I invite you to turn back with
me, if you will, to the 15th chapter of the book of Luke. Luke chapter 15. I love this singing. How many times
has the Lord been pleased to refresh and warm our hearts by
dropping the words of a hymn into our hearts? And I'm amazed
sometimes I've been thinking at all about the hymn that he
drops into your heart, and maybe it's just as soon as you wake
up in the morning, there it is. It's so wonderful, and so blessed,
precious, and you know it's of the Spirit of God. Singing is
wonderful. There's an old Jewish legend
that says that after God had created the world, that he called
the angels to himself, and he asked them what they thought
of it. And one of them said, the only thing that's lacking
is the sound of praise to the Creator. So God created music,
and it was heard in the whisper of the wind, and in the song
of the birds, and he also gave man the gift of song. I thought that was very, very
good. Very well spoken. If you have
opened your Bible this morning, there are several that are missing
from us. Not several Bibles, but several.
And there are several Bibles, too. But anyway, Larry has a
bad cold and Susie's not feeling well. And then I don't know about
the others. I know about Mike and Bonnie,
of course, but maybe there are others that are ill also. Let
me read verse 1 and 2. I had a big message prepared
to preach today and when I got up this morning I didn't feel
like I could preach it. Didn't have the liberty to. And
so I'm going to just preach on these first two verses here,
mainly on verse 2. And trust the Lord to give it
to us as we go along. May the Lord bless the meeting.
for his name's sake. Let me read these two verses
and then we'll pray. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth
with them. I was listening the other day
to something I very seldom ever do. I was listening to one of
the tapes of a message that I preached back in 1986 on pride and humility. And as I
listened to that tape, it was so evident that at that time
the Lord had blessed me with strength and my voice was very
clear and clear as a bell and had a great deal of strength
and power. And I covet that again, and I
pray that the Lord will enable me to reach a place shortly where
my strength will come back, and I'll have the ability to preach
the Word of God as I would love to and like to. But these two
verses here this morning, then drew near unto him all the publicans
and sinners, for to hear him And the Pharisees and the scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
Now the Pharisees and the scribes did many, many things. We know
that they were the religious leaders of their day. They were
the elite. They were the righteous people.
And they did many things, but there's two or three that I will
mention quickly. One of the things they did was
pray. They prayed. They prayed on the street corner.
They prayed to be seen of men. They prayed because they were
hypocrites. They prayed in public. They did not pray in private,
and their prayers were surface prayers. There was no depth to
them. All they wanted to do was appear
to be righteous outwardly. They wanted to appear to be somebody
outwardly that they were not really on the inside. And so
they prayed. And also they murmured. That's
another thing they did. Oh, how they could murmur. And
how they murmured against the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they
felt so threatened by this man. You see, no man spoke like this
man. No man. They'd never encountered
another man. Like this man. This man had wisdom
from above. This man was anointed of the
Father. This man was commissioned of
God. This man did not come as a representative
of religion. He come to represent the Father
and to represent that people that had been given to the Son
by the Father. He was here on a mission. He
had a work to do, a work to accomplish. And they never met anybody like
this. They never met anybody that could confuse them and bring
them to the place where they had to simply walk off in frustration
like this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So they murmured at Him. But one of the things that they
said about him, and of course they lied on him, one time they
said to the Lord Jesus, they said, now we, speaking of themselves,
be not born of fornication. They accused him of illegitimacy. They said, now we're not born
of fornication, implying that he was. Of course that's a lie. We know how the Lord Jesus came
into this world. We know how he got his body in
the womb of the Virgin Mary. But those Pharisees, they wouldn't
believe that and they wouldn't accept that. They would not believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. But they believed
that there was something special about them that he didn't share. And another thing was that they
accused him of casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the
devils. They said, you cast out devils
by this prince of the devils. And of course they were lying.
That was not true. The power of God was upon him.
Jesus Christ was God's power in person. He was God in person. And the Lord Jesus Christ had
all power in heaven and in earth, and he could cast out demons
as he did on many occasions throughout his earthly ministry. And so
the Lord Jesus Christ confused these Pharisees. But there's
one thing that they were right about. They were right about
the fact that this man, in verse 2, this man receiveth sinners,
and eateth with them. They were right about that. Bless
God they were right about that. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
if he would have just received good people, if he'd have received
the respectable, if he'd have received the good moral people
and left all of us out, you see, because we're all sinners here.
and that would have left us out. And so we praise God, we thank
God that He is a receiver of sinners. He receives those that
have broken God's holy law, those that have offended a thrice holy
God. I remember reading over here
in Luke chapter 19 when the Lord Jesus called Zacchaeus down out
of the tree, you recall. And I want you to look there
in that chapter, Luke 19, and look at verse 7. Now, Zacchaeus
had climbed up in the trees, chief among the publicans. He
was a tax collector. He was a rich man. He was a traitor
Jew that had, for the Romans, become a tax collector, and he
would do everything in his power to collect taxes to make him
look good and also to line his own pockets, but he was a great
sinner. and the Lord Jesus called him down out of the sycamore
tree and he said in verse 7 and I want you to see this and when
they saw it speaking of the Pharisees when they saw it that he had
spoken to Zacchaeus and that he told Zacchaeus come down for
today I must abide at thy house then he made Hastin come down
and when they saw it they all murmured saying that he was gone
to be a guest with a man that is a sinner. Why this fellow's gone to be
the guest of a man that is a sinner. Well, so they were right about
that. Bless the Lord, they were right
about that. Well, there's three things here that just strike
me, and I want to talk a little bit about them to you this morning,
and that is this. First of all, who does the receiving?
Who does the receiving? This man. This man does the receiving,
and then secondly, a few words about who does he receive, and
thirdly, into what does he receive them. Now then, as we look at
this, first of all then, who does the receiving? This man.
This man. Well, not that man, not some
other man, but this man. This man, who is the God-man. This man, who is like no other
man that was ever on the face of the earth. This man, who had
come out from heaven. He had been born from above.
This man, who is both God and man. He's all the God that men
would ever see in this world. And he's as much as man as he
could be. The Lord Jesus Christ. We believe
in his divinity. We believe he was God manifested
in the flesh. and we believe also in his humanity. We believe that God gave him
a body in the womb of the Virgin Mary and that in that body he
lived, in that body he honored the law of God and magnified
it, in that body he fulfilled all the law of God and in that
body he went to the cross and he died in that body in order
to redeem and to save his people from their sin. This man This
man receiveth sinners. Well, my friend, if we were talking
about some king, or some earthly king, or some president of some
country, wouldn't mean a whole lot to me. Maybe they would.
You know, there's an old saying that say that the birds of a
feather flock together, and it may be that some of our earthly
king, they might associate hobnob with sinners. Maybe they do.
But, beloved, when it says this man, This man, when he says this
man, gets my attention because this man came, as we said, from
heaven. This man is without spot or blemish
or any such thing. This man is the holy, harmless
Son of God. This man is that one whom the
Father could look over and say, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. He could find no fault with this
one. This was not one who in nature
was a sinner like we are. No, no, no. But yet when the
scripture says that he receives, he's the one that does the receiving,
this man, then I take notice. of that. Now beloved, this is
so very important that we understand that we're talking about the
Son of God. That we're talking about the one that God sent.
It's so important that we understand that He who became mediator between
God and man is the one here that says, I receive sinners. I receive
sinners. I'm the one that accepts them.
I'm the one. I'm the one. Well, could we ever
magnify the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we have words? I wished I
had the tongue of an angel. I'd like to be able to talk about
this man, this man, who he is, and what he came to do. I'd like
to be able to set him forth unto you this morning. But I'm telling
you that this man is the Son of God, he is God manifest in
the flesh, and he is here in this world. At this time our
text talks about it, that he was a receiver of sinners, and
I believe that's perpetual. I believe it's still true today
that he received me over 50 years ago, and I believe that he's
still receiving sinners. You're here this morning, and
God has spoken to your heart, and you know yourself to be a
sinner, then my friend, this man is the one to whom you're
to come. You come to anybody else. You
know, thieves don't exactly like thieves, even though it is said
that birds of a feather flock together. If a man is a thief
and somebody comes to his door, knocks on his door, and his wife
goes to the door, and he says, who is it? And she says, it's
a thief. And well, he'll say, don't invite
him in. Don't invite him in. I wouldn't
have him. And so it is true with other
sins. that people who are that don't
necessarily like others that are sinners. But this man has
no sin of his own, but he is willing to receive sinners. All right, now that, I'm just
going to leave it right there on that point. So who is it that
does the receiving? It's the God-man, this man that
we've been talking about. Secondly, who does he receive?
And it's very simple, very simple. He receives sinners. But now
I want you to get a hold of yourself this morning. Now, beloved, we
know that all who sin and come short of the glory of God, we
know that all men are sinners. But I want you to understand
that the Lord Jesus Christ does not receive all sinners. No,
He does not. He does not receive all sinners.
Maybe you want to tighten your seatbelt a little bit. But we
must know what kind of sinner that He receives. The Word of
God seems to set forth what kind of sinners it is that He will
receive. He doesn't receive all men. Now
there was a man came here one time to one of our services and
he's a believer and after the meeting while we were talking
in the back and he told me that what awakened his heart was that
he had attended a service where a preacher had said that all
men were sinners. that all men were sinners. And
he said, I never, it never dawned on me that I was a sinner until
I heard that man say that, that all men are sinners. Well, you
might have heard us say many, many times that all who sin come
short of the glory of God. Certainly got problems with the
ears if you haven't heard it, because we've been saying it
for years and years and years that all have sinned, that there's
not a just man on the face of the earth that doeth good and
sinneth not. that all have gone out of the way, and that whatever
things the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law,
that all the world may become guilty, and stand condemned before
God. We know that men are sinners,
that all men are sinners. But now friend, not all sinners
the Lord Jesus is going to receive. You may be one here this morning
and you may say, well, I would agree basically, you know, in
the doctrine of original sin. I would believe it somewhat that
all have sinned and all have received the nature of Adam and
that all are sinners. But my friend, are you a real,
and I want to say the first kind of sinner that I believe our
Lord receives is a sincere sinner. And by that I mean a real bona
fide sinner. I mean somebody who, not somebody
who says, well, Lord, you know, if I have made a mistake one
time or two in my life, then Lord, would you have, would you
forgive me for that one mistake I've made in my life? Now you
may be here this morning and you say, I'm just not this kind
of a sinner like you people talk about. I'm just not that kind
of a sinner. Well, are you a sincere sinner? Are you a bona fide sinner? Do
you know that you were born in sin? Do you know that you do
what you do because you are a sinner and you have a sinful nature,
a corrupt nature? Well, so a sincere sinner. Now, one of the best examples
that we have of that in the Word of God, I think, is found in
Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, if you want
to turn there with me, why I'd like to show you this, you're
probably familiar with this story, but it's the public again, not
Zacchaeus, but this is another publican, and him and a Pharisee
has been praying in the temple, and we come to verse 11, and
the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, He wasn't
praying to God, but he says, God, I thank Thee that I'm not
as other men are. He was praying with himself.
I was talking to somebody recently who said that they felt like
their prayers were just one-sided prayers, that they were just
more or less talking to themselves when they were praying, more
or less trying to encourage themselves other than speak to God. But
we talk to the Lord when we pray if our hearts are right, And
if we're children of God, then we speak to the Lord. He's our
Heavenly Father. And our prayers are to Him, our
Father, which art in Heaven. We were speaking to God. But
here's this publican, or Pharisee it is, that is praying thus with
himself. God, I thank Thee that I'm not
as other men are. He is not a sincere sinner. He said that I'm not an extortioner,
unjust, an adulterer, or even as this publican here. He said,
I fast twice in the week. I'm telling you Lord what I do.
Because I'm really not as bad as other men are. And not only
that, but I will not take my place in the fall. I will not own my place in the
fall. I will not own that sin was passed
on to me from my father and my mother. I won't own that. I will
not accept that. And so he says, the Pharisee
goes on, he said, I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all
that I possess. I give tithes of all that I possess. Well, maybe somebody would say,
well, that was commendable. But you know, there's a whole
lot of this business talking about what people do in regards
to their money that is considerably foolish. It's considerably foolish. Do you know that God owns everything
you've got? Do you know He does? You say,
well, I mean the Lord owns a tenth of it. No, the Lord owns it all.
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He made the world and
everything in them, and it's all His. It all belongs to Him. And you say, well, I give Him
a tenth. Well, you give Him a tenth, but it's all His. He can take
the rest of it if He wants to. And He does. He can take the
rest of it. and people make a big show of what to give. I remember
reading one time about this family and they'd come to church and
they were going home and the family had two or three girls
and a boy or two and they were talking about how dry the sermon
was and they were talking about how that the people were unfriendly,
talking about how The music was not good. Just wasn't anybody
singing in the right key and this and that. Just complaining,
complaining, complaining. One of the little boys in the
car, he kind of got up a little bit of nerve and said, well,
he said, I thought it was all pretty good scenes that we got
in for a dollar. I thought it was all pretty good.
And so, you see, they had to put in a whole lot. And so they
got out about what they put in, I guess. And that's, I don't
want to build this sermon one or two stories too high, but
there was a fella, he needed a room for the night. And he
went to this particular hotel and they had one room left. And
it was a room that they said was haunted. and that there's people
that stayed there that would leave right in the middle of
the night because the room was haunted. And so he said, well,
I'm wore out and tired. He's a preacher. He said he needed
a place to stay. So he went on in the room, and
after a while, he heard all this noise and clanging and around
and thought he saw some ghosts. And so he just said, ushers,
will you please come forward? And when he said that, he said
all the ghosts just left. They all left to run off. And
so they weren't interested in having an offering taken up.
But this fella, he was big on telling all that he had done
for the Lord and how did he give tithes of all that he possessed.
And the public can stand in for off. I'm going to get here to
a sincere sinner. Somebody that's downright sincere. Somebody who feels it. Somebody
who knows it. Somebody who hadn't just been
told that they were a sinner, but somebody who really is convicted
of it in their heart. And so the publican, standing
before off, not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven. He couldn't
even look up into heaven, but smolder upon his breast saying,
God be merciful to me a sinner. God be merciful to me, the sinner. May not be another one on the
face of the earth, but I'm a sinner. God be merciful to me. I am the
sinner. I am the sinner. And you know,
when a man comes down to where he owns his own sin, and he's
not looking around at other people, he's not saying, well, I know
so and so, I know what they've done, I know their sin. No, we're
not talking about that, what other people have done, talking
about you. Your name is sinner and you're a sinner and if you're
sincere then God will have mercy on you and you will be found. God will save you if you are
sincere in your heart and you know that you are indeed a sinner. Now the second thing I think
is that we must feel, that we must know ourselves to be a guilty
sinner. A sincere sinner is one thing. A guilty sinner is another thing. Now turn with me on over here
to Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23. And I want you
to look at verse, begin with verse 39. And this is when the
Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross. And there were two male
factors, one on one side and one on the other. And I want
you to listen to this. Now here is a guilty sinner speaking.
And one of the male factors which were hanged railed on him, saying,
If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other, answering,
rebuked him. This is the guilty sinner. Dost
not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
We're all three in the same place here, and we're all three here
hanging on a cross. Now listen to it, verse 41, And
we indeed justly, we indeed justly, We're here justly. We're guilty. We're guilty. And for we receive
the due reward of our deeds. This is what we got coming. Right
here. Hanging on this cross. We're
guilty. And we deserve what we get. But
this man has done nothing amiss. He hasn't done anything. Jesus
has done nothing. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said
to him, truly I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. That's what happens to a guilty
sinner. Somebody said, I'm guilty. There
ain't no way out of it. This is what I've got coming.
Lord, if you do right with me, you send me to hell. I deserve
to go to hell. I deserve to bear your wrath
for all eternity. I bear to suffer your indignation. I deserve to suffer the lash
of the holy law of God upon my back for all eternity because
I've broken your law. I've sinned openly against you
and I deserve it, a guilty sinner. Now these are the kind of sinners
Christ receives. He receives guilty sinners. Alright, and then in the third
place I think he receives hopeless sinners. Sinners that are hopeless. They don't have any place to
go. I think of the maniac of Gadara in Mark chapter 5. If you want to turn back there
in your Bible, Mark chapter 5. I want you to look at this with
me quickly here. Mark chapter 5. This maniac had been out in the
cemetery and he had been dwelling there. lived there, and all was
night and day. They had chained him up, verse
4. He dwelt among the tombs, but
no man could bind him with chains and hold him. This man was possessed
with demons. He was hopeless. Nobody could
do him any good. There wasn't anything anybody
could do for him. He was a goner, as the saying
is. He was hopelessly, helplessly
in this condition and nothing could be done for him. I remember
hearing or read the words of Mr. Whitfield, George Whitfield.
And Mr. Whitfield said God was so, Christ
was so into receiving sinners that he would even receive the
devil's castaways. that he would even receive those
that the devil was done with and ready to give up on and throw
away. And truly this is one of the
examples of that. But when he saw Jesus afar off
in verse 6, he ran and worshipped him, cried with a loud voice
and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus? Thou Son of the
Most High, these were the demons speaking. In verse 8, For he
said unto him, Come out of the man. Jesus said, Come out of
the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy
name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we're
many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away
out of the country. Now there was nigh unto the mountains a
great herd of swine feeding. Verse 11, And the devils besought
him, saying, Send us into the swine that we made an inn therewith.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits
went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently
down a steep place into the sea, and there were about 2,000 of
them, and they were choked in the sea. And they, in verse 15, come to
Jesus and see him, the people out of the city, and they see
him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion sitting
clothing in his right mind, They were afraid. Here's this man
that had been possessed with these devils. Here he is sitting
clothed in his right mind. There was no hope for him. This
man that received sinners. This man who is a match for the
devil and for demons. This one who is able to handle
the demons of every age. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He delivered this hopeless sinner. Absolutely hopeless. And when he was coming to the
ship, verse 18, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed
him that he might be with him. Wanted to be with him. Why not?
He was hopeless just a moment before, and the Lord had delivered
him. Had delivered this hopeless sinner.
Albeit Jesus suffered him not, had said to him, allowed him
not to, but said to him, you go home to your friends. and
tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee and has
had compassion on thee. The Lord's had compassion on
you. You go back and tell your friends that you, a hopeless
sinner, you bound up by Satan, you so chained by Satan and empowered
by the devil that you couldn't live in society, hopeless, now
have been delivered and have been rescued. That's a hopeless
sinner. Alright, and then fourthly, a
condemned sinner. I think that you must feel yourself
condemned, you must feel yourself hopeless, guilty, you must be
sincere. And then, I want you to look
with me, John 8, John chapter 8, a condemned sinner. Somebody who is condemned by
the law. Somebody who has been caught
and they're condemned. In verse, we start here in John
chapter 8, Verse 3, and the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto
him a woman taken in adultery, and when they had sent her in
the midst, they said unto him, Master, and I kind of think they
spit every time they said that. They hated Jesus. Master, this
woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses, hear
me now, Now Moses in the law, they remind in Jesus of what
Moses had to say, commanded us that such should be stolen. But
what sayest thou? What do you say? Moses has condemned
this woman. This woman is the capital offense. This woman stands condemned by
the law. Condemned. What do you say? What do you say? They tempted him. But Jesus stooped
down, verse 6, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though
he heard them not. Somebody said, well, what did
he say? What was he writing there? What was he writing? Well, I
don't know what he was writing. The Bible don't say what he was
writing. Some have believed that what
he was doing was writing down the sins of these men who had
brought this woman to him. That he was just cataloging their
sins. Writing it out. Right here. Writing
it out. So they could see it. Something
happened. Because they got under conviction. There was something
that took place. These people got under conviction
in a hurry. So the Lord Jesus said, He that
is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone in her.
You don't have no sin? Then pick up the stone. Then
execute the woman if you don't have a sin of your own. Execute
the woman. And again he stooped down and
wrote on the ground. A few more of their sins. I think. Now I'm
speculating here. I realize I don't have a thus
saith the Lord for that. But I think he was writing out
their sins. You see Jesus knew their hearts.
And he knew what was in them. He don't need anybody to testify
of man. He knows what's in man. You don't need anybody to tell
him what's in a man's heart. He looks on the heart. Man looks
on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
And he saw this heart of these men. And so he stooped down and
wrote again, and they which heard it being convicted by their own
conscience. Something happened. They got
convicted. And they went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left
standing alone, the woman in the midst. And when Jesus had
lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said to her,
Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And
Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no
more. Here's this woman that was a
condemned sinner by the law, by Moses, condemned to die. Capital offense, as we said,
But the Lord Jesus said, I don't condemn you, but you go and sin
no more. Here we find the Lord Jesus receiving
a condemned sinner. And so if you're here this morning,
you say, I just feel terrible about my situation. And I've
talked to some people recently who told me that they just couldn't
hardly live with themselves. All they can do is live with
themselves. Well, my friend, listen to me. You feel condemned? You say, I just feel so terrible
about the way I've lived and the way I've conducted myself.
I feel terrible about it. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ receives
condemned sinners. And so you should come to Him.
And you should submit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright,
now so much then. We've talked about who does the
receiving and who He receives. Now lastly, into what are they
received? It says in our text that He receives
sinners, this man. and eateth with them." Well,
there's a word, I think, there of fellowship. There's a word
there of communion. There's a word there of oneness.
There's a word there of comradery, what you might say. There's a
getting together, eating with them. But I believe that, first
of all, they're received into the fount of forgiveness. Everybody,
every sinner that the Lord Jesus receives, He cleanses them He
washes them, and blessed, did David say in Psalm 32, blessed
are they whose sins are covered, whose iniquities are forgiven.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And so they are received into
the fount of forgiveness. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. I believe that these sinners
that we talked about here in the scriptures this morning,
the sincere sinner, the guilty sinner, the hopeless sinner,
the condemned sinner. You know, the publican, he went
down to his house justified. I believe he was forgiven, don't
you? Thief on the cross, Jesus said, well, you're going to be
with me. In paradise, I believe he was forgiven. I believe he
was washed from his sins. And the hopeless sinner, the
maniac of Gadara, you know good and well that he that done the
greatest thing, he that done these things such as delivering
him from these demons, he done the greater thing. And that was
he washed him from his sins and delivered him. And then this
woman taking an adult, neither do I condemn thee. So he was,
she was washed. She was cleansed. And so Mr.,
I believe it was Mr. Cowper that wrote the song, There
is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
Sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. These are received into the fountain
of forgiveness. And you know, wouldn't it be
wonderful to be able And I'm speaking to you this morning.
I speak to you in the name of the Lord. I say to you in the
name of the Lord, wouldn't it be wonderful if you could leave
here this morning clean? Wouldn't it be wonderful? You
know, we would all shy away from the pigsty. We don't want to
be fooling around with something dirty and filthy. But you know
how wonderful, wouldn't it be wonderful if you could just walk
out of here clean? Clean everywhere. All your sins
put away. All your sins forgiven. All your
sins pardoned. All your sins under the blood.
Under the blood of Jesus. Under the blood of Jesus Christ
forever. Buried in the depths of the deepest
sea. Never to be remembered again.
Our Lord buries our sin and puts up an Ophiuchus sign. He buries
our sin in the depths of the sea. And we need to remember
that. Oh, how blessed that is. So we're
received into the fountain of forgiveness. And then into the
family of God. were received into God's family.
I wonder if somebody who is quick at looking up scripture can look
up Galatians 4 and 6 and read it for me? Galatians 4 and verse
6. You remember the Lord Jesus in
John chapter 8? He spoke to the Pharisees and
He said to them, He said, Ye are of your father the devil,
and the lust of your father you will to do. Ye are of your father
the devil. Now you see, We're all children
of the devil until we're received into the family of God. Until
we're accepted into the family, until we're received into God's
family. We're all children of the devil.
Now, did somebody find that verse? Okay, read that. Read that. Yes. And because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying Abba Father. You see, the Lord has put His
Spirit into our hearts. The Spirit of His Son, He put
into our hearts, and then we call Him Father. We're members
of the family of God. Members of the many-membered
family of the living God. Isn't that wonderful that He
has many sons? He said, Beloved, it doth not
yet appear what we shall be, but we know when He shall appear,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everybody
that has his hope within him purifies himself even as he the
coming one is pure. But we know that we're now the
sons of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. We're right now God's sons. And God has put his
Spirit in our hearts. And they that are led by the
Spirit of God are the sons of God. God has put his Spirit. You say, well I'm still under
the letter of the law. Well, bless God, I'm under the
Spirit of the law. All believers are in the Spirit.
of the Lord. And we cry, Abba, Abba, Father,
my Father, my God. He's my Father, my spiritual
Father. And I praise the Lord for that.
And we've been received into sonship, adopted into the family
of God. And that is wonderful, wonderful. Bless the name of the Lord. And
then, into heaven at last, we shall be received into heaven
at last. Philippians 3 and 20 says, for
our conversation for our conversation, and that word conversation there
is citizenship, for our citizenship is in heaven from whence also
we look for the coming of the Son of God who will change these
vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto his own glorious
body. And he's going to do this according
to the power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. But what did it say? Our citizenship
is in heaven. I'm sorry my friend, but I'm
not a citizen. I'm not a citizen forever here.
I am a citizen of the United States of America. But I want
to tell you what, and I value that, I do. I'm a patriot, I
do value that. But I want to tell you what more,
I value more that I'm a citizen of that heavenly country. And
that I'm going to be received into everlasting habitation.
That I'll be received into eternal glory. That I'll be received
everlastingly there with the Lord. Brother Randy, would you
turn to Revelation 21 and read the first four verses for me?
But nevertheless, I think that this is so important for us to
see that this man that received sinners has received us into
heaven and that we're seated right now at the right hand of
the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. And our head will not
be there and leave us behind. If he's seated in heaven, that's
where we're going to be. God's people are going to be
there because we've been received Don't you see? Into eternal glory
at last. Would you read those first four
verses of Revelation 21? Listen to these verses. And I saw a
new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John,
saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husbands. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Amen. Amen. Aren't those wonderful
verses? Yes, they are. Well, that's where we're going.
We're going to be received there into everlasting habitation into
heaven itself. Well, a few weeks ago, I told a story here. I told part
of a story. And I got to thinking about it,
and I thought, well, I better finish it. So this morning, I'd
like to finish the story I started about the little boy Took his
shoe off and put it in the offering plate. And there's some other
things about that story that was a real blessing, but I didn't
have time to talk about it that Sunday. But as the story goes,
in the early part of the 19th century, the elders of a small
church in Scotland met with their aged pastor and urged him to
retire. They complained that there had
not been a single conversion in the church in a year. And
the old preacher said there was one, and that was the wee lad
Bobby. There was one. And they remembered
then, not only had the boy confessed Christ as his Lord and Savior,
but a few months later at a missionary meeting, had done an outstanding
thing. When the offering plate was passed,
Bobby asked the usher to place the plate on the floor. And then
removing his shoe, the lad stepped on it and said, I give myself
to missionary service. It's all I have. I have no money,
but I give myself to go wherever the Lord would lead me. Now,
we, Bobby, became known the world over by those who loved the Lord
as the gifted missionary to Africa. Robert Moffat. Robert Moffat. And he, Robert Moffat, was he had a daughter who married
David Livingston who was one of the brightest lights that
ever shone in that dark continent of Africa. You know sometimes
we we take a look and we say well ain't much happening ain't
much happening around here and those people said well preacher
I think it's about time for you to go because ain't been nothing
happening around here but there was one there was one boy Robert
Moffitt who ended up in Africa, had a daughter, married David
Livingston, and he was a great missionary. So the Lord is doing
something. He's doing something, and only
God knows where the trail will end in this world for some of
these young people we're preaching to and talking to. Commitment,
sincerity. May God be pleased to bless what
you've heard this morning. I make no apology for the message,
a little different for me. I normally know a little bit
more about where I'm going when I get up to preach. But this
morning, I just didn't have time to think out everything, but
I know I was on the right track. I knew I was in the right group.
I knew I was. This is where the Lord would
have me to be this morning. And may the Lord bless you. Let's
have a word of prayer. Father, thank you for the day
and for the blessing that we received today. Thank You, Lord,
for visiting us and giving us the strength, Lord, to speak
here this morning. And we just thank You for what
You've done. Lord, I thank You for each one of these dear souls.
How I praise You for them, those that love Christ, those that
love the Gospel, those who are sincere sinners, those who have
faced their guilt, those who have been hopeless, those, Lord,
who have felt condemned. Oh, Father, how I thank You for
them, that they now have a hope, a living hope, a real hope, in
the Lord Jesus, and they're washed in the blood, and they're a member
of a family, a true family, the family of God, and they shall
be received into everlasting glory, eternal bliss. Lord, we
thank Thee for what You've done, and we give You praise. Lord,
if there's a soul here who has no hope, I pray they might understand
that Jesus, this man, will receive them, and I pray that they might
seek Him, and they might Come to Him. We know they must have
a work done in their hearts. Do that work, O Lord. Do that
work and draw some poor sinner to You that they might confess
with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in their heart unto
righteousness. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.