I want to go back to the book
of Leviticus chapter 16 the title of my message this
morning is the Sabbath and the Sanctuary God's Sabbath God's
Sanctuary and I want by the grace of God I pray by the power of
his spirit to talk real plainly to you about worship, specifically
about public worship. This is how David wrote in the
psalm, as for me, I can't say this for you, I hope you can
say it for yourself. As for me, Joshua said, as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I can speak for my
house. Well, I can't speak for my house,
you can if you're a man. As for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord. But what if my children don't?
We're going to serve the Lord. We're going to serve Him. David
said, as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude
of thy mercy. And in thy fear will I worship
toward thy holy temple. I was sitting here thinking a little
bit ago, most of you probably already know Michael finally
persuaded Nicole to say yes to him and agree to marriage. They
are getting married shortly. I was thinking about the evening Doug
came over to ask for face handing marriage. I'm sure he had a suspicion
I knew what he was up to, he was a little nervous, and I tried
to make him as nervous as I could, that's part of the responsibility
of being a dad. And after talking to him about
his plans a little bit, started talking about what he was able
to do, thought he was able to do, I said to him, I'm not interested
at all. and what you have are going to
have. I'm thankful you got your head
screwed on straight but I'm not interested in those things. I
ask only one thing. You lead my daughter in the worship
of God. Your responsibility too. See
when you take that young lady's hand in marriage you not only
become responsible to provide for her materially to protect
her and care for her. You become responsible for her
soul. Responsible for the souls of
your children. Responsible to lead your family
in the worship of God. Number one priority of every
man. So I haven't got that in my priority,
you better get it as your priority. Number one priority of every
man, of every husband, of every father. He is responsible to
God to be God's priest in his house and God's prophet to his
family. He's responsible to be, to lead
his family in the worship of God. Now worship is never really
defined in the word of God, so I won't attempt to define it.
But there are several words used in the book of God that give
us an indication of what's involved in worship. Let me say in passing before
I say more, just in case you don't know. Almost everything that goes on
in the religious world around us is utter nonsense at best. Blasphemy in reality, but utter
nonsense and has nothing to do with worship. Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing. If you could find a place in
this town where God is worshipped. And I'm as serious as I can be.
I told you this the first time I came here to preach to you.
If you can find a place in this town where God is worshipped,
go there and worship. We'll join up with them. I can
find somewhere else to preach. Find another place. Religious
games are not worship. Religious entertainment is not
worship. Getting folks excited about Religious
social clubs is not worship. Not worship. The words used in
the Bible for worship have these meanings. Bow down in reverence,
awe and obeisance. Reverence, awe and obeisance. Stand in awe before God. Kiss the hand of your master
like a dog licks the hand of his master. Prostrate yourself
before God. Cast yourself down before him.
Supplicate the throne of grace. Serve the one true and living
God of heaven and earth. Now let's look at this text.
Leviticus 16 verse 1. verse 26 rather in verse 1 God says you shall make you no
idols of graven images neither wear up a standing image Don't
make your little god or statue to represent God. Don't make
a standing image. Neither shall you set up any
image of stone in your land to bow down unto it. For I, I am
the Lord your God. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and
reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. If you will walk
in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them, if you will heed
what I show you in my word, walk in my statutes, keep my commandments,
do what I tell you to do in this book, then will I give you rain
in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, And the trees
of his field shall yield their fruit. Now we recognize that
there is no sense in which believers are under the law. I keep thinking maybe I've said
this often enough and clearly enough folks get it. I was astonished
to get a letter from a fellow just day before yesterday. He
said so much of what I preach from this pulpit. And he said,
but Brother Don, there is no sense in which we are under the
law. We do not observe holy days,
new moons, Sabbath days of any kind at any time. We do not offer
sacrifices upon material altars. We do not recognize any place
on earth as a holy or sacred place. We have no earthly priesthood,
no earthly altar, no earthly sanctuary of any kind. We do
not practice circumcision as a matter of obedience to God. We do not observe any of the
carnal ordinances of the Mosaic Age. We do not live by the rule
and terror of God's law. There is no sense in which believers
are under the law. Why? Because Christ is the E-N-D,
that spells end, of the law. He's the finishing of it. He's
the fulfilling of it. He's the satisfying of it. And
now, in Christ, we are dead to the law. You're not under the
law, but under grace. Well, does that mean we just
take the first five books of the Bible, called the books of
the law, and tear them out and forget them? No. Does that mean
that the instruction and the types and shadows of the law
are of no value to us? Not at all. The types and shadows
of the law are full of instruction. They are pictures to teach us.
We take our little children, and they have these little pictures,
just a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and then dots to
connect them, one, two, three, four. And by connecting the dots,
you get the picture. That's pretty much what these
pictures are. We get the picture of divine instruction in the
types and shadows given us in the law. And in the passage here
in Leviticus 26, we are given very clear, very distinct instruction
concerning the worship of our God in the assembly of his saints. And I want you to see four things
in this passage. First, I want you to understand
that the greatest privilege Many women have this side of eternity,
is the privilege of worshiping God right here where you are,
in his house, in the assembly of his saints. I can't stress
it sufficiently. When David, the king of Israel,
was banished from his throne, because his son Absalom had driven
him out of Jerusalem, had mocked him. It looked like everything
was over with David. Turn over to that passage we
read earlier in Psalm 84. I want you to see it. His heart longed not for his
throne. Oh, the king's been banished.
Let him be king again. Not a word concerning that. He's hiding in seclusion for
fear of his life. Let me have back my power. Not
a word concerning it. He's lost his riches and his
influence. Oh, I've got to get it back.
Not a word concerning it. What he longed for was the house
of God. To worship God with his people
in his assembly. He ended the sparrows who made
their nest in the towers, laid their young there. Oh, look at
that. That's sparrows. How wise she
is. She makes her nest and lays her
eggs and raises her young right there at the house of God. Listen
to what he says. Psalm 84 verse 1. How amiable,
how pleasant, how desirable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even thanketh
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God, yea, the sparrow hath found a nest,
a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay
her young. Even thine altars, O Lord of
hosts, my King, my God, blessed are they that dwell in thy house. They will still be praising thee.
Now let everybody stop and think a long time about this. Blessed
are they who make the house of God their dwelling place. The place where they live. Their
abode. When they leave this world, they're
going to still be praising Him. In verse 10 he says, A day in
thy courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. And
he's not talking about the tents of moral corruption. He's talking about dwelling in
the tents of the wicked, the ungodly, the unbelieving. The
fact is, all who are born of God love the assembly of God's
saints. They love the public worship
of God. They love the ministry of the
gospel. There are no exceptions. Those who willfully neglect and
despise the public assembly of God's saints for worship, neglect
and despise God Almighty, trample underfoot the blood of Christ,
and count the spirit of grace to be nothing, altogether useless. I'll tell you why it's so important.
God was pleased to save me when I was not quite 17 years old
and for 35 years I have made it my business to be right where
we are today because I want to be. I haven't missed a worship service
appointed at the place where I was responsible in 35 years
unless I couldn't get out of bed and get over here. I'll tell
you something else, I'm not going to for the next 35 years. Ain't
going to happen. Do you always feel like coming? No. No, I get to come. And I've never
come no matter how bad I felt that I wasn't better off for
coming. And I have something else, I have a God to honor.
But my heart sometimes so cold, mine too. That's when I need
to go. But I just let so many things
bother me, me too. I need to be here. I need to
be here. I have a God to honor, a God
to worship, a God whose mercy I need, a soul that needs to
be thoroughly instructed. I have some people for whom I'm
responsible. That young lady sitting back there? She was raised
with the knowledge, nothing is going to interfere, it ain't
going to happen. And she never gave any problem
with it, but nothing is going to interfere. But so and so came
to, what if, what if mama comes to town, what if mama comes to
worship with her, she can stay at home, whatever she wants to
do, but we are going to the house of God. Well, what about, what about,
Aunt Sally hasn't seen him in 15, 20 years. Aunt Sally's welcome
to come worship with us, do her good. If she wants to stay at
home, she can. We'll meet her at lunch. That's
all there is to it. Nothing's going to interfere.
How come? Because I want that girl to understand, nothing is
in importance in comparison with the worship of God. Nothing and
nobody. Nothing and nobody. I have God's
people. Some of them look to me for an
example. And I'm responsible to give it. I have neighbors and family and
friends who look to me to find out what this business of faith
in Christ, devotion to Christ, service to Christ is all about.
And I have a responsibility to display it. But there are more
things than that. This is the place where God meets
sinners. This is the place. This is the
place where God speaks to your heart. Am I correct? If God speaks
to you, you can do it right there where you are. This is the place
where God instructs you. This is the place where God reveals
himself to you. He spoke of the mercy seat in
the Old Testament, that specifically which he's referring in our text,
the sanctuary, the holy of holies. He said, I'll meet you there,
on the mercy seat, and there I'll commune with you and make
myself known with you. This is the place where the Lord
Jesus Christ has promised to meet his people. I don't want to be like Thomas. And that day when the Lord Jesus
appeared to his disciples, and Thomas missed out because he
had something better to do. He might just show himself today. I want to see him. I need him. I need him. I guarantee you,
I guarantee you, when Thomas found out what was going on,
he didn't find something better to do again. when once he had
indeed seen the risen Savior. I believe I'll meet with him
next Sunday. He might just come again. This is the place where
Christ meets with his people. He said at two or three, come
together in my name. Have you come in his name? While
you were getting your dinner ready and putting on your aftershave
lotion and you lay prepping and getting ready to come, have you
thought about coming to worship him? Believing Him. Trusting Him. Seeking His glory. Seeking the cleansing of His
blood. Seeking the fresh application
of His righteousness. Seeking His glory. Or just two
or three. Two or three. Two or three. There am I in the midst of them. That's the Word. This is the
place where God's family gathers. A local church is a family of
believers. I'm very much a family man. I
take care of my family. I do anything I can for my family.
Anything. I make whatever arrangements
I have to make, whatever is needed. I make whatever adjustments in
my time and schedule I have to make to be with my family, whatever
it takes. We made up our minds early on,
Faith and Doug told us we were going to have the first grandchild. I told Shelby I said you arrange
to see that child every week. I probably can't do it. And then
I picked her up, said we vowed to do it too. Every week. Oh, but that means working two,
three, four o'clock in the morning? That's all right. Get to hold
that baby a little while. It's family. This is my family. These are just my family for
now. This is my family forever. That's
what our master said, isn't it? Behold my mother, my brother. My wife, my children. This is
my family. This is it. And this is the place
where God deals with us. Here He reveals His glory, gives
out His law, makes known His will, bestows His blessings,
and instructs His people. This is the place where God speaks
to men by His Spirit through His Word. All right? Most important aspect of our
lives. The greatest privilege on this
earth. Number two. The worship of God. I want to use a word now that
a lot of folks call themselves sovereign gracious and don't
like to hear. And other folks don't understand. The worship
of God is the duty of all men. It's the duty of all men. Now
duty is not much of a motive. I grant that. I grant that. It's
not much of a motive. Duty is really the most base
of all motives. But duty is duty. And it is your
duty, your responsibility to worship God. No one can worship
the holy God who does not worship him freely, but the worship of
God is our duty. The Lord, here in Leviticus 26,
does not give us a wise, kindly recommendation. He's giving us
a command. Look at it again. He says in
verse 2, You shall keep my Sabbaths. You shall reverence my sanctuary. God commands us then to worship
him. To worship him because as he
says in verse 1, I'm the Lord your God. He commands us not
to have any statues or images or pictures of angels or Christ,
all the nonsense that men have today in the churches. This is
not idolatry. It's just as much idolatry as
if you stuck a bone through your nose and bathed in drinking stump
water, thinking it would take you to heaven. It's just idolatry.
It's all there is to it. But the Lord has a specific reference
to something. Turn back to Exodus chapter 20.
Remember the words that we're reading here in Leviticus were
given right here on Mount Sinai. And right here is where the Lord
speaks to Moses after giving his commandments concerning worshiping
him. In verse 22. The Lord said to Moses, Thus
shalt thou say to the children of Israel, You have seen that
I have talked with you from heaven. I have given you my law. You
shall not make with me. You shall not make with me. And
I like the way he put that. It gives us real clear instruction. He doesn't say you shall not
make in substitute for me. He says you shall not make with
me, sitting here beside me, in my house. Gods of silver, neither
shall you make unto you gods of gold. Then he says in verse
24, an altar of earth thou shalt make unto me. and sacrifice their
own, thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep,
and thine oxen, in all the places where I record my name, I will
come to you on an altar of earth and bless you." An earth altar. Scratched together. An altar
of earth. Just pull it together. Pack it
there. But just dirt. That's all. That's
all. Now look what I made. No, God
made that dirt. He didn't have anything to do
with it. God made it. You'll worship me on an altar
that I have made. You'll worship me on Christ my
altar. That's the only place you're
going to worship me. But you don't. Verse 25. If thou
wilt make me an altar of stone, okay, that's just hard earth.
Make me an altar of stone. That'd be all right. But listen,
thou shalt not build a diffused stone, don't improve it, don't
do anything to make it look prettier, don't add anything to it, don't
cut off any of the rough edges, just stack the stones up, that'll
be alright. But if you lift up your tool
on it, if you put your hand on it, If you do anything by which
to build yourself an altar on which to worship God, you've
polluted it. Your work's polluted. You worship
me at Christ the altar I have built, the rock that I have laid,
my foundation stone, His blood, His righteousness, without any
contribution from you. Oh, but we've got to We've got
to do good. You can't do good. Your goodness
only adds to your corruption. But we've got to do righteousness. Your righteousness is still too
much. And when you put your righteousness to his righteousness, you pollute
his righteousness because it's all your righteousness. Salvation
is not something you do, for the things you dealt with are
so plainly this morning. It's not our merit, but Christ's merit,
without our merit, that gives us acceptance with God. We don't. Neither shalt thou go up by steps
unto mine altar. How many times have you seen
books with regard to religious things? Steps to peace with God. Steps to sanctification. Steps
heavenward. Take the first step, and then
the second step, next. Ah, now. First step is you say,
I believe in Jesus, and now you start climbing. Ah, you're climbing
that ladder. Ah, now. I've almost got plum
hole in there. Now we're getting close to God.
Boy, I think I'm doing good. If you do, all you're doing is
showing your nakedness. You see it? that thy nakedness
be not discovered thou. Don't climb a staircase to God.
You can't do it. The only way you get to worship
God on his altar is to fall flat down on it. You start climbing
the staircase and you start improving and doing good and making your
standing with God better by something you do, you're just exposing
your nakedness, your shame, and your corruption. Now look at
the text back here in Leviticus again. The Lord commands us in verse
1 to worship Him. In verse 2, He commands us to
set aside a fixed time to worship Him. Thou shalt keep my sabbaths. The Jews were required by God
to arrange their lives around the appointed day of worship. No excuses. No excuses. No excuses. Come time to worship God. No
excuses. But! Worship God, or you're not
one of us. That's it. No excuses. But preacher,
you don't understand. Why do you understand? God said
you'll keep my Sabbaths. You'll worship me. But preacher,
we're not under the law anymore. I think I know that. We don't
keep Sabbath days of any kind. The Lord strictly forbids it.
But our Lord, who is our Sabbath, in whom we rest, still deserves
that we worship Him. And those who would do better,
my old brother, I'll tell you what, if I thought my life depended
on it, I'd be here on Sunday morning. If I believe I can do
any worse, I'd do better. Or would you? You betrayed something
about yourself. You're still a legalist at heart.
Still a legalist at heart. If law gets you to do what grace
doesn't inspire you to do, you don't know anything about the
grace of God. That's just all there is to it. We don't keep
Sabbath days, but as the Jews marked their calendars by fixed
days of divine worship. So we are to worship our God
at appointed, fixed times, arranging our lives around those times.
Now, there's no precept in the Word of God that the day has
to be on Sunday. Some of our brethren in other
parts of the world, they meet various times whenever they can
have a preacher. They're in Mexico, some of those churches meet on
Tuesday nights, some of them meet on Saturday mornings, some of them
meet on Monday night, just whenever the preacher can be there. But
they have a fixed time to meet. We generally do worship on Sunday,
not because this is the Christian Sabbath, but because this is
the way it was done early on. This is called by John the Lord's
Day. This is the day the Lord arose. This is the day we've
set aside to worship him. But why is it so important for
us to have a set time for worship services? We have a lot of fellows
who like to tear things down, you know, without building anything,
where we can't have places to worship, times to worship. We
just meet whenever we feel like it, whenever we're in the mood,
which means you're not often in the mood. You don't really
often feel like it. We have set times of worship
so you know when to come. We have set times of worship
because we're terribly apt to neglect that for which we do
not fix a time. I'll give you an example. We
observe the Lord's table here every Sunday evening. A good
many friends observe the Lord's Table at a set time, once a month,
once a quarter, whatever. But I've been places where they
didn't set a time to worship. We'll just worship the Lord when
the Spirit moves us. We'll have the Lord's Table when
the Spirit moves us. And I've known them to go for five and
ten, fifteen years and not have the Lord's Table. That doesn't quite do it, does
it? How come? Because there's not a set time.
Well, we're fearful it will become mundane if we set a time and
keep the time. Well, that's a problem with you, not with the Oaktons.
A set time to worship Him. If we don't set a time to worship
God and arrange our lives by it, we won't worship Him. From
the very beginning of history, throughout the Old Testament,
God's people set a time, and their sons and daughters, their
husbands and wives understood we're going to worship God. Cain
and Abel came out to a fixed place at a fixed time to worship
God. They were taught so by their dad. Noah's first act, he's come
off the ark, was to set a time to worship God with his family.
And so it has been throughout the history of God's church.
We set a time for things that are important to us. How many
of you got a job to go to in the morning? Anybody supposed
to appear at a certain time? Try telling the boss you decided
not to come to bed because you're going to sleep in. Try it two or three times in
one week. Try it. Set a time for your appointment. Oh, we're going out to dinner.
We're supposed to meet. We're supposed to meet at Gus
and Pops' for dinner. We had an appointment. Set a
time two months in advance, didn't we? Two months in advance. How
come? So we wouldn't miss it. Set a
time. What do you do? Push everything
else out of the way. It's important. Got a golf game. Now that's important, but nothing
coming up above the glass. Going fishing, that's wrong.
Now we've got to fix things for that. The time of worship got
old well. The Lord knows my heart. We can
do that next week. You can bet on it. He does know
your heart. You can bet on it. But my children,
He does know your heart. He does. Not only are we to worship Him
at set time. Fix the time so that other things
don't interfere with it. were to reverence his house. Look at the text again. You shall
reverence my sanctuary. Now I'll be honest with you. This stuck to me. I've been looking
at it for weeks. I tried every way I could to
figure out a way to make the Hebrew language read, you shall
reverence me in my sanctuary. But that's not what it says.
You shall reverence my sanctuary. You shall reverence the place
where I meet with you. Reverence the place where my
people gather to worship me. You shall reverence my sanctuary. Now there are several passages
of scripture that come to my mind. I want you to turn to a
few of them. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter
5. Ecclesiastes 5. Paul tells us that we receive
in the kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and God with fear. In Ecclesiastes 5 verse 2, keep
thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. You see? Be careful how you come to God's
house. And be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools. When you come to God's house,
come seeking a word from God, not to blurt out your opinion
about things. For they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, let
not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God
is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few.
Listen to Habakkuk's prophecy. The Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before him. Our great, all-glorious God deserves
that we reverence him in his house. Kings in their palaces in ancient
times And these things that you can pick up in history easily
enough, did men did reference. So that if you walked into a
king's palace, you didn't turn around and say, well, goodbye,
buddy, I'll see you tomorrow and turn your back and walk out
the door. You don't ever turn your back on the king. If you
did, there's a fellow standing right there who'd take your head
off because it showed disrespect for the king. We've come to the
palace of the king. God says, this is my house. Talking about this assembly.
God says, you are the temple of God. We come together in God's
house, God's temple, a habitation of God through the spirit. He
tells us then that we are to come here with profound awe,
respect, love, adoration, esteem, special regard, highest honor,
is telling us to stand in awe in the sanctuary of God. Pastor,
how do we reference God's house? How do we reference God's sanctuary?
This building is not the sanctuary. You are. Let that be understood. This is not a holy building,
not a holy place, this is not a sanctuary, but this building
is the place where God's people need to worship Him. Dedicated
to the preaching of the gospel, to the worship of God. Let us
take care of it. We've done some things around
here that need to be done a long, long time. I go places sometimes,
and I drive up to a building I can't believe. I can't believe
the people I know are living in that place. Because there's
not one family in the congregation, not the poorest, who would live
in that house. Not one. Boy, this is God's house,
it's good enough for that. Is it now? Is it now? I know some of you men may think
I'm a little picky, a little pushy, and I am. I am when it
comes to this place. How come? Because it represents
to this community exactly what we think of our God and of his
family. It deserves the best. So that we adorn it, keep it
in good repair, use it properly. But this assembly, this local
church, this gathering of God's saints is the house of God. And this is what it says. When
you come together to worship me, reverence the gathering of
my people to worship me. Stand in awe. God Almighty has given me a family. a place where the family can
gather where he'll meet with us and we worship him stand in
awe we give you four suggestions for referencing this place this
assembly your attendance show you respect it by setting your
life around it not just coming but coming punctually coming
in attendance and coming attentively so that you come to hear the
word. I don't mean that you come and cram and act and put on a
show of religion, that's just hypocrisy. I do mean come to
the house of God, like coming to God's house. I wonder, I wonder, who would
ever walk in the doors of a king's palace late when the king had done him the
honor of opening his doors. Well, the Lord understands. Yes,
he does. He sure does. When you come to the house of
God, dress like it. I could spend a long time here.
I'm not going to. Ladies, don't put on slacks and blue jeans
and come here. Don't do it. This is not the place for that
nonsense. come dressed like he's coming to meet the king. We are. Respecting his people. You dress
accordingly. So that we don't overdress to
put on a show. We don't underdress as if we
didn't care. I preached in places where folks come in shorts and
come in t-shirts and come in tank tops. I preached in places
where they come in swimming suits. And believe me, when I did, they
heard about it. What's wrong with that? A lack
of respect. Now, I realize we live in a society
where there's a general lack of respect for everything and
everybody. Well, I don't care what they
think. I'll do what I want to. Not God's people. I do care what
you think. I do care how I reflect the cause
of Christ and the glory of God in your eyes. Don't you? Of course
you do. Display it by your attire and
display it by the adoration of God. Let us adore our God. Come here to praise Him. Come here to extol Him. Come
here to celebrate His activities. Come here to magnify Him for
all His wonderful works. Come here to give thanks to Him,
to sing His praise, to adore Him. And yet, at His very essence,
Worship is a free, voluntary thing. I would not pass a rule. I had some friends who were in
a congregation for a long time. They got out from under it. If they missed a service, they
had to give a written reason to have missed a service, and
get the tape and give a report on the tape. No. Not about to. If I had that kind of power over
you, I wouldn't exercise it. Not about to pass such rules.
I want you to be here because you want to be here. When the
Jews had been in bondage and been away from the worship of
God for years, for 70 years, they had not seen the house of
God. They went back and they offered freely for the house
of God and gave according to their ability. You see, the grace
of God that operates toward us is free. And the grace of God
that operates in us is free. What God does for us, He does
just because He wants to. That's all. He doesn't have a
thing to give. What on earth are you going to
give God? Nothing. What He does for us, He does
just because He wants to. And I'm going to tell you something. What believing hearts do for
Christ, they do just because they want to. That's all. That's all. But what she said
is our duty. It's our duty. But oh my soul,
it's our want. As a man purposeth in his heart,
so let him give. I'm not going to browbeat you
and get you to tithe or get you to give or get you to do things
you don't know. As you purpose in your heart,
so give. God loves a cheerful giver. One
who gives freely. sinners who have been saved by
the grace of God being saved freely serve him freely Paul
said we preached unto you the gospel of God freely freely God's
servants are worthy of their hire by all means I make no apology
for that but God's servants aren't hirelings I have on occasion
had folks call me and say Pastor Fortin, what would it take to
get you to come here or there to preach to us? I said, what
do you mean? Well, how many people would have
to be there and how much would it cost? And I don't know, it's
an insult. It's an insult. I have on many
occasions traveled thousands of miles to preach to five or
six people. Glad to do it. And never asked anybody for a
dime for anything. How come? My God takes care of
me. My God takes care of me. It's
the responsibility and privilege of God's people to support the
ministry of the gospel. But God's servants serve Him
freely. David said, I was glad when they
said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.