But in Matthew chapter 3, I want
to read verse 10 and then verse 12. Verse 10, And now also, John
the Baptist speaking, says the axe is laid unto the root of
the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good
fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And then he speaks
of the Holy Spirit, whom God will send, who will baptize us,
and the church has been baptized by the Holy Spirit on the day
of Pentecost. And all members of the body of
Christ have the Holy Spirit dwelling in their hearts. The Spirit of
God has been given, and we're told in 1 Corinthians 12, it
is, that we all been baptized by
the Spirit of God into one body, that is the body of Christ. And
so he says, whose fan is in his hand, in verse 12, and he will
thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner. The wheat represent the children
of God, those who have been truly regenerated by the Spirit of
God, they're the wheat. The Bible speaks, you know, in
the parables of the wheat and the tares and how that they both
will grow together until the Lord sends out his reapers out
to reap and he will cut down his wheat and gather it into
the garner but the chaff he says in the last part of verse 12
he'll burn up he'll burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire
and I guess the question that it comes into my mind immediately
this morning is, are we wheat or are we chaff? Which one are
we? And then in the 12th chapter
of the Gospel of Matthew, in verse 33, he said, ìEither make
the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt
and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit.î
Now, we spent considerable time on that last Sunday morning and
showing that that we were what our lives, our works, what we
did with our lives showed whether we were the children of God or
not. If we were truly the children of God, our lives would manifest
forth fruit to the glory and praise and honor of God. Men
would see our good works and glorify our Father which is in
heaven. where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Now the Word of God teaches that
the message of the gospel is that we are to bring forth works
meet for repentance. In other words, our lives are
to indicate whether we truly have repented or not, the way
we live, the way we walk. in this world will show whether
or not God has truly done a work of grace in our hearts. Now I
want you to turn over to John 15, the chapter that Stephen
read to us a little while ago, and I just want to point out
just two or three things here, and then we'll go ahead on with
our message. But here in the 15th chapter
of John, it's a blessed chapter. And it's about fruit bearing.
Children of God bearing fruit. And the Lord Jesus says, I'm
the true vine. And truly He is. He is the true
vine. It's amazing and wonderful to
be in Christ Jesus and to receive the strength and the vitality
that comes through a living union with the true vine. Are you in
Christ Jesus. Have you ever felt the strength
and the help and the blessing and the grace that comes from
being vitally connected with this true vine. And he said,
my father is the husbandman, he's the farmer, he's the one
that takes care of the pruning of the trees, he's the one that
takes care of the vines, he's the one that prunes them and
takes care of them. Now he says, every branch in
me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Now, every branch
that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. So there's branches that bear
fruit and branches that do not bear fruit. Now, in verse 4 he
says, Abide in me, and I in you. Abide in me, and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. except it abide in
the vine." And that speaks of the inability of human nature
to produce any fruit that's going to be God-glorifying and God-honoring,
that's going to be true Christian fruit, fruit that will bring
honor to the Lord, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself.
A man in his nature, in his sinful nature, his Adamic nature, left
to himself can only produce bad fruit. He can only produce that
which God looks upon as being no fruit. He is not able to produce
spiritual fruit. Except it abide in the vine,
no more can ye He says, except ye abide in me. You can't do
it except you have a vital living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, beloved, where we need to
look, where we need to begin to look if we feel and if we
look at our situation and we judge that we're absolutely,
absolutely barren, that we produce no fruit as a believer, there's
nothing going on in our life that we believe is glorifying
and honoring to our God. We need to look at this union,
whether or not we really are in Christ Jesus. Whether we are
in Him, because He tells us plainly, without me, in verse 5, the last
part of the verse, without me, you can do nothing. You can do
nothing unless you're in union with me. I am the vine. You must
be in union with me. Then he goes on to say, ìIf ye
abide in me and my words, ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you.î Now he mentions this fire again in
verse 6. We didnít mean to overlook that.
He said, if a man abide not in me, if a man is not in me, if
he doesn't abide in me, if his experience day by day is not
coming to the vine and receiving strength and help and grace from
the vine, then, he said, If a man abide not in me, oh, what an
awful position to be in. Not in me, Jesus said. He is cast forth as a branch
and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire,
and they're burned. They're burned. Now those that
are not in the vine, a man who is not in Christ, when this life
is over and this world has come to an end, this forest, that
individual is concerned. He will be gathered just like
men gather up useless, fruitless branches that have been pruned
off the trees and cast them into fire. They will be cast into
everlasting fire. Because if you abide in me, then
you'll bring forth fruit. And in verse 8, herein is my
Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my
disciples. Herein is my Father glorified.
We're interested in that, are we not? In glorifying the Father. We believe He's worthy of glory
and honor. And we believe that the lives
of His children, and that God has created us, and created us
anew in Jesus Christ, in order that we might glorify Him, and
we believe that that is that in which God has decreed, that
we glorify Him and that we bear much fruit. So shall you be my
disciples. Disciples bear fruit. Disciples
of Jesus Christ, learners of Christ, followers of Christ,
they bear fruit unto Him to the glory of God. And then as we
go on and look down here, We see over here a blessed verse
in verse 16. He said, ìYou have not chosen
me.î Now this is wonderful to know that the Lord Jesus Christ
has chosen us and not we have chosen Him. And so have you been
saved? If so, then youíve been chosen
by Him. Heís the one that did the choosing. He says, I have chosen you and
ordained you. I have ordained you. I have,
as it were, predestinated. I have arranged it in providence
that you would bring forth fruit. And he says, and that your fruit
should remain. What you do will remain. to the glory of God, and you
will hear, and to the praise and glory of God in eternity,
and it will go before you into heaven, that your fruit should
remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name,
he may give it you. Now these scriptures that we
read here are very clear. and very pointed, and I hope
that we receive the message as we ought of them, because if
we are unable to do so, then I believe that we're probably
blind, spiritually blind, and do not have eyes to see and ears
to hear the message of our blessed Lord to us even this day. Now, you know, as I was thinking
on these verses, about the branches and the vine and about the bearing
fruit and not bearing fruit and about the wheat and the chaff
and all of this, I begin to wonder if anybody might think that the
salvation of our God, maybe it is inferior or maybe it's impotent,
maybe it will not produce in an individual that experiences
it what it ought to. Somebody says, well, I really
believe that the reason the preacher is preaching this sermon is because
in some ways the salvation of God does not produce the desired
effects that God would have it to produce. But my friend, this
is not the case. A thousand times no. We believe
that when God saves an individual, He saves him and that he is genuinely
saved and that he will be a fruit-bearing Christian. The Bible says in
Isaiah 50 and verse 2, Is my hand shortened at all, that it
cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? And Isaiah 59 and 1 says, Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither
his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. We need to understand that
the arm of the Lord is powerful and almighty, and that when He
does a work, that work is complete. We're told in 2 Corinthians 5
and 17 that if any man be in Christ, if any man has this living
union with Christ that takes place whenever he is regenerated
by the Holy Spirit, That when he has that relationship with
Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone, and the new
has arrived. The new has come into his life. There's an experience wherein
we're recreated in Christ Jesus, and this is a real experience. Now I want you to turn with me
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1, and notice here
some verses, if you will, that will help us to see this more
plainly. I don't want anyone to think
that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to save somebody and leave
them in a state wherein it's undecided whether or not they're
going to be a fruit bearer or whether they're not going to
be a fruit bearer. I want everybody to understand that if God truly
does save you and you're regenerated, born again, that you are indeed
His child and the work is complete in you. We're complete in Jesus
and we are going to bear fruit to His honor and His glory. Now
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul said in verse 4, I thank my God
always on your behalf. He was talking about the members
of the church at Corinth. He says, for the grace of God
which is given you by Jesus Christ. He says, I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ. Now this grace God is to be thanked
for it, that grace which saves a man. God is to be thanked for
it. That grace is from God. That
grace must be given by God to us. A sinner can get it no other
way. So we give thanks to God for
His grace in the lives of His children, in the lives of His
people. That in everything He are enriched by Him. Every child
of God is enriched by the Lord Jesus Christ in all utterance
and in all knowledge. We have a great treasure in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're enriched in Him and everybody. He is rich unto all that call
upon Him. And so all of his children are
enriched by him. We told you a few weeks ago that
he who was rich became poor, that we through his poverty might
be rich. And so we are rich as we stand
in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, so that you
come behind in no gift. No gift. You come behind and
no gift. We hear the charismatics talking
all the time about different and sundry gifts and how that
we're missing out and some people don't have all the Lord would
have them to have and so on and so forth. There's no truth to
that, my friend. No truth to that. Paul tells
the church in Korib that they come behind in no gift, that
they had every gift that the Spirit of God had ordained that
they have in their life. And we recognize the fact that
when some people, they focus on certain various things which
they call gifts, which we know that according to the Word of
God, those gifts passed away with the first century church.
And these gifts are no longer in the church, but we see that
Paul is telling these Corinthians, don't look around you and say
to yourself, we're inferior. God's done a work in us, yes,
but it doesn't amount to as much as it does in the people across
the fence or in people in other places. No, my friend, every
believer in Christ Jesus, they all are attached, as it were,
vitally connected with the power and with the source of strength,
and that is Christ himself. And he said that you come behind
in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That
is the posture of the church, even still in our day. We're
waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we believe
he's coming back and so we have there is nothing that we need
to enable us to do this waiting upon the Lord Jesus to come from
heaven, who shall also confirm you to the end." He's going to
confirm you to the end, Paul said. That certainly will rejoice the
heart of the believer many, many times when he reads this, to
know that the Lord is going to confirm him unto the end. He said that you may be blameless.
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. You take note that this
is something that Christ is going to do. He's going to confirm
us unto the end. And this means the same thing
as Philippians 1, 6. which tells us, 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. If he's begun
the good work, you're confident he's going to finish it. And
so I don't want anyone thinking, well, the preacher's talking
about Christians that are not bearing fruit. I'm not talking
about Christians that are not bearing fruit. It's dead branches
that don't bear any fruit. It's the chaff that shall be
burnt with unquenchable fire. It's those who are outside and
who do not abide in the vine that are lost. and will spend
eternity in the lake of fire. Now then, God is faithful, in
verse 9, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. What a statement that is! God
is faithful. God is faithful. Aren't you glad
He is? My friend, that's the reason
why I can stand up here and talk about a salvation that's sure. The reason why we can talk about
a salvation that's certain, why we can talk about a birth that
truly does reborn the soul and makes a man a new creature in
the Lord Jesus Christ is because God is faithful by whom you were
called under the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
He called us He called us. The preacher didn't call us.
We got a call from God. Do you believe in a call from
God? The Bible teaches that all God's children are effectually
called by the Spirit of grace and power, and that the God that
called us is faithful and will confirm us blameless unto the
end. So I want you this morning that
are here that are in the Lord Jesus Christ to be encouraged
that your salvation is not a salvation that is short in any area or
in any particular phase. This salvation is real, and it's
victorious deliverance that you have. Hebrews 7 and 25 says he
is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.
Meaning that he's not going to save you right up to the gate
of heaven and then let you go and fall on back to hell. He's
not going to do that. He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by by Him. All that come by Him unto
God. And the only way to come to the
Father is by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now salvation is for those that
come unto God by Him. Salvation to the uttermost is
for them that come unto God by Him. Now then he goes on to say,
because seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Paul again in one of his epistles
said, ìIn hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began.î Weíre talking about a God who cannot
lie promising. promising our eternal life. He promised it. Now, beloved,
if a God-cannot-lie promises me something, I ought, sometime
or other, between the cradle and the grave, get around to
believing it. Amen? I ought to believe it. I'm talking about a salvation
that's real. Your salvation is real salvation
if God is the author of it. Now then, again Paul said that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope that is before us. a strong consolation for
those who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that
is set before us by the promise of God. Now the strong consolation
is that by these two immutable things that's talked about in
the seventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, I can't get into
all that this morning, but these two things guarantee God's oath
and God's promise in his son guarantee that all those that
have fled for refuge, that they have a strong consolation as
they're on their way to inherit their hope. which hope, he goes
on to say, we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth in to that within the veil, whether the
forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made in high priest
forever, after the order of Melchizedek. Now, what all of that means is
that the forerunner, that's Jesus Christ. That means he went before
us. That means he went before his
people. That means he entered into heaven and applied his blood
on the mercy seat and that he went there as a great high priest
after the order of Melchizedek. And this high priest, well, he'll
be one forever. One forever. Won't it be a glorious
thing to know when you come down to die that Jesus has went before
you, He took His blood in, applied it to the mercy seat, He's been
pleading it on our behalf ever since we believed on Him, and
that the Lord Jesus Christ has entered into His glory, and as
sure as He has, you and I are going to enter into that glory
too. He's the forerunner. He's already going on. It's already
happened, my friend. He's got the victory. The victory
has been won, and it's been won by the Lord Jesus Christ by,
and on the behalf of, and on the behalf, it's been won by
Christ and on the behalf of his people. I'm circling around here
a little bit. I slept about an hour last night.
Very unusual for me, but I'm just really not as sharp maybe
as I might be at some other time. But nevertheless, we're going
to get this out by the grace of God. Like a fellow said, he
was circling around, but he just might land any time. Well, that
might just be what happens. I wanted to bring this out because
many, many times people need a word of assurance and a word
of comfort, especially whenever you talk about a subject like
we've been talking about. You need to be encouraged to
believe God and to trust in the faithful God who has called you
under the fellowship of His Son. Now there's one more thing that
I want to bring up that I want to talk a little bit about this
morning. Because I believe this sets apart
the people of God in this matter of fruit bearing. And I want
to bring it up. I mentioned briefly last Sunday
morning this spirit of obedience. The spirit of obedience. And I want this morning if we
can just very briefly to illustrate what we mean by that. I believe
that everybody that is born again, everybody that's a new creature
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they have the spirit of obedience. They have it. Now they're not
perfect. You remember that Abraham and
David And Noah and other Bible characters, they were not perfect. Absolutely not perfect. However, we know that there was
something deep down in their heart and their souls that was
going on between them and God. And when God spoke to them, They
moved and they obeyed the Lord. God said to Abraham, you go out.
Abraham went out. God said to Noah, you build that
ark. He built that ark. He moved with fear and built
that ark. And God said to David, I want you to be shepherd over
my people. And he was. He obeyed the Lord. But there were many times when
their failures got the best of them. But my friend, they had
the spirit of obedience. And no child of God is perfect
in this world. But we have the spirit of obedience. And I want to try to illustrate
that. If you would turn back with me, to the book of Joshua
in the Old Testament. I want to just mention, as I
said very briefly, I want to mention here Rahab the harlot
and show you this spirit of obedience which I think will help us each
one here this morning to judge as to whether or not we are in
Christ and whether or not this spirit of obedience is in us. Now, this is a very blessed chapter,
and you remember the story, I'm sure most of you do, about Rahab
the harlot. And she was indeed a harlot.
Some of the Bible teachers try to make us believe that she was
just simply, merely an innkeeper. Such was not the case. She was
a harlot indeed. but one whom God intended to
save and who would become the great, great, great grandmother
of King David and would also be in the lineage after the flesh
of our Lord. And so the Lord had purpose to
save this woman. But I want you to see a few things
here that happened. When the spies were sent out,
and those of you that are familiar with this chapter know that there
were two spies that were sent to Jericho to spy out. God intended to destroy the city
and so he sent these spies out Joshua did, in order that they
might spy out the city. Well, when they came into the
city, they went into this harlot's house. And immediately, they
struck up a conversation, and in verse 8, And before they were
laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof, and said unto
the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and
that your tare is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants
of the land faint because of you. Now this woman, she had
heard of the glory of God that had spread all out through that
country, through that land, and she knew all about what God had
done. And the Lord had laid hold of
her heart, and she believed in this God. And in verse 11, as
soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither
did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For
the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth
beneath. What's wrong with that testimony? That's a clear testimony,
as far as I'm concerned, of somebody who is a believer. The Lord your
God, He is God in heaven above. That's more than most people
believe. And then she went ahead to say in earth beneath. I mean,
she was a Calvinist from the word go. She believed that God
was sovereign in heaven and in earth. That He did according
to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. None can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest
thou? She believed in this God. Now, I want you to understand
that there's a couple of things that she did that showed the
spirit of obedience. Now, the one thing that she did
was that she hid these spies and that she told the authorities,
she told them that the men were not there. Now, in the time of
war, certainly we know that At least it's our judgment that
is permissible to lie to the enemy. You don't tell the enemy
everything you know. You don't. And another case would
be that if somebody come into your house to do mischief, come
in with rape on their mind, thievery on their mind, and you had a
teenage daughter and she was hid in the basement, you would
not tell that individual that you had a teenage daughter hid
in the basement. If he asked, do you have a teenage
daughter or did you have one in this household? You would
say, absolutely not. She's off visiting her grandmother. So I believe, and I think you
would agree with me, that in the time of war, It's alright,
you don't tell the enemy the truth. You lie to the enemy. And I think I can almost prove,
I won't try to do it this morning, that that is scripturally okay. But nevertheless, This woman
hid the spies and she denied that they were there. That was
an act of obedience unto God. Don't you see this woman became
one with the Israelites that day. She became one with them
in purpose. She became one with them. Now
she was not married to the Israelites. She was married to the God of
the Israelites and that put her in union and made her a living
Israelite because she was joined with their purpose, don't you
see? Now the spirit of obedience moved her to hide them spies.
Now the second thing that she did in obedience was in verse
18, when we come into the land thou shalt bind this line of
scarlet thread in the window. The second thing that she did
was she put this scarlet line in the window. This was the line
with which she let down the spies when the danger of them being
caught was passed. And we read in verse 21, and
she said, according to your words, so be it. And she sent them away,
and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line in the window.
She put it in there. Now, one of these days, when
I get around to doing it, I'm going to preach a sermon on some
of the basics of salvation, and I will talk about this a little
bit more. But I want you to understand
that this woman hear that this, when she bound that scarlet line
in the window, this was a type of the gospel that, what we might
say, the foolishness of the gospel. And she identified with the foolishness
of the gospel. Now, we recognize that many liberals
in the world in religion they deny the blood atonement of Jesus
Christ. They will have nothing to do
with it, and they say that anybody who is a heartbeat from eternity,
who trusts in the blood, the shed blood of Christ, is a fool. Well, my friend, we are indeed
a heartbeat from eternity, but is there anything else to trust
in? And for a child of God, somebody
who's been quickened and enlightened by the Spirit of God, he believes
in the foolishness of the gospel. The natural man said it's foolishness. but unto those who believe. It
is the power of God unto salvation. She hid, as it were, behind the
red thread which typified the gospel. And so this was the way
in which the children of Israel, the army of Israel, when they
come back to destroy Jericho, could identify her household,
where she and her family would be at the time, and they would
be spared. the spirit of obedience. And
you see that she was in line with the Israelites. She was
in purpose singular with the Israelites. And when she made
the decisions that she made here in this chapter, such as hiding
the spies, putting out the red thread, when she did this, she
condemned her own countrymen to death. is what she did. The spirit of obedience toward
God, the glory of God had filled the land and this woman was enhanced
by that. She believed in the glory of
God and she obeyed God. And so therefore, you remember
the end of the story. The end of the story is that
she was spared, her and her family. Now, The spirit of obedience. Do you want to do what God wants
you to do? Is there something down in you?
You say, I've stumbled a lot. I've made a lot of mistakes.
But is there something down in your heart, the depth of your
soul, that wants to do what God would have you to do. You want
to line up with the God of Heaven. You want to be on the side of
the Lord's people. You want to be numbered among
those who fear God and reverence God, and you want to obey Him. Now, beloved, there's one difference
between a child of God and a lost man. A lost man, he just doesn't
want to. He doesn't want to. His want
to has never been fixed. But everybody who's been born
of the Spirit of God, new creature in Christ Jesus, their want to
has been fixed. And they have the spirit of obedience. They don't do everything just
like they ought to, but they do obey God the best they can
and whenever they're enabled by the Spirit of God to do it.
Now let me show you the difference here between this harlot Rahab
and some of the children of Israel. Turn back with me to the 29th
chapter of Deuteronomy. Chapter 29 of Deuteronomy, I
m not going to get done again, but that s all right too. I m
not fast this morning, I can t move very fast here, just somehow
or other I m kind of slow getting to this, but getting through
this. But in Chapter 29 of Deuteronomy,
in verses 1 through 6, I'll start with verse two, And Moses called
unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen, now I want
you to listen to this, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before
your eyes in the land of Egypt, and to Pharaoh, and unto all
of his servants, and to all of his land. Now I want you to understand
what Moses is talking to the children of Israel about is the
very thing that the people in Jericho had heard that caused
this woman to make the move that she made, that caused this woman
to line up with the children of Israel and to be married to
the Lord and thus to be married to the cause of the people of
God. This is the very thing. Now Moses
is telling these people, you've seen all that the Lord did before
your eyes in the land of Egypt, unto Pharaoh and to all of his
servants, and to all of this land. The great testings which
thine eyes have seen, the signs and those great miracles. Now, you get a picture here. Here's this host of these Israelites,
and Moses is telling them, you've witnessed all this. You were
on the scene. You saw it with your own eyes.
It was happening right in front of you, and you've seen it all. But look here, he says, yet,
verse 4, The Lord hath not given you in heart to perceive, and
eyes to see, and ears to hear unto this day. He said you saw
all of it. You were an eyewitness to it.
But you didn't have a heart. You didn't have a heart to perceive,
eyes to see, and ears to hear. You didn't have it. And beloved,
this is what I'm talking about, the difference. You see, God
gave this harlot Rahab a heart to perceive. This is the Lord
God of heaven and earth. And this is the God that's going
to work His will in the earth, and He's going to be God and
victorious over this land and over these people. He's going
to be victorious. And so therefore, she lined up
behind Because God gave her a heart to perceive, and eyes to see,
and ears to hear. But He said, there's some of
you that you were a witness to it. And there's people that hear
the best of preachers. They hear the best of preachers. They hear Bible studies. They
attend Bible studies. They are up on the religious
lingo, and they can talk the language of Canaan, and they
know all about this and that and something else. But they're
strangers to what's really going on right under their nose. They
don't know anything about this new birth. They don't know anything
about this being joined to the vine. They don't know anything
about this red thread of the gospel. They don't know anything
about our hiding away in the wounds, the five bleeding wounds
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They know nothing of that. They
never experienced any of that. And that's just exactly what
happened here. So you see the difference. The
spirit of obedience is caused by God, given a heart to perceive,
eyes to see, and ears to hear. That's where it comes from. God's
got to do a work in a man before he will ever, ever know the Lord. He must do a work in your heart
before you'll ever be a child of God. He's got to cause you
to see and to hear and to know the gospel. You can be right
there and see somebody get converted right in front of you and never
affect you, never touch you. The wind bloweth where it listeth
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every one that's born of
the Spirit. And you won't know a thing on
earth that's happened, but the wind of the Spirit of God bloweth
through the congregation, and somebody gets delivered. You
don't know a thing about it. You don't know nothing about
it. You're deaf, blind, and you're not able to perceive.
You just don't know. Well, my friend, I think you
can begin to detect here what's involved in this business of
bearing fruit. Do you have your want to fix?
Do you have something down in here? You say, I don't see everything,
but I see some things. I know some things. I've heard
some things. I've heard some things in my
soul, and I know God has touched me in my heart. I know He has.
I know He has, and I believe in this God that's won the victory
on Calvary. I believe in this God. I trust
Him, and I'm looking to Him. I'm looking to Him, and I'm a
long way from being what I want to be and what I'd like to be,
but I believe in this God down in my heart, and if God speaks
to me, I'm going to obey Him. I'm going to do what He tells
me to do. God says you do this, He says testify, confess me,
I'll do it. I'll do it. He says bear witness
of me to someone, I'll do it. He said give this, I'll give
it. If he says do this, I'll do it. He said walk in faith,
I'll walk in faith. By the grace of God, I'll do
it. I'll do it the best I can. I'll obey the Lord the best I
can. That's the spirit of obedience. I told you last week that a mother
and father knows what the spirit of obedience is. They know what
it is. Raising kids, you know which
one of them wants to do what you want them to do. And which
one of them are just out and out rebels. They ain't going
to listen to nothing you say, make no difference. Whatever
you tell them, they're not going to listen to you. They'll turn
you off immediately. They're rebels. They don't have
the spirit of obedience. Same thing with the drill sergeant
in the army. He can tell you where the rascals
are and the fellows that you ain't going to do anything with.
It's going to end up getting kicked out of the military because
they're not able to adjust to military service and able to
do what they ought to do. They're just not going to do
it. They're rebels. School teachers can tell you.
They can tell you what the spirit of obedience is. A child may
just get C average on grades. But if he's got the spirit of
obedience teaching, I'm going to have a whole lot of trouble
with it. And the same is true, my friend, when it comes to the
things of God. If you have the spirit of obedience,
that's what separates you from the lost, from the wicked, and
from them that died in the wilderness or carcasses, fell in the wilderness
because they didn't believe God. And so I hope I heard the machine
go off there. I think I'll just quit there
because I've got too much more to go through. Maybe I'll pick
it up next week and try to finish it off. But I just feel like
the Lord has maybe given us a message already today. Maybe you'll be
able to take what you've got and meditate on it. And maybe
the Lord will use it in your life. May God bless you. Let's have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you at the close of this meeting. And our Father, we're grateful
for your mercy and for the work. Lord, if it had been for you,
there wouldn't have been anything ever happen in our lives toward
you. And we know if there's any grace
in us because you put it there. And Lord, we thank you for what
you've done, and we just ask that you'll be pleased to work
the spirit of obedience in the hearts of these dear ones here. And Lord, I pray that you might
begin to ask some of these folks who are on the fence. Lord, you
begin to ask them to do something, to do some things. that they
may be tested, that they may be tried as to whether or not
they belong to you or not. Father, we'd love to know and
we'd love to see them step out and bear fruit to thy glory and
praise. Thy will be done, O Lord. Thy
will be done. Father, we do ask that you might
minister to Pastor Henry Bauma. We pray that you might be pleased
to heal him We pray, Lord, that you might be pleased to raise
him up. We pray thou would have mercy upon his dear wife and
upon his children, and Lord, and upon his church. I pray your
will to be done. I just pray that you'd undertake.
Father, you know what your purpose is, and we will bow to your purpose,
and others will bow also. But Lord, if it please you, be
pleased to work. be pleased to undertake for him. Lord we just ask now that you
would be with all those who are not here today in various reasons
but Lord be with them and if they have the spirit of obedience
bless them and Lord we just pray that that thou will bless the
new baby and thank you Lord for all the many blessings that you've
heaped upon this people Oh, that we were more grateful. That we
were more grateful. Forgive our sins. Thank you for
Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.