I want to talk to you this morning
about God's priests and God's priest. Our text will be Leviticus
21. When I began working on this
message, I soon was confronted with the fact that I just could
not possibly justly bring the message of this passage in one
message without wearing you out and wearing me out, too. So this
morning, we're going to look at verses 1 through 9, and tonight,
verses 9 through 24. In this passage, In verses 1 through 6, the priests
are forbidden to mourn the dead like other people. They are even told by God how
they are to select their wives, who they could marry and who
they could not marry in verses 7 and 8. In verse 9, the Lord
God required that any priest's daughter who profaned herself
by playing the harlot was to be put to death. Then in verses
10 through 15, God gave specific instructions concerning the high
priest throughout their generations. And in verses 16 through 24,
the word is spoken directly to Moses, the lawgiver, declaring
the kind of man who must be the priest at all times, as he was
a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as I read these 24 verses,
the first thought that came to my mind was this. What does this
have to do with me? What do these things have to
do with any of us? After all, there are no Aaronic or Levitical
priests today. We have no material altar. If
you do, you're an idolater. We have no rituals of sacrifice
in our day. religious rituals and ceremonies
by which we draw nigh to God. We have no sacraments. We are
forbidden of God in this gospel age to worship him in such a
carnal, mundane way. We're forbidden of him to do
so. Folks often ask, well, what can be wrong with people doing
this that God forbids it? That's what's wrong with it.
God forbids it, folks. I won't be long now. We're hardly
through at one time. Next November, December, folks
will be having living Christmas trees. And they'll grow many
women, dress up like kids in a four-year-old kindergarten
play, and have them some candles. They stand up and form a Christmas
tree. Oh, it's such a spiritual service. We just feel so close to God.
That's what's wrong with it. That's exactly what's wrong with
it. God forbids it. It's just a piece of idolatry.
Those things are absolutely forbidden. Well, what does this have to
do with us? The fact is, there are priests
today. Priests who minister in the sanctuary
of God. Priests who serve the tabernacle.
And priests who offer sacrifices. You see, if we would come to
God and be accepted of God, If we would find forgiveness of
all our sins, sufficient to purge our consciences from dead works,
a sacrifice that God will accept, we must have an altar. But God always had just one altar. Are you listening to me? He still
does. And it ain't down here. It's
not at the front of some church building. It's not in the confessional
booth. It's not some high place. Folks set apart, oh, that's the
holy altar. That's where we come bring our
sacrifices. Oh, no. Our altar is Christ the
Lord. God said, I'll meet you one place.
I'll meet you on the mercy seat between the cherubim. We have
no altar except Christ, no mercy seat but Christ, no place of
meeting God but Christ. We must have an altar. But we
must have the altar God's appointed. Any other altar will take you
to hell. We must also have a sacrifice. but not just any sacrifice. We
must have that one sacrifice. God always had but one sacrifice
by which the sacrifice of Christ was symbolized. And there is
but one sacrifice today. If you would find acceptance
with God, you must come to him through Christ the altar with
a sacrifice that will satisfy all the demands of God Almighty
for your soul forever. That's the only way you can come
to God. And that sacrifice is Jesus Christ himself. The only
way you can come to God is by faith in Jesus Christ the Lord,
whose blood has effectually put away your sins without you contributing
a frazzling thing. If you vainly imagine that somehow
you must add something to God's sacrifice, you too are an idolater. And we must come to God by that
priest. God always had just one high
priest. One high priest who could go
into the holy place without being killed. One high priest who could
bring the sacrifice without being put to death himself. One high
priest who could come to the mercy seat without himself being
slaughtered. And that priest is Jesus Christ
the Lord. He is that priest by whom we
draw near to God. He is that Melchizedek who is
our ever-living high priest, touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. And because he is ever-living and also makes intercession
for us, he is able also to save all them to the uttermost who
come to God by him. You see, the priest of God, the
sacrifice of God, the altar of God is effectual. And I use the
word is on purpose. Because the altar, the sacrifice,
and the priest are all one. And the altar, the sacrifice,
and priest Christ Jesus effectually brings us to God, effectually
saves to the uttermost all who come to God by him because God
has accepted his finished work. And yet the scriptures speak
of other priests. The scriptures speak of every believer as a
priest under God. Now these days, whenever some
religious organization wants to defend their heresy, I'll
pick on Baptists today, since I guess that's all we are. Southern
Baptists sometime back wanted to defend ordaining homosexuals
and ordaining women and having same-sex marriages and wanted
to defend their ignoring the Word of God and denying that
this is indeed the Word of God. It just sort of has some notions
that might point you in the direction of God's Word. They said, well,
we believe in the priesthood of the believer, as if that's
some kind of an excuse for unbelief and rebellion and idolatry. That's
not what priesthood of believers is about. Here's what it's about.
You and I have no mediator on this earth. We have no go-between
between us and God. We have no mediator in heaven
except Christ our priest. Now please get this. Please get
this. We don't have, and we will not
accept, and we will not use any other but Him. Yet we ourselves
are priests. Priest. He hath made us kings
and priests unto God. Not he's going to, he's already
done it. He's made us kings and priests
unto God. What's a priest? A priest is
a man who always does business in the holy place. A priest is
a man who's constantly before God. A priest is a man whose
constant life, whose constant employment is engaged in the
worship and service of God Almighty. That's what we are. He has made
us kings and priests unto God. You see, the believer is a man
or a woman who has lost his life. who has given up the rule of
his life, who has given up the dominion of his life, who's given
up his whole being to the rule and dominion of Christ and is
consecrated, sanctified to God as priest forever. And then God's
servants, gospel preachers. Now, again, let me be crystal
clear. Gospel preachers are not priests. We are not mediators. These days, preachers, it's not any different
today than it's always been. But these days, it's more pronounced,
I guess, because of media. But preachers do their dead level
best to get you to treat them like they were your savior. They
do their dead level best to get you to treat them like they were
a priest. Or come share your troubles with me. I'll help you
through. Come share your problems with me. I'll show you the answer.
Come sit down with me. I'll have my appointed counseling
time, and you can come. I'll be your counselor. I'm doing
my dead-level best. Now, I hope you understand me. My heart aches when your heart
aches. It really does. I weep with you who weep. I endeavor
to carry your burdens. And I want you to use me any
way you can use me. But I can't help. I can't help. He can. Don't try to find comfort in
me or from me. Find it in Christ, our priest. Do business with Him. God's servants are not counselors,
they're preachers. And we give our counsel from
this place where I'm standing right here, through the faithful
proclamation of the gospel. And if you want God's counsel,
come sit at the feet of Christ and hear the gospel of his grace.
And yet preachers have a correlation in some regard to the Levitical
priesthood. And it's used in just this way
in the New Testament. You remember when Joshua was brought into
the land of Canaan and he brought the children of Israel into Canaan,
the Levites were given no inheritance. They didn't have a stick of grail,
not a piece. Their inheritance was the Lord.
And the Levites lived upon the sacrifices. We've seen this over
and over in the book of Leviticus. They lived upon the holy things
that were given in the tabernacle and in the temple by God's appointment. And the Holy Spirit says concerning
those who preach the gospel, just as those men who wait at
the altar are partakers of the altar, he says, even so hath
the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live
of the gospel. So there is that correlation. But now let's look
at Leviticus 21, and let's see how this all applies to you and
me. Don't miss the first word. And. And. That's a strange way. You're not supposed to begin
a sentence with and. That's what the grammarians say
to him. Much less a chapter. And. How come? Why does he use
this word and? Because it has a direct relation
to what's been said before. In chapters 19 and 20, over and
over and over again, God gave his people a warning that obviously
was needed, and it still is. The warning is against witchcraft,
against the consultation of men who claim to believe God with
witches and wizards. Well, preacher, we don't have
any trouble with that. Oh, don't we? Don't we? Look at verse 27
of chapter 20. Here's the connection. A man
also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit. That's Sister Dora you
see on late night TV. Or that is a wizard. That's the
man who claims to have supernatural gifts to discern future things. Shall surely be put to death.
They shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them. You see, God's people are never to consult with any
counselor but Christ himself. In chapter 21, he tells us the
kind of servants his people must be and tells us how they are
to be used. And he tells us in many, many
ways how the servants of God must stand before the people
of God, directing them in the worship of God. But God's people
must never make consultation with witches and wizards and
such like. How come? How come? because we
seek counsel from God. Our direction, now listen to
me, our direction in our whole lives is right here. In our whole
lives. Don't use those horoscope mumbo-jumbo
pieces of nonsense you see in your newspaper. Don't do it. It's just idolatry. It's witchcraft.
Say, well, I really don't believe in it. Well, throw it away. Don't
use it. All it's going to do is cause
you difficulty. Don't use it. Pay no attention to all the stuff
you see on television. Well, the police now, they solved
these crimes. So another night, they had a
murder, hadn't solved it in years. And finally, this detective,
he went and consulted with this psychic, and she got him the
answers. Maybe she did, but I ain't going to hell with them. I don't care about the answers.
We don't need to know the future. If we did, God would tell us.
We don't need to know the answers except as God gives them. We
need to walk with God by faith, trusting him in our day-to-day
lives in all things. And I'll be honest with you.
God's people, if God gives us faith in Christ, he's given us
a sound mind. That's what he said, isn't it?
He's not giving us the spirit of fear again to bondage, but
of power and of love and of a sound mind. I don't have any need for
psychics, psychologists or psychiatrists, contrary to what popular opinion
might be. I just don't have any need for them, don't have any
use for them. I told my wife the other day, we were driving
down the road, some acquaintance had been going through some difficulties
and decided to go get some help. I said, honey, if the time comes
when you just have to lock me up, shoot me. I don't want to
see them. Why on this earth? Now listen to me, you men and
women. You listen to me. You start to have difficulty,
well, I'm going to go see a counselor. I'm going to go see a marriage
counselor. I'm going to go see somebody who can give me some
help with my problems. Why on this earth would Bobby Estes,
who seeks the glory of God, who seeks to honor God and all that,
go to some pagan who hates God, who despises everything written
in this book, and try to find out how to live in this world.
Well, what sense does that make, would you tell me? Don't consult
with them, but rather seek consultation through the mouth of God's servant
in God's house through Jesus Christ the Lord. He's our counselor.
He's our guide. All right, that's enough meddling.
Let's look at the text. Here's the first thing I want
you to see. And I've just got two points this morning. Number
one, we must never forget that we
belong to our God entirely. Entirely. And the Lord said to Moses, speak
unto the priest, the sons of Aaron, You who are God's holy
priesthood, his peculiar people, his chosen people, his holy nation,
the sons of Aaron, say unto them, there shall none be defiled for
the dead among his people. Somebody dies, don't you go and
act like a mourner. Don't you do it. But for his
kin that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, for his father,
and for his son, for his daughter, and for his brother, and for
his sister, a virgin that is nigh unto him, which hath no
husband, for her he may be defiled. But he shall not defile himself,
being a chief man among the people, to profane himself." Now, what
on earth is the Lord telling us in this passage? It tells us the reason why these
sons of Aaron must not profane themselves are these. They are
chief men among the people, the guardians of God's altar, the
guardians of God's glory, and the guardians of God's people.
Now, that distinctly applies to me. I try my best to be as honest
as I can possibly be with you. I am but a man, just like you.
Sinful flesh, just like you. And I don't in any way desire
to be lifted up, put on a pedestal above any of you. Oh, my soul. Not in the least. In the church
of God, there's no such thing as clergy and laity. There's
no such thing as big me and little you, not in God's kingdom. And yet, God requires that those
men who preach the gospel in all things be an example unto
the flock of God. And God's servants, those who
preach the gospel particularly, no matter what capacity God has
put us in, in the public ministry of the word, Brother Lindsey
stands here and gives you direction every Sunday. You take those
young people, give them direction every Sunday, teaching them,
instructing them. We are responsible as such to exemplify the faith
of the gospel, to exemplify devotion to Christ, to hold before men
in every aspect of our lives an example of faith and faithfulness. And yet the same thing is true
of you who believe. Every child of God here has the
same responsibilities. You see, you, are you listening
to me? I spoke to Lindsay, I said to
his wife Diane, dear friend, faithful sister, just as responsible
as he and me. How can that be? Because there's
somebody in this church family, somebody in this assembly, who
look to you for direction, who look to you to see what a believer
is to be, who look to you to see how believers to behave.
So I don't want that responsibility. Well, you've got it. Like it
or not, you've got it. And you're responsible for your
influence. You're responsible for your influence. Oh, well,
the worship of God, it's neither here nor there. We can take it
or leave it. I'll do something else now. No. No, I can't. No, I can't do that. I enjoy
it, but I can't do that. There's something more important
tonight. There's something more important than you. There's something
more important than having a good time. Something more important
than my personal whims and desires. The altar of God is more important.
The worship of Christ is more important. The glory of God is
more important. The souls of men are more important. You see, the Lord commands the
priest, don't you behave as the heathen. He's talking about mourning. He's using that particular example.
Don't go in and touch the dead body. Don't do it. You'll defile
yourself. Don't mourn like the heathen
do. Don't behave as they do. He later gives further instructions.
We'll look at particularly, he says, don't round the corners
of your beard and don't shave off your head and don't cut yourself
and put tattoos all over yourself like some witch doing some kind
of a mumbo-jumbo before a dead corpse. Oh, this is so horrible. Oh, I can't go through this. I can't take it. That's how unbelievers
act. That's how unbelievers act. Don't
you do it. Don't you do it. He permits his
priest to mourn for those who are near kin to him. Even then,
don't mourn like the ungodly. Sorrow, but sorrow not as others
who have no hope. I've told you before sometime
back, Their friend was going through
some difficult time leaving this world. His family was hurt, and
I was hurt. And then the company's mother was sharing some of the
pain and my concern for the family. And this young upstart, he says,
well, I don't see what the big deal is. He's going home. Oh, we sorrow. Our hearts ache. But we believe God. And we don't
sorrow like others who have no hope. We live with sorrow. We live with it. We live with
pain. We just go on. We live with difficulty. We just go on. We go on worshiping
God. There's something more important
than my sorrow, Bob. There's something more important
than my pain. There's something more important than my feelings.
God's glory is more important. God's worship is more important. The Lord did make this particular
allowance for his people to express emotions of tenderness, care,
and love for their own families. I'm so glad I read this last
week. I have all my life as a believer
beat myself because of my sinful, and I acknowledge it is sinful,
my sinful weakness that causes me to express and give more concern
for my own than for you. That's shameful. I wish it weren't
so. I want to love you like I love
myself. But I have to acknowledge, and
I suspect you go through the same thing, I don't quite think of the other
ladies in this congregation with the same intensity with which
I do the one I'm married to. Love you dearly, but she's on
my mind more. I pray for Sally, but I don't
pray for you like I do Shelby. I'm concerned for your welfare,
but not like I am hers. I love your children. Pray for
them. Call their names before God. Labor for them. But David,
I'd be lying if I told you I pray for them like I do mine. But the Lord here says to the
priest, he said, no, you can mourn for your own. That's understandable. We are still in this flesh and
he makes allowance for it. And I think there's a reason
why he makes allowance for it. Not just to be sympathetic with
us, though that's a good enough reason. But he makes allowance
for it because he would teach us that grace, the grace of God,
does not make men and women indifferent toward their own. I've had fellows say to me, well,
I hadn't talked to my mama. She's a pagan. She's still out
in the world. She doesn't know God. I hadn't
talked to her. Man, call your mama. Go visit your mama. Grace doesn't make men and women
indifferent to their families. Grace makes them more tender,
more gracious, more sympathetic, more kind, and more caring. There's
something else here. The priest was not permitted
to mourn for any in the whole camp of Israel except for his
own family. Why on earth is that? Does he
not care for anybody else? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But he must not show any special
care for anyone. You see, the church and kingdom
of God is one family. We are one body. Bobby and Judy
are having a get-together at their place next week. Everybody's
invited. How come? Because we're one. That's how it comes. We're
one. No cliques in God's family, no
cliques. We must not give special care
to anyone, no one. And the pastor must be pastor
of all, the weak and the strong, the learned and the unlearned,
those who seem to be the most pleasing to him and those who
seem to be the most displeasing, loving them all alike, caring
for them all alike. And indeed, if any preference
is shown, now listen to me, If any preference is shown by Buddy
Doherty or Don Fortner to anybody here, it ought to be shown to
those to whom we are least likely to show preference by nature.
Is that what our Lord said? Man, don't pat the rich man on
the back. Everybody does that. Find the poor fellow. Pat him
on the back. Don't invite somebody to the house who can invite you
back again. Find somebody who hasn't got a house to have you
in. Invite them over for dinner. That's what our Lord teaches
us. How come? The kingdom of God is one. The church of God
is one. And you seek consultation at
God's house and learn these things through the mouth of our priest
as he speaks through his spokesman. You know, even Moses, even Moses
in the Old Testament, he did take the counsel of an unbeliever
one time. And sure enough did, his father-in-law Jethro. Man,
Jethro gave him such good advice. Oh, Moses, this is too great
for you. It's too much for you. You're
weighing yourself out, Moses. You're going to go to an early
grave if you keep this up. What you need is some fellows
to help you with the burden, the burden of the work. Well,
that makes good sense. That's the way you run any business.
Any Fortune 500 company is run that way. Go ask Moses whether it made
good sense or not. He never took such counsel again. He lost the
blessing of the burden. Moses, when he sought God's direction,
knew where he went. He went to God's priest at God's
altar and sought direction from the Urim and the Thummim in the
priest's breastplate. Direction from Christ represented
in all that that priest represented. Even when we mourn loss or bitterness, the Lord says they shall be holy
unto their God and not profane the name of their God. Look at
verse 5. Lord, teach us to live for others
and for you. and keep us from those selfish
joys to which we are so naturally inclined. They shall not make
baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner
of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. You've all been to funerals.
I've been to a few. I expect Brother Pruitt could tell us
some stories. Go to funeral and folks just
convulse and cry and squall and squeal and just act like they're
going insane. And usually it's the folks who
had the least care for the fellow who was alive, or the fellow
who's dead when he was alive. I don't know what I'm going to
do. I don't know what I'm going to
do. Don't you behave in such a way. Don't cut your skin and
beat yourself and act we got a God in heaven. Don't act like
you don't. And that applies to every aspect
of life. In verse 6, they shall be holy. Separated. Separated. I don't know where on earth people
got the idea, it's been promoted for 2,000 years, but I don't
where on earth people got the idea that holiness has something
to, is some kind of a mystical feeling, you know, just, oh,
he's so, he just sounds so holy when he prays. Holy, holy. Take time to be holy. Holiness is separation. That's
it. That's it. Separation. If you go out to that barn out
there, and there's 50 hit of cattle in that barn, and you
pull one of them out here and put him in that stall, you've
made him holy. That's what the word means. It's
separation. God's infinite holiness is the
infinite excellence of His character that separates Him above and
from all His creation. Our holiness is that infinite
grace of God boundlessly bestowed upon us that separates us from
the rest of the world. Now then, we are to be holy. We are to separate ourselves
to him. Look at it. They shall be holy
unto their God and not profane the name of their God. That's
what he's talking about. For the offerings of the Lord
made by fire in the bread of their God, they do offer. Because
we come and do business with God, because we live upon God,
because we live before God, because we're devoted to God's honor
and God's worship, we must not profane these things. Therefore,
shall they be holy. God requires that you and I walk
before him as such people, so that even when we go through
heavy trials, bitter sorrows, and heart afflictions. And we
will. We walk before Him in faith,
believing Him. We're not the heathen. Heathen
folks, people who have no God are folks who have a peanut God.
Same thing as having no God. Heathen folks, folks whose gods
are meaningless and useless. Heathen folks, folks whose God
doesn't control anything. Let them be uncontrollable. That's
the best they can do. Let them walk and live and act like, oh,
I just can't go on. I'm going to fall to pieces.
Not believers. You've got such strong faith.
It don't take strong faith. It just takes faith. It's faith. And it's not faith. It's our
God. We trust Him. Let's see if I
can illustrate it for you. I have a granddaughter of ours
that did the same thing with her mom. Her mom's 31 years old
now. I don't think she'd mind me telling
that. They're troubled, perplexed,
afraid. Something happens that disturbs
them. This is what I fully expect. I expect it from that girl sitting
right there, and she's got another man take care of her now. But
if I say to her, honey, daddy will take care of it, I expect
that to be sufficient. I expect that to be sufficient,
because I expect her to trust me. Well, that won't keep you
from hurting. I didn't say it keeps you from
hurting. That won't keep your heart from being crushed. I didn't
say it wouldn't keep your heart from being crushed. I won't keep you
from feeling the pain. I didn't say keep you from feeling
the pain. I said that's sufficient. Daddy will take care of it. Will
you hear me, my brothers and sisters? Lindsay Campbell, our
father, will take care of it, whatever it is. David said when Absalom was after
him, when all his enemies had opposed him, when everything
turned against him, can you imagine what that man must have gone
through? The son that he looked upon as his favorite son, the
son he had selected to be king after him, turned on him and
defiled him and defiled his family, defiled everything about him,
seemed to love to take his heart and just twist it right out of
its place and stomp it down and rub salt in it. And David said,
I laid me down and slept. Oh, God, give me confidence in
you like that. How come? Because my Father's
still on His throne. My God still rules this universe.
He's still in control. Walk before Him as such. Gospel
preachers, particularly, particularly. I'm resolved, as your pastor,
I'm not going to let you see me pacing the floor about anything.
If I pace the floor, my wife and daughter and son-in-law and
grandchildren are not going to see it. Ain't going to happen. How come? I'm not going to allow it. How
come? Because I declare that God sits on His throne. And if
you see me, No matter how much I preach God's sovereignty, no
matter how much I proclaim God's dominion, no matter how much
I proclaim that He is Lord, if you see in me a failure to acquiesce
in His wise and good providence, then everything you've heard
me preach for these 23 years falls on your death ear. You
say, well, he didn't really believe it after all. He didn't really
believe it. Don't you profane my name. Don't
you profane my sanctuary. Don't you profane my worship.
Walk before me and be holy. Now look at verses 7 and 8. Now he really gets to meddling. They shall not take a wife that
is a whore. Whoo! Or the plain way to put
it. God has a way of saying things less delicately than we do, doesn't
He? They shall not take a wife that
is a whore. or profane, unchaste. Neither shall they take a woman
put away from her husband, one that is divorced. For he, the
priest, is holy unto his God. Thou shalt sanctify him therefore.
Sanctify your God. For he, the priest, offereth
bread, the bread of thy God. He shall be holy unto thee. For
I, the Lord which do sanctify thee, am holy. Now, clearly,
this law is not literally to be enforced in our day any more
than Sabbath laws or sacrificial laws or Aaronic priesthood laws
are to be enforced. The letter of the law, however,
points to something far more significant, far more spiritual,
far more demanding. And it does apply to us. The priest was to devote His whole life to God. Now, you who profess faith in
Christ, you who believe on His name, by our baptism, we said it. And Merle Hart, if we believe
God, it's true. We continually give over our
lives to Him. That's what faith is. Boy, I
don't see much of that kind of faith, me either. But that's
what faith is. That's what faith is. Faith means
that God has the right to tell me who I can marry and who I
can't. That's right. Well, whose business
is it? His. Faith means God has the
right to tell me where I can go and where I can't. Faith means
God has the right to do with me what He will. Faith means
that God has the right to tell me what I can do with my time
and what I can't. Faith means God is in charge. Faith means
God's in control. And faith means I like it. I like it. He rules me and I
want it so. Oh, but pastor, that's not very reasonable. Go a little further, verse 9. And the daughter of the priest,
if she profaneth herself by playing the whore, if she profaneth her
father, she shall be burnt with fire. The New Testament pastor, we're
told, must be a man blameless, having faithful children, children
not accused of riot or unruly. When I saw Faith walk in this
morning, I was sitting here looking at this part of my notes. I thank you, my dear child. I wouldn't have tolerated any
other kind of behavior, but I thank you. Never one thing to indicate
any kind of disrespect for the gospel and things of God or me.
Thank you. But you sons and daughters, listen
to me. You young people, men, call you by name, all right,
but everything you say and do reflects on that lady and that
man and those brothers and sisters all your life, be it good or
bad. Oh, what a burden. Put on that
boy's back. Wear it, son, and wear it well. It's there. Members of Grace Church, everything
you say and do here and out there and in your home reflects upon
this assembly the gospel of God's grace and the name of our God. Everything. Everything. Live, then, as people who do
not reproach Him. But honor Him. Now clearly God does not require
that if you or I have a daughter who's a whore, who profanes her
father and her mother, we take her out and kill her. No, He
doesn't. No, no, no, no, no. Love her. Do what you can to help her.
But I'll tell you what He does require. Bob Duff, no demand
is too great. Jeff Duff, you said you'd give
it to me, now let's see. No demand is too great. No sacrifice
is too costly. Not for my God. Not for Christ. No sacrifice. Boy, if I belong
to Him, that means I can't have this, I can't do that, I can't
go there. If I take this, that, and the other, then I've got
to forsake Him, man alive. No sacrifice too costly. No sacrifice. No work too great. No work. We'll seek His honor in everything
we do, in everything. Now let me show you what a reasonable
thing this is. It's my second point. The Lord Jesus Christ,
our great priest, sanctified himself, consecrated himself
entirely to the will of God for us. Never once, never once, never
once did he do anything for himself. Never once did he do anything
to gratify his own pleasure. everything he did. Larry Brown, he did for you. And for the glory of God.