Acts 14. Acts 14. The Apostle Paul writing to the
Corinthian church with regard to the ministry God had given
to that band of apostles who were chosen of him, that ministry
that was exercised by Peter and Paul, and one who was not an
apostle, Paul writes to them and says, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have obtained mercy, we faint not. We were just discussing, some
of the men in the office and I, the ministry God has given
us, and I want you, every one of you, to understand, to really
understand that the ministry God has given us is our ministry
in this generation. I never, I mean never, refer
to the work that's done from this place as my ministry. I don't have one. I don't have
one. We have a ministry. A ministry
God has given us by His mercy that is a continually increasing
labor and responsibility and blessing. Now, I want to this
evening give you a report of what transpired in the last couple
of weeks while Shelby and I have been in Ireland and England,
but I don't want to just give you a report. I want to give
you a message that you might be encouraged to give yourself
wholeheartedly to this business that God has put in our hands,
this trust of the gospel, the preaching of the gospel in this
generation. In Acts chapter 13, Paul and
Barnabas had been selected by God the Holy Spirit as his messengers
to the Gentiles. And they were sent out by the
church at Antioch preaching the gospel. At the end of their first
missionary journey, we'll pick up the story in verse 21 of Acts
14. When they had preached the gospel
to that city, that is, to Derbe, and had taught many, they returned
again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls
of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith
that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had
prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they
believed. And after they had passed through
Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia, and when they had preached the
word in Persia, they went down to Attalia, and then sailed to
Antioch, from which they had been recommended, or sent out,
recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. It is written of those of old,
when they had fulfilled their days, they were gathered to their
fathers, when David had served his generation by the will of
God. God give us grace to do that. This is the day God has made
for us. There's never been a day like
it for us, and there will never be another like it for us. If
we could do so, let us never dream of how much better it would
be to live in another time. This is the best day for you
and I to live in, the best for us, and the best day for you
and I to serve our God in this generation. This work which they
fulfilled, verse 27, and when they were come and had gathered
the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them,
and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul asked the saints
at Colossae to pray for him to this end. that God would open
to us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. I ask that from you all the time,
and I have it from you. I thank God for your concern
for the cause of Christ and for your prayers on my behalf as
your pastor. Specifically, I'd ask you many
times to pray for me as I prepare to go preach the gospel to these
places All of them, but one totally unfamiliar to me in any personal
way, actually two, Brother Peter Minney, the pastor of the church
in Egglesburn, he and I correspond a good bit. He's the editor of
New Focus Magazine and runs GO Publications, published several
of our books. But I, for the most part, didn't know any of
these folks, even by mail, but God opened the door for the preaching
of the gospel. And when we left to go to England
two weeks ago, frankly, some of you are aware I had some concerns.
I knew I'd be preaching to folks who, in many places, who had
not heard the message of God's grace, preached with clarity,
forcefully, preached with authority in a long time, and some never. And I knew I'd be preaching to
some preachers. who just might not like what they would hear.
But I'm happy to report to you, as Paul did, a great door and
effectual was opened to me. Now let me just take our trip
day by day and try to relate to you some of the things that
the Lord was pleased to do. Of course, on 15th of April we
left here about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and by 6 o'clock
we were on our plane headed to England. We arrived the next
morning at 9 o'clock at the Heathrow Airport in just south of London. Janine Hess, you know her as
Janine Clark, Bill and Evelyn Clark's daughter, met us at Heathrow
Airport and picked up two of our bags so we wouldn't have
to lug quite as many things all over Ireland and England. And
then we waited until 1.15 to pick up the plane to Northern
Ireland. We got there about three o'clock,
arrived at Belfast. Brother Russell Smith, he and
his wife, Sherrilyn, had been listening to the tapes here,
recent times videos, for a number of years. He has written numerous
times. They faithfully support the ministry
here. They picked us up at the airport
and drove us up to Ballymoney, North Ireland, about an hour
and a half from Belfast. Actually, it was Russell Smith
and Nigel Norman who picked us up, a friend of his who has also
been listening to the messages. I didn't know that at the time.
But a couple of years ago when I first started planning this,
Brother Stephen Bignall asked me to come to England preaching
their conference there two years ago. So I wrote to Russell and
told him that if he were interested, if he wanted to rent a public
place, I'd go preach to whoever was pleased to gather. whoever
God would gather there, and perhaps the Lord might be pleased to
raise up a work. And so Russell seemed anxious
to do so. They rented the public hall at
Valley Money, I think it was the town hall they rented, a
very nice place to meet, and arranged for the meetings on
Tuesday night. I didn't preach Monday night. I knew I'd be wore
out, so I didn't plan to meet with anyone and preach Monday
night. We just went to the Smiths' home and enjoyed time with Russell,
Sharon, their son Johnny, and Brother Nigel Norman and his
wife, Elizabeth, and got in bed about 10, 30 that night. We'd
been up a long time. Then on Tuesday morning, we had
real good breakfast. The Irish like to eat good, and
Russell's wife, Sharon, fixed us what she called a proper Ulster
fry. Fry sounds good, and it was.
We had fried eggs, and fried bacon, and fried sausages, and
fried potato bread, and fried soda bread, and fried tomatoes. We had fried everything. And
that was my last fried meal for a while. But we had a great breakfast
with them. And we went out on Tuesday morning
and visited an old Roman castle right on the shores in Northern
Ireland. It's called Don Luce Castle, or Lucy, however you
pronounce it, and the giant causeway. one of the seven wonders of the
world. We didn't have much time, so we didn't spend much time
there. And it was windy, rainy, and cold that day, so we didn't
walk the causeway. We just looked at it. Brother
Russell arranged the meeting on Tuesday night, and there were
probably 35 to 45 people there who had come to hear the Word.
Some had read about the meetings in New Focus magazine, some read
about it in the local newspaper, and some by word of mouth. And
it was a delight to see them. I preached that night a very
similar message to what I preached here Sunday morning before we
left on Zechariah 10 on God calling his people. And there were numerous
folks, the word was just received very well, very well. Numerous
folks who commented about how thankful they were to hear the
gospel preached and preached with boldness and with clarity. And several, of course, wanted
to start getting messages regularly and be put on a mailing list
for the bulletins. One couple we met, I was just delighted
to get to meet Shelby and I both were, but we'd heard from Stuart
Boyd and his wife Harriet a number of times. Stuart is, I think
he said 66, 67 years old. I think that's right. Some years ago, he was a Church
of God fellow. He and Russell knew one another,
and he had a massive heart attack in serious condition, has been
ever since. He has a very serious, serious heart condition, and
not able to get out much. Principally, he's confined to
his house, just occasionally can get out. I didn't know whether
he'd be able to make it to the meeting that night. He didn't
think he would be able to, so Russell and I went over to see
him. But he made it to the meeting, and we went over to see him,
visited for just a little bit, and then he made it to the meeting
that night. And Harriet spent a good bit of time at the services
talking. Brother Stewart was given a tape. Russell had given
it to him some time back. And that tape was blessed of
God to him. This is what he said. God used
that message to change my life. And I've never been the same
since. With tears, we said goodbye and
probably won't see each other again here. But just delightful,
delightful man, he and his wife. And then on Wednesday, April
the 18th, we were up at 4 o'clock in the morning. For me, that's
early. And I had to get ready to go
to the airport, catch a plane in Belfast to go to Newcastle,
England. And Brother Peter Minnie picked
us up at the airport. a three-and-a-half-hour drive
on up to his place in the northern part of England, and we were
very, very pleasantly surprised. Some of you have read, I guess
all of you have, articles by Brother George Ella in New Focus
Magazine. Brother Ella and I had been trying
to get to meet each other face-to-face for nearly 20 years. Several
years ago, I purchased a ticket. We were going to fly out and
meet him where he was lecturing. to some preachers out in Oklahoma,
now got as far as Cincinnati, got snowed in, had to spend the
day sitting in the airport in Cincinnati and fly back home.
And we corresponded a little bit before leaving, and George
just said he couldn't come. He couldn't get tickets. The
doctor didn't advise him to come. He, too, is not well. His heart's weak. He's physically
not strong. But he managed to get a ticket
at a price he could afford I don't know what the problem is, but
the doctor told him he couldn't fly above a certain altitude,
so he had to find a plane that would fly low enough to get him
there. And he was with Peter at the airport, and it was just
a delight to meet him. Brilliant, brilliant man, just
like a walking encyclopedia. He wrote numerous biographies,
has written numerous biographies, and this is how we got acquainted.
I read a biography of William Cowper, just super. Handled Calper's
problem with mental depression, anxiety, just remarkably well. Gave me some slight understanding
as to what people go through with that. And then I read a
biography of William Huntington and wrote to it. I got his address
from Evangelical Press and told him how much I appreciated him,
lifting that man's name from the dung heap of history and
setting it in its proper place. And found that he was writing
a biography of John Gill. He's not really my patron saint, but
you'll take it. I understand it just the way
I mean it, too. I've been reading John Gill every day since I was
18 years old and haven't got tired of it yet. But he sent
me a copy of it on a computer disk and read it. He asked me
to write forward to it, and I was honored to do so. So we were
delighted to get to meet each other. But he's brilliant and
nice. I mean nice. Everybody expects
Shelby to be sweet. Nobody expects me to be. But
brilliant folks, I don't expect to be sweet. He's just nice.
Just as nice as he can be. Walking encyclopedia. He's got
more degrees than a thermometer. But just a delightful, delightful,
delightful man. I was so honored, so delighted
to get to spend a little time with him. Well, Wednesday night
at the Egglesburg Baptist Church in Teasdale, I preached in that
church building that was built in 1872. The whole building is
not even half the size of this auditorium, but it was packed
that night. Normally, Peter's congregation
is about 12 or 15 people, if I understand correctly. But there
were folks who came from Scotland, came from... In all the meetings,
a lot of folks came a long way. Some took trains the one way,
some drove, got a motel, and spent the night. But the place
was just filled to capacity, and God gave me some liberty
to preach from that blessed picture of God's saving grace in Hosea
and Gomer. Then on Thursday, we had a quick
breakfast and got up to drive down to Wolverhampton. The meeting
there was arranged by one of the elders in the church, Brother
Jim Gough, spelled G-O-U-G-H, but pronounced like Gough. It
was about three and a half hours away, and Peter and George drove
us down there. When we got there, we went to
Gough's home. And they treated us like we were
somebody. I mean, just rolled up the red
carpet, just super delightful people. Jim and his wife, Eileen,
were a little apprehensive, Eileen particularly, about having this
strange American fellow come in her home and spend the night.
But they gave us their master suite in their house, and she
fixed a great meal and found out that I put my britches on
like everybody else, backwards most of the time, and we got
along real well. Had a delightful time with him.
Another couple came over, Sidney and Joan Buggins. Sidney and
Joan are a little bit older, but I suppose Jim and Eileen
are just a little older than Shelby and I. We had a good meal,
good time of fellowship together. When Sidney found out I enjoyed
the use of tobacco, he just beamed from ear to ear and liked that
real well. He and Jim, Eileen, and Sidney's
wife, Joan, were just delightful. Went to church that night, but
before we did, well it was after church I think I found this out,
some years ago, Jim had given, or rather Sidney had given Jim
one of our videotapes. I guess he had gotten it from
New Focus Magazine. I'd never heard from him before, to my
knowledge. He said, you ought to hear this. And Jim said, well,
I put it up and decided I'd watch it sometime. Then on Christmas
Day, he had a heart attack. Had to have triple bypass surgery. And while he was recuperating,
started watching that tape and watching that videotape and others.
I've just been watching him since. God was pleased to make a blessing
to him. His wife, Eileen, would get up
on Sunday morning and go off to West Ham Baptist Church in
Wolverhampton, and he'd say, well, I'm going to Danville this
morning, and would worship with us regularly. In our travels,
we found out there are a lot of people who regularly read
the bulletins, the Grace Bulletin, both what's sent out by regular
mail and what's sent out by email and read it with depth. They read everything, every announcement,
everything going on in the congregation and acquaint themselves with
what God's doing here with us and what God's doing among us.
Jim was no exception. I told Bobby yesterday when I
saw him just briefly, I guess there were 15 or 20 people who
one way or another communicated to me their concern for him.
And Jim asked Shelby, how is Bobby Estes doing? How's he getting
along? He said, I read about the death
of his wife and the wonderful tribute Don wrote regarding her.
I thought about him and prayed for him often during the past
year. And then I'd mentioned others.
I'd call your names and wonder, well, who is Merle? Because that
means that we seek bending over right at the first and every
gate. And so they acquainted with things. And it's a blessing. What a blessing to know that
God's people, literally all over the world, though we've never
met them, are concerned about you and me. Concerned about what
God's doing here and praying for us. But on Thursday night,
I preached at the church they're members of. It's the West Park
Baptist Church in Wolverhampton. And we had good meetings. I had
some liberty to preach on 1 Peter on the subject, chosen, sanctified,
redeemed, and called. And numerous folks seemed to
profit by the word, so much appreciated it. While there, we met Brother
Norman Wheeler. has had some serious difficulties
in the last couple of years. I got a letter from his son,
oh, I guess a year ago, and asked me to pray for his dad. His dad's
a pastor, and he's considerably older than I am, but was having
some serious ailments that were of great concern to them. And
I called Brother Wheeler and spoke to him a couple of times,
and we corresponded some. I wish I could persuade you.
every one of you, to recognize the importance of letting folks
know you care. Just let them know you care.
Just to note, we're living in this day of electronic media
and nobody much takes time to write. I try and have tried throughout
my life as a believer to answer every letter of any kind I get
from folks. I even answer nasty letters in
such a way that I don't get another one, but I answer And people
appreciate thoughtful, just a thoughtful word. Hello, praying for you. I want you to know I'm concerned
for you. Brother Wheeler was like that. He brought his whole
family, the whole family, and was there at the meetings and
then went over to Brother Goff's house and we visited a good while
that evening. And then on Friday, excuse me,
I've been talking a long time, Jim and Eileen, had planned a
trip for us, taking us down to Welland for the meeting down
there. But they were going to stop by Bedford, let us go by
and visit that place where John Bunyan spent 12 years in jail
for preaching the gospel. I'd been there, Jeb and I both
had, 20 years ago when we were in England. And they were so
concerned that everything go well, the Buggins and the Goffs
had made a trial run, find out exactly how long it was going
to take us and all that. And we went down and visited Bedford
again and went through the museum, looking over things. And a delightful,
delightful visit, but at the same time, so sad. The church building where Bunyan
preached, they built a new building, but the place is still there,
still standing. And it's not just Armenian. liberal, ecumenical, nothing
preached, nothing believed. The folks who put Bunyan in jail
now occupy the pulpit. Oh, how sad, how sad, and brag
on Bunyan. But we had a good visit there
that afternoon and drove on down to Welland, got there about four
o'clock. Welland is where Brother Stephen Bignall pastors, the
campus church in Welland. This church was started just
just a little while, a matter of months at the most, after
we were in England 20 years ago. Brother Bill Clark and Brother
Edgar Andrews started to work there, and they called Brother
Stephen Bignall, who was pastor there, just before Bill went
home to the Lord. We stayed with Evelyn, Bill's
wife, for three nights there. It was good to stay in the same
place more than one night. We had a delightful time with
Evelyn. continues to send out Bill's
messages. They're aired on radio in Africa. And she, of course, misses her
dear husband, and we talked about him a good bit. The conference
at the campus church in Welland began Friday night. That was
the only night I didn't preach. And Bob Dickey, pastor of a church
in Flint, Michigan. I'd never met him. I'd heard
of him. for a good many years, but Bob then in Flint, Michigan,
went there just about the same time I came here in 1980, I think
it was, and he brought a message from the Song of Solomon. And
then I preached Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday morning,
and Sunday night for the rest of the conference. On Saturday
morning, Brother Bignall, his wife, Fiona, and their daughter,
Jessica, took us to St. Albans. That was a treat. Let me pause and tell you something
that's got nothing at all to do with spiritual things, but
a few years back, I don't remember when, Shelby can probably tell
you, but they were building a road in this old town and discovered
an ancient Roman city 2,000 years ago that Roman city was there,
not quite 2,000 years ago. And they found artifacts that
just, in mint condition, tear bottles and pottery and glasses
or glass jugs that had been blown, and some of them just intact. Jewelry, technological things,
they're just remarkable. And the best key ring I ever
saw had drawers full of key rings. It had a ring with a key on it.
Never lose your key. And that's how they got into,
I guess, their boxes and so forth. But it was just remarkable. We
only got to spend a couple hours there. I hope to go back and
spend a little more time. And we met Alan and Christine
Jellett. The Jelletts were here, I saw them a long time ago. They came over to visit just
briefly. We met them when we were in England before, and their
son, Peter, and his wife, Joan. They met us for lunch that afternoon,
and we had just a good time visiting with them. The services at Welland
began at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, and Stephen had asked
me to preach on the preaching of Christ in the Psalms and in
the Song of Solomon, and so I preached first on Christ in the Psalms
and tried to show how that Christ is the message of that book throughout,
that every psalm speaks of him and reveals something of his
redemptive work. And then Saturday evening, I preached from Psalm
130, in verse 4, on various forgiveness with thee. And Sunday morning,
I preached from the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, on failing saints
and our unfailing God. And then Sunday evening, from
chapter 6, I tried to answer the question, why am I thus? And the services were, I believe,
blessed of God to many. Blessed of God to many. There
were a lot of people there, and God gave me a good hearing. While
we were there, there was a couple, Malwin and Mary Rowe. I've got
to understand them pronounced right, is it? Malwin? Malwin. Malwin and Mary Rowe.
I've been hearing from them for a good long while, and they drove
from a long ways off to be at the conference at Welland. They
don't have any place to worship where they are. So every week
they watch videotapes and they read the bulletin. And you will
be, again, surprised at how they handle that. They don't have
a place to worship, but they want to worship God, like so
many in this country meet and watch our videotapes and worship
when we do. Well, on Sunday morning, Sunday
night, they worship God, watching videotapes. And they take the
bulletins. They get them by email. They
read them and they might say to one another, it's Celeste
Peterson's turn to keep the nursery today. Or Don and Shelby's turn
to clean the church building this month. Or we'll have a fellowship
dinner today and won't have any service tonight. They don't have
any service that night, they just had dinner together. And they
find it a very, very great blessing to their souls to be able to
hear the gospel. And they wanted us to convey
to you how appreciative they are of you sending the gospel
around the world. Shelby said after chatting with
them, I'm reminded what a rare privilege it is to have a place
to worship where the gospel is proclaimed every time we meet
together and how precious it is to have a church family. I
pray God will keep me from ever taking these things for granted.
On Monday the 23rd, this is now the ninth day since we left home,
Brother Bignall drove us down to Honiton, and it was a long
drive. Honiton is way down in the southern
part of England, but it was so delightful to be able to spend
some time with Brother Stephen. We left Evelyn's about 1130 and
got into Honiton in time for supper that night, and Brother
Ian Potts, who has been Such a blessing in the time I've known
him by correspondence. We've corresponded for many years
now. He and his wife, Rachel, were
waiting for us. They've got two young boys, one
two, one three and a half, and Rachel didn't tell us this until
sometime later came out. Someone was discussing it. I
don't know whether Shelby heard her mentioning it or she was
talking to Shelby. She'd had a miscarriage ten days before
we got there. He didn't want to tell us because he was afraid
we wouldn't stay with him. But they were a young couple, I think,
in the mid-30s, just so, so very, very delightful. And again, I
had done the same thing with Ian. I did it with Russell. I
told him that when I come, and I've told these folks, all of
them, them and the preachers and pastors too, don't be concerned
about expenses. Don't even mention that to anyone. If you want to rent a place and
see who's interested, I'll be happy to come. So he rented a
room at the Huntington Hotel. Nice room. Rented it for 15 pounds
an hour. That's 30 bucks an hour. I said
at 30 bucks an hour I wouldn't build a building for a long time
if God raised up a church. I mean, that's a nice place to
meet. And there were a lot of people there both nights. I guess,
I'm just guessing, between 75 and 80 people were there both
nights. On Monday night, God gave me some liberty to show
what John declares in 1 John 4, 17, as he is, so are we in
this world. And a good many folks were just
astounded to hear the message. We were delighted that both the
Goth and the Buggins, both the men and their wives, decided
to come on down to Huntington for the meetings there. And so
we were pleasantly surprised to see them show up on Monday
night. And they stayed through the service on Tuesday night.
And I suspect if they hadn't had engagements over the weekend,
they'd have gone on up to London for the next two nights. But
it was a delight to have them there. I believe we have some
friends you'll be seeing soon. And then on Tuesday night, I
preached at Hunterton out of Mark 737. He hath done all things
well. On Tuesday morning, Brother Fred
Sargent, He was a pastor, he's got a webpage, and I presumed
he was probably 40 or 50 years old. He is a spry 80-year-old. And he had arranged for me to
preach at a pastor's fraternal there, and I was really hesitant
about that. But Brother Sargent was just
a delightful fellow, and he had arranged it. I have to tell you
a little bit about him. He was a Roman Catholic monk,
and I don't know exactly how it happened, but I told his wife
how I considered it happened. Then he saw the vicar's pretty
daughter, and he decided to become an Anglican so he could marry
that vicar's daughter. And then God taught him the gospel, and
he's pastor of a Baptist church there close to Huntington, and
just a delightful, delightful man, he and his wife both. But
he had arranged to have this preacher's meeting, and there
were I've guessed probably 25 preachers, pastors of churches
from the area there. And again, I had some real liberty
dealing with 1 Corinthians 1, 17 through 31, showing that Christ
is all in the scriptures, in the preaching of the gospel,
in the saving operations of our God. And by and large, again,
the message was well-received. And then on Wednesday, the 25th,
we had to say goodbye to Rachel, and had to leave to go to London. The Potts, I believe, probably
will start advertising and seeing if folks are interested in meeting
regularly. His mom and dad are a delightful couple. We had dinner
with them one night while we were there. I suspect they will
start meeting, so I ask you to pray for them. They had brought
us a train ticket. Shelby and I had never ridden
a train except the dinner train with you folks. We got on that
train, and I don't have any idea how far Hunterton is from London.
But it's a ways. The train runs about 100 miles
an hour, and we were on it for a little over three hours. But
they've got the seats and table between us, so we just sat and
relaxed and talked about God's blessings on the meetings up
to that point. And soon we're in London, England. And Brother John and Ann Graham.
Brother John has pastored, and he's been retired now for about
a year. They met us at the train station at Waterloo. I didn't
have to guess about how he got his name. That was the end of
the trail. So we packed our bags in Waterloo
Station and took a taxi to Bunn Hill Fields. I had missed seeing
this when we were there before, so I wanted to go to Bunn Hill
Fields. Brother John took us over there.
I'd done a little bit of research so I wouldn't have to spend a
great deal of time looking for graves. But Bunn Hill Fields is where
the dissenters, folks who were non-Anglican, were buried. public graveyard in years gone
by. A lot of fellows buried there
that I'd love to have found and just looked over what the tombstones
had to say about them and so on, but the place was chained
off. But I had Shelby with me, and
the guard was happy to accommodate Shelby and take the chains down
for us. Found Bunyan's grave, his tomb. It's been restored, looks really
good. Found John Owen's tomb. And then John Ripon's tomb and
John Gill's tomb. William Wilberforce's tomb. And
John Gill's tomb, if you didn't know by the map whose it was,
you'd never know it was his. There's not a thing on it that's
legible. And so I made up my mind that the City of London
will let me. I want to put a plaque on there. I owe Gill that much
and a lot more so somebody can know whose tomb it is when they
go there. And then Brother John asked me if I'd like to go across
the street into Wesley's Chapel. And I thought, that'll be an
experience. So I said, yes, we will. We went across there. And
of course, it's just like you'd expect Wesley's Chapel to be,
a gaudy piece of idolatry. But the only reason I wanted
to go in there is so I could stand in Wesley's pulpit and
shout, free grace. But they wouldn't let me. Wouldn't
let me in the pulpit. So I walked out, and Brother
John saw me. using that hand cleaner to wash
my hands. He said, what you doing? I said, I'm trying to wash it off. It won't
wash off. And we then got a bus, one of those big double-decker
buses that you see on television and movies in London, and sat
right up in the front. So we took that bus back to Waterloo
Station and got to see, got to see it briefly, but got to see
a lot of London that way. And then went out to dinner.
That night, I preached at Westminster Baptist Church. where Brother
John was once a pastor. As a matter of fact, he was a
pastor there when we first made these arrangements. He preached
out of Psalm 68 on salvation as God describes it. Brother
Jeff Thomas and his wife Valerie had been at meetings in Huntington
and they drove, I had no idea how many hours it took them to
come by car, but they drove up to the meeting there. Brother
Larry knows Jeff, he's helped us with correcting some things,
books and so forth and working on manuscripts. We've been in
correspondence with Jeff and Valerie for a long time. As a
matter of fact, they tried to move here a few years ago. When
you've got something to offer, it's hard to get into the country. They couldn't do so. Their daughter,
Rachel, was converted not long ago, watching some of the messages
on video. She was with them in the meeting
that night. They had taken their vacation this week so they could
be in those meetings. It was great to be with them. While
we were there at Westminster, Shelby spoke with a winter lady. I don't have any idea what her
age was, but she's a little older than us. I spoke to her just
briefly. She told Shelby her husband had pastored for over
50 years, and she'd traveled long, long ways by train to get
to the service that night. And she said to Shelby that she
just couldn't miss it if there was any way possible to get there.
And she said, my late husband loved and preached the same message
that she heard that night, and that he had suffered a great
deal as a result of the message. After the service, Brother Hugh
Pollington took us home with him. We spent the next two nights
with he and his wife, Wendy, in Wimbledon. They live right there close to
the place where they play the Wimbledon tennis matches. On
Thursday night, the 26th, On Thursday afternoon, that was
the only day we had to go pick up some things for the grandbabies.
We had to pick a few things up for the grandbabies, so Wendy
took us to the shopping mall close by there and couldn't find
anything there, so she took us to Hampton Court. That was where
Henry VIII exercised the discipline. He exercised it in his family,
but we just had time to see it just briefly from the outside
and hoped to go back there another time. And Thursday night, final
message, I preached at Ridley Hall Baptist Church in downtown
London. Brother Peter Andrews is pastor. He's just had a surgery
for prostate cancer. He left. I met him on the night
before, but he had to leave that day and go and spend a couple
of weeks on vacation just relaxing. And I preached that night on
He Was Made and showing what Christ had been made of God to
us. our surety, and our priest, and
our wisdom, and our righteousness, and our sanctification, and our
redemption. And then Friday, Brother Bignall
picked us up down in Huntington and drove us to the airport.
Again, got to spend a little time with him, had breakfast
with him, and headed home. Ah, that was a good place to
head. But he got to Atlanta and ran into Michael Campbell sitting
at the same gate we were fixing to fly home. Michael's young, been away from
his young wife and his little baby for a little while, so he
didn't take the offer. They were trying to get somebody
bucked, offering $400 in vouchers for somebody to be bucked. We
volunteered. We don't make $400 a day very
often. And along about 10 o'clock, the next plane was an hour late.
And I was looking at Shelby, and she was looking at me like,
I sure wish we hadn't done this. But we got home Friday night
at midnight, walked through the door. and went to bed, just like
fell in the bed. And I believe, I really do, God
was pleased to make the messages profitable to many. And I believe
he will do so in the days yet to come. I cannot tell you how
much I appreciate you. I couldn't possibly be gone as
often as I am. I try never to leave here more
than once a month on Sundays. I couldn't do it if God hadn't
supplied us with men who are gifted to preach the gospel,
and I thank God for you fellows. I appreciate your faithfulness,
your willingness to serve here in whatever capacity you can,
and you who give so generously to the cause of Christ. I encourage
you, whether it be for the support of missionaries, another pastor,
another work, any labor you do, anything you do. Some of you
are so good to just see things to do. God puts in your hand
to do it with all your might for the furtherance of the gospel.
These past 27 years, the Lord God has graciously and continually
opened doors of utterance for the preaching of the gospel to
this congregation that are just, we want to use the word, unbelievable.
They would be if we didn't believe God. Just remarkable. There's remarkable, remarkable
ways of ministry around the world. The webpages, the Free Grace
Radio, folks are using it. The webpage that Brother Larry
maintains with my articles and things, folks are using it. And
pray for God's continued blessing upon these things. Give your
hearts to Christ, to one another, and to the cause of Christ around
the world. I thank you, I thank you from
the depth of my heart for your boundless grace upon
this center and upon this people. Thank you for them. Bind our hearts ever more strongly
in love to one another, in love to our Redeemer, and use us. Lord God, for the glory of your
name, for the good of your people, for the building of your kingdom,
for the salvation of your redeemed, use us in this generation unto
our last breath. I ask for Christ's sake. Amen. All right. The Lord willing,
I'll preach to you. If God will let me, I'll preach the message
Tuesday night I first prepared today for you. on another word. The text will be Isaiah chapter
41 and verse 14.