going to give you nine things
that are vital to me, and I believe you'll find them vital to you,
vital to my soul, as I live in this world. Most things that
we think day by day are important are really meaningless. Most
things to which we devote ourselves day after day are really insignificant,
don't mean a thing, most things. But there are some things we've
got to have. There are some things that are
vital. Turn with me to John chapter
15. I'm going to begin where you would expect me to. John
chapter 15, verse 5. Here's the first thing. I cannot do without Christ. I've got to have Him. Will you
hear me now? Will you hear me? You can't do
without Christ. Our Savior says here in verse
5, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in
me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without
me, ye can do nothing." I remind you again, take our Savior's
words just as far as your mind and heart can take them. He said,
without me you can do nothing. He is, of course, all our salvation,
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. I've declared
to you countless times those three words, Christ is all, found
in Colossians 3.11. That's not just a doctrine. That's not just a slogan. That's
not just a clever phrase. That's not just the repetition
of something important. I found, after 40 years experiencing
his grace, Christ really is all. He really is. He is my portion. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations
3, Therefore will I hope in him. And when the scripture says He
is our portion, this is what it means. This is what God my
Father has allotted to me. What a portion. What a boundless,
infinite, indescribable portion He is. Christ is the portion
of my soul. He is the one thing God has given
me, the one thing I must have. He is that one of whom David
spoke when he said, Thou art my strength and my song. He is that one who declares,
my grace is sufficient for thee. Whatever is needed, my grace
will supply. Whatever is needed for your soul
forever and your soul for today, my grace will supply. Christ
is declared to be our peace in Ephesians 2.14. He is our peace. I live in this world, I really
do, most of the time in peace. Most of the time. Sometimes I
let things distress me. Sometimes I get to looking at
the storm rather than the Savior. But most of the time I live in
this world in peace because Christ is my peace. He made peace for
me. when he gave himself as the ransom
of my soul at Calvary, reconciling me to God. And he not only made
peace for me, he's come to my heart by his spirit and by his
grace and spoken peace, declaring that my sins are forgiven. But
more than that, day after day after day, as trouble arises,
as difficulties come, As heartaches arise, he graciously speaks peace
to the waters that trouble my soul. The Lord Jesus Christ is
not only all of these things. Turn to John chapter 13. Let
me show you something. John chapter 13. Sometimes people who just can't understand spiritual
things When they hear us talk about the believer being free
from the law and declaring the believer's absolute freedom from
the law, they will say, well, if that's the case, then what's
the rule by which you live? We live by the rule of His grace
and His love and seek to follow His example. If you want to know
how to behave in any circumstance in life, Follow the example our
Lord set before us, who was obedient even unto death on our behalf. Look here in John 13. The Lord
Jesus is at the table with his disciples. And they'd come in
with their dirty, hot, weary feet from a long day's journey.
And he knelt down with a bowl of water and a towel and washed
their feet. And he didn't do that so we could
have some kind of a pretentious, showy ordinance and pretend humility. He did it to teach us a lesson.
He says in verse 13, I have given you an example that you should
do as I have done to you. Oh my God, teach me that. Teach me to serve your people
as my Savior has served me. Teach me to be the kind of husband
to my wife He is to me. The kind of father to my children
He is to me. The kind of friend to my friends
He is to me. To do what I can to serve His
people. Christ is that one who is indeed
all in all to my soul. Without him, I have nothing,
I am nothing, and I can do nothing. Now, turn if you will to 1 Peter
chapter 1. Here's the second thing. I can't do without his blood,
his precious sin-atoning blood. Without shedding of blood is
no remission. I am a sinner. And even that which I endeavor
to do for the honor of God deliberately, even that which I seek to do
deliberately for the good of someone else, is polluted with
these hands of iniquity. And everything about me continually
needs cleansing by the blood of Christ. My sins He has remitted,
and they need continual remittance in my conscience, and that's
only by His blood. And look at how Peter describes
it, 1 Peter 1, verse 18. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain, the word is empty, life. Your vain conversation,
your empty, meaningless life. How often you hear people talk
about what they've given up for Christ. emptiness and vanity. That's all. You weren't redeemed
from your empty, meaningless manner of life, your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. Oh, the precious
blood of Christ is the blood of God's everlasting covenant
by which the covenant is ratified and made sure and put into force. It is the blood of one who is
himself a man like me. A man altogether, bone of my
bone and flesh of my flesh, but a man who is himself God Almighty. So the Spirit of God speaks of
his blood as being that blood which he shed for the redemption
of his people, and he calls his church the church of God which
God purchased with his own blood. Jesus Christ, that one who is
our mediator and redeemer, is himself God Almighty in human
flesh. His blood is precious because
it is blood by which iniquity is put away. justice is satisfied. It is blood which claims for
us an inheritance in heaven. It is blood which God himself
must accept, for it is that which God himself has provided. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God,
the Lamb of God by whom our iniquities have been put away. Standing
alone, neither his love nor his grace Nor his power, nor his
prayers, nor his intercession could save anyone but his precious
blood. The blood poured out at Calvary
is that by which God's justice is satisfied, righteousness is
brought in, and we stand accepted before God. But there's something
else. Turn to that passage I've referred
you to several times in recent weeks in Hebrews 12. I can't do without Christ. I
can't do without His blood. And I can't do without holiness. I must be holy before God. He said, Be ye holy, for I am
holy. Did He not? He said, You shall
be holy, for I am holy. He said, Walk before Me and be
thou perfect. And that's what God demands.
And that comes only by the new birth, only by God himself making
us partakers of his own nature. Here in Hebrews chapter 12 verse
14, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. This is exactly what our Lord
Jesus spoke of when he said to Nicodemus, except a man be born
again, he cannot see and he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. If we would walk before God forever,
If we would stand before God in heavenly glory, we must have
not only God's purpose, which determined our everlasting righteousness,
and Christ's blood, which purchased righteousness for us, we must
have His own nature put in us, so that we made new creatures
in Him. And stand before God wholly. Now I want to come back to this
twelfth chapter of Hebrews in just a little bit. But I've got to
move on because I want to show you several things. I cannot escape the wrath of
God if I don't have this. I must have His mercy. His mercy. Sometimes we try to distinguish
things that ought not be distinguished, folks. Try to distinguish between
justification and sanctification. There's no distinction. The two
go hand in hand. You have one, you have the other.
If you don't have the one, you don't have the other. And sometimes
we try to distinguish between God's mercy and His grace and
His goodness. But they cannot be distinguished.
His mercy has saved me. His mercy has upheld me. His mercy I must have. Turn to
Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. The publican, when he bowed before God in the
temple. In that parable our Lord gave
in Luke's gospel, our Lord said he would not so much as lift
up his eyes toward heaven, but smote upon his breast and said,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Mercy is grace flowing to us
through justice satisfied. Indeed, when he said, God, be
merciful to me, the sinner, he was saying, God, be propitious
to me, the sinner. God, look upon me in mercy because
of the blood shed and accepted that Jesus Christ Himself sprinkled
upon the mercy seat because of Christ Himself who is our mercy
seat. Now look here in Titus chapter
3. This is how mercy saves us. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done. The Spirit
of God so constantly tells us, every time He talks about salvation,
being by grace, He says, now understand, your works don't
have anything to do with this. But according to His mercy, He saved
us. According to His mercy, He saved
us. By the washing of regeneration.
That is, by sprinkling our consciences from dead works in the new birth
with the precious blood of Christ, and the renewing, making us new
creatures by God the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that we, being justified by His
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. once wrote, a debtor to mercy
alone, of covenant mercy I see, nor fear with Christ's righteousness
on my person and offering to bring. The terrors of law and
of God with me can have nothing to do. My Savior's obedience
and blood hide all my transgressions from view. I pray for one thing, really. For just one thing. For you.
Just one thing. I pray for just one thing. For
my grandchildren. Just one thing. For Doug and
Faith, I seek just one thing. Just one thing. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy is everything. And without mercy, everything
else is damaged. Mercy. God, be merciful to me. God, be merciful to you. God,
be merciful to you. Whatever is needed, that God
manifest and bestow His mercy in Christ on you. That's what
I seek for you. I pray for you, for your sons
and daughters, and I do so all the time. All the time. And I pray God will give you
mercy. His mercy. What about all the
other things in life? They're really unimportant. They're
really insignificant. If you have everything Mom and
dad could prepare for you and design for you, have everything
you set your heart on from a child, achieve every goal in life. You
have nothing if you don't have mercy. And if God gives you mercy,
you lack nothing. Not only that, turn to Hebrews
chapter 11. Hebrews 11. I want so much, Lindsay, either I do or I'm a
liar. I want so much to please and
honor God my Savior. And if I would, I must have faith. Faith that only He can give me.
Faith that only He can give me yesterday, and only He can give
me today, and only He can give me when I have said goodnight
to you tonight and walk over to the house. Faith that only
He can give me tomorrow. Faith isn't something I can muster
in myself. It's my responsibility, but I
can't muster it. It's something I am responsible
to exercise, but I can't perform it. It's faith which he must
work in me by his mercy and his grace. And I want this faith. Hebrews 11 verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for. The evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained
a good report." Now watch what's written here. Through faith we
understand. I was chatting with Doug last
night, we were talking about something in Scripture, I've
forgotten really what passage we were talking about at the
time. And I said to him, the only way we can understand anything
in this book, at any time, is if God gives us faith to understand
what's written here. only if God teaches us by His
Spirit, through faith. We understand. We understand
particularly that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. We understand that God created
everything by His Word, and we understand why He did it. He
did it for His glory, and for the saving of His people, and
the manifesting of His glory in the salvation of His people.
I've been reading a book by a very dear friend of mine, brilliant
fellow, got more degrees than a thermometer. It's tough reading. And he's a scientist, and he's
writing principally to deal with things from a scientific background.
But honestly, I don't understand much of what I'm reading. I don't.
And it doesn't bother me. I can understand this. In the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I can't understand
that God Almighty spoke all things into existence out of nothing,
and that he sustains all things by the word of his power, and
that he will consummate all things, and bring this world to a ball
of fire in its conclusion, and make all things new exactly according
to his purpose. We understand the worlds were
framed by the word of God. so that the things which are
seen were not made of things which do appear." Now watch what
he's saying, verse 4. Remember back up in verse 2,
he said, "...by faith the elders obtained a good report, by faith
able, offering to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he obtained witness." He offered a sacrifice by faith.
The sacrifice he offered was a kid of the flocks. Sacrifice
he offered by faith in Jesus Christ, knowing what God revealed
to his father Adam, and his father Adam taught him about substitution. And he offered the sacrifice
by faith. And when he did, he obtained
witness that he was righteous. Who gave witness of this? Who
was it that witnessed that he was righteous? He obtained witness. Well, who saw it? Men and women
in the religious world are taught all the time, you show people
that you're righteous. Our Lord teaches us don't do
that. Don't make any effort at that.
Don't try to show folks you're righteous. Because people don't
know anything about righteousness. And whatever you can show them
is not righteousness. What's it mean he obtained witness
that he was righteous? Certainly not before Cain. Cain
murdered him. Cain murdered him. What's it mean he obtained witness
that he was righteous? God gave him witness in his own
heart and conscience that he was righteous. I've obtained
witness from God that I'm righteous. Have you? I've obtained witness
from God that I'm righteous. Have you? I mean, God declares
that I am without sin and righteous through the person and work of
his Son. Read on. God testifying of his gifts,
the sacrifice he brought, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith, Enoch was translated. That he should not see death.
And he was not found because God translated him. For before
his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. He had this testimony. Oh, I
want so much to please God. And we talk about pleasing God. But don't misunderstand what
it is to please Him. To please God is to walk before
Him trusting His Son. I sat in a Bible conference,
oh it had been 20 years ago. A fellow got up to preach and
he was preaching about walking with God. I had already planned
to preach from Hebrews 11.6. I think Brother Larry Brown might
have been there, I'm not positive. But this fellow got up and preached
on how you please God by this and please God by that. If you
just pray enough, and read enough, and work enough, and do enough,
then you please God. But before he got up to preach,
he knew me pretty good apparently. I didn't know him, but he knew
me. He said, I see you've got Brother Fortner scheduled to
preach behind me so he can straighten out everything I said. And I
said, I've got something to straighten out. No, that's not how you please
God. You don't please God by something
you do. You please God by faith in Christ. How did Enoch Have this testimony,
did it please God? Look at the next line. But without
faith, it is impossible to please Him. Impossible. Children of God, as you walk
before God and seek to honor Him, as you walk before God and
seek to serve Him, never think about bringing anything to God
except Christ, His blood, and His righteousness. And by His
blood and His righteousness, in Him our gifts and sacrifices
are acceptable to God, and only in Him. For he that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and he is the rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. And I'll tell you something else,
I must have. I must have the ministry of the
gospel, the preaching of the gospel. I don't often get to
sit and listen to someone preach. You men who preach here and others,
I get the tapes and hear them, listen to them, listen to them
carefully and rejoice in them. But I don't often get to sit
where you're sitting and listen to the preaching of the gospel.
But I read that which others have preached in their sermons
and in their books every day and ask God to give me instruction.
I sit and listen to Benji sit right there on Sunday mornings.
God speak to me by your word. Speak to me and teach me by your
word. I chat with my buddies who are
pastors. Brother Todd and I sometimes
chat a dozen times a week, I guess, sometimes almost that much a
day, but learning from one another, profiting from one another. We
need the ministry of the Word. Turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans
10. Let men say what they will. Let
men make what they will of what I'm about to say. But the preaching
of the gospel is essential to the salvation of our souls. And
the preaching of the gospel is essential to our instruction. And the preaching of the gospel
is essential to our edification. The preaching of the gospel is
essential to our spiritual comfort and spiritual discernment. Look
here in Romans chapter 10, verse 13. Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord, whosoever shall worship the name of the
Lord, Jesus Christ, shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except
they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the word of God. Gospel preachers, pastors, the
man who's talking to you is nothing, nothing, except instruments by
which God works for you and in you. That's not an exaltation
of a man. My wife got a nice garden out
there, I'll acknowledge, everybody says, Talks about our house and
her garden. And she does a lot of things
in it. But if you started to brag on the hose that runs the
water out there, or the hoe that chops the weeds out there, somebody
would look at you and think, well, there's something wrong
with you. All that is is an instrument she uses. And this empty hoe
and hose, that's all. Something God uses for his garden,
his church. But don't ever imagine that the
preaching of the gospel is a secondary thing or an optional thing. God
only ministers to his people through the Word. I don't mean
by that he doesn't use his providence, he doesn't use other things.
I mean by that all the other things have bearing upon us as
he instructs us in his word by his spirit. God has given pastors,
teachers in his church for the perfecting of the saints, for
the edifying of the body of Christ. And I'll tell you something else. I must have grace from God. continually supplying his grace,
continually supplying his mercy, if I would justify my faith before
you in works that honor God. I thought we didn't believe in
works. You didn't really think that, did you? Don't trust our works. But Paul
teaches us to be careful to maintain good works for the honor of God. Read Titus chapter 2. Read that
before you go home. I'll preach to you from that
soon, but read it. James speaks of Abraham and said,
Abraham justified by works. Turn to James 2. Let me show
you that. James chapter 2, verse 18. You mean we must be justified
by works? Absolutely. Absolutely. And if our works
do not justify the faith we profess to believe, our profession is
a mockery. That's all. I don't mean by that
that my works in any way justify me and my own conscience. But
my works justify me before you, or my faith is nothing. Did you get that? If you don't
observe that which is God's goodness through the man who professes
faith, his profession of faith is nothing but an empty, meaningless,
religious profession. Nothing else. James 2, verse
18. Yea, a man may say thou hast faith, and I have works. Show
me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith
by my works. Thou believest there is one God,
thou doest well, so do the devils in hell. The devils also believe
and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works? And by works faith was made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled
which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him
for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. You
see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith
only. Is James contradicting himself? Is he contradicting the Apostle
Paul? No, not at all. We were justified by God from
eternity when he declared us just. with no consideration of
our works. We were justified by Christ when
he died as our substitute with no consideration of our works.
We were justified by faith when God gave us faith in Christ declaring
us just because of his blood with no consideration of our
works. And we justify our professed faith in him as we walk before
him in good works. What are those good works? They
are works of kindness, and charity, and love, and forgiveness, and
mercy. The religious world talks about
good works, and they tell you to do this, don't do that. Wear
this, don't wear that. Eat this, don't eat that. Go
here, don't go there. Everywhere in this book, read
the 25th chapter of Matthew. Everywhere in this book, good
works are spoken of as visiting the sick, feeding the hungry,
forgiving the offender, being gracious and thoughtful, taking
care of one another, serving one another. That's good works. That's good works. And by those
things, we justify our faith before men as we walk in this
world. Not before ourselves. You see,
good works always are works, when performed by a man, are
never perceived by the man. Our Lord said, you saw me hungry
and fed me and thirsty and gave me something to drink, naked
and you clothed me, imprisoned and you visited me. And they
said to him, when did I ever do anything like that? When did
I ever do anything like that? And those on his left side, they
said, I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. And I was
thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was naked, and you
gave me nothing to wear. I was in prison, and you wouldn't
visit me. Oh, yes, we did. Don't you remember? That's the
difference between faith and self-righteousness. Faith looks
to Christ for everything, and being taught of God, and led
of God, and graced of God, honors God in this world without knowing
it, without being aware of it. Let us, our God, Do good one
to another. I want so much to do you good. All the days of our lives serve
one another. I'll tell you something else.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. I never liked it at the time,
but I desperately need it. I need my Heavenly Father's gracious,
wise, good chastisement. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant, O Lord, according to thy word. The psalmist said,
Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments.
And then he said, Before I was afflicted, I went astray. He said, It is good for me that
I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Here in Hebrews
12, the Apostle Paul says, You have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you
endure chastisement, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what
son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons."
Now let me explain, he says, what this chastening is. That
doesn't mean God's angry with you. That's the way mamas and
daddies do things sometimes. Furthermore, we've had fathers
of our flesh which corrected us And we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for
a few days chastened us after their pleasure. They beat the
fool out of us because we embarrassed them and they got mad. But not
our God. He punished our sins in our substitute.
When he chastens us, it is for our profit that we might be partakers
of his Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,
but grievous. Nevertheless, it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised
thereby. Our chastisements only prove
what's there already. They don't add anything. They
strengthen faith. They make Christ more precious.
They tend to wean us from this world and make us patient in
this world so that by them we learn patience. God in Israel
sows the seeds of affliction, pain, and toil. These spring
up and choke the weeds that would else or spread the soil. Now turn to Philippians chapter
1. Let me show you one more thing I cannot do without. When you get there, I want you
to look up here. And I want to look every one of you
right in the eye. I can't do without you. Our Lord one day was preaching
and folks came and said, your mother, she wants you. And the master looked at his
disciples and he said, behold, my mother and my brethren and
my sisters. This is my family. My family. I have kinsmen like you according
to the flesh. And I love them. I love them.
But I really don't want to be around them like I want to be
around you. Because we don't have anything
in common. Don't have anything in common. Give me a couple hours.
Visit here and there, have dinner, maybe go visit some old friends,
and then bring me back to my family. My family. Philippians 1, verse 3. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you. Always and every prayer of mine
for you all, making requests with joy. for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to Philemon concerning
what he wanted him to do, and he said, Without thy mind I would
do nothing. In just that same way, I want your fellowship, your
companionship, your mind as we serve Christ together for the
glory of God. I know what God's called me to
do. By His grace, I intend to do it. But I need you, every
one of you. My family. That lady right there? I love her. She's my wife. You knew that, didn't you? But
that relationship is just temporary. That's just temporary. My relationship
with her that's real and everlasting is exactly the same as that I
have with you. It's in Christ the Redeemer.
This is my family. Oh God, teach us to value one
another, not as comforts and conveniences, but as necessities. One more passage and I'll quit.
Philippians chapter 2. Verse 1. If there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies. Fulfill ye my joy,
that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord,
and of one mind. Verse 4, Look not every man on
his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Our
Lord Jesus lived on this world, on this earth. All His people
are just one thing. You. His people. God teach me to live
just like that. Each esteeming other better than
themselves. Amen.