I invite you to turn back with
me, if you will, to the book of 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy
chapter 4. I want to read the first seven
verses and then read verse 17. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Preach the word, be instant in
season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine. For the time will come and has
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their
own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. and they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch
thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Then in verse 17, notwithstanding
the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might
be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion. We read this exhortation
that the Apostle Paul is giving to Timothy, a minister of the
gospel. Here in verse 2 he said, preach
the word, preach the word. Now many in the religious world
today hold a view that has become, I think, known as the church
growth movement. the church growth movement. They believe that for the church
to survive in this day of moral breakdown, that rapid growth
is absolutely essential and that growth really means everything
because they think the world is, of course, out of hand and
we're inclined, after the flesh at least, to agree with them.
And they believe that the only way we're going to rescue this
world is to have rapid growth. That the churches, to survive
in this society, must have rapid growth. Therefore, growth really
means everything. And the philosophy, I think,
goes something like this. They go into a community, they
take a survey, they ask people what their greatest needs are.
They also ask what their interests may be. And then they go out
to tailor, make a church that will meet the need and suit those
interests. Now, response to their questionnaires
indicate that the day of preaching is over. The day when a church can be filled by preaching
alone is over. That's the response. We don't
want to hear any preaching. We don't want anyone preaching
to us. We don't want it. We don't want to hear anybody
preaching the Bible to us. We don't want any of those damnation
and hellfire preachers, and we don't want anybody getting up
and thumping the pulpit in our face. We don't want to hear any
preaching. Therefore, if they have a pulpit,
they move it over, clear over, into the corner, because preaching
is no longer to them necessary. And in the day of these baby
boomers, as they're called, who have been raised and brought
up on TV, they want some kind of dramatic production. This
is essential in order to attract the crowd as far as most people
in the religious world is concerned today. In other words, we're
going to have a production here. We're going to have plays and
programs that will interest and attract the people. And here
awhile back they had a program on television where they showed
all of this, that this was the thing of the day. If you wanted
to build a church, the thing to do is to have, and they had
actually, they had actors that that week after week would act
out various plays and so on in order to attract crowds, and
they did. They attracted big crowds. But Paul had something
to say here, which I think we would do well, that we would
take heed to. He says that Jesus Christ is
coming back. He says that Christ is coming
back, and he's gonna judge the quick and the dead. That's what
it says in verse one. He says he's gonna set up his
kingdom, and he's gonna judge the quick and the dead. The quick
are those that are in him, and the dead are those that are outside
of him. You can say it that way, or you
could say the quick are those that are alive, and the dead
are those that are in the grave. Say it however you please. It
covers the same group. The Lord Jesus is coming back
and he is going to judge men. The Bible says that the Lord
hath appointed a day wherein he's going to judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereby
he's given assurance unto all in that that he raised him from
the dead. Christ, the one God raised from
the dead, is coming back and he's going to judge men. Now,
he says, in the light of this, in the light of the fact that
judgment's coming, and that men are going to have to stand before
God and give an account of themselves, in the light of the fact that
God is going to exact from men according to His justice, He's
going to exact from them according to their works. He's going to
deal with them, and if they're outside of His Son, the Lord
Jesus, they'll be sent off to everlasting judgment. If they
be in Christ, they shall spend eternity with the Lord. But He's
coming, and there's going to be a judgment. He said, now in
the light of this, He said, preach the Word. Preach the Word. And
this is what is called for. Now, beloved, remember this.
There is but one thing in a New Testament church that has the
priority over the preaching of the Word. That one thing is prayer. That's the only thing that I
can find throughout the Word of God that has priority over
the preaching. That is prayer. Now, preach the
word. Now let me try to read this to
you in a way, out of another translation, that will help you
to get the impact of this a little more. Preach the word. I'm talking
about verse two of 2 Timothy chapter four. He says, preach
the word urgently at all times, whenever you get the chance,
in season and out, when it is convenient and when it is not
convenient. correct and rebuke your people
when they need it, encourage them to do right, and all the
time be feeding them patiently with God's Word. For there is
going to come a time, there's going to come a time when people
will not listen any longer to the truth. They will not listen
any longer to the truth, but go around looking for teachers
who will tell them just what they want to hear. We've told
this group that came on their questionnaire, we told them what
we wanted, and we told them what we wanted to hear. Then they
are going out and setting up their churches so they can tell
us what we want to hear. Will we ever wake up to what's
going on around us? I'm afraid we don't know too
much about what's really going on. They won't listen, in verse
four, to what the Bible says. They will not listen to what
the Bible says, but will follow their own misguided ideas. They become the authorities.
Them and their teachers become the authority. But Paul said
to Timothy, you stand steady. You stand steady. Don't be afraid
to suffer for the Lord. Don't be afraid to suffer what
you must suffer as you do the work of God, as you go on and
do the work of an evangelist, which means that you're out bringing
the lost. Into the fold you're out bringing
the lost sheep into the fold. He said leave nothing undone
That you ought to do. He said preach the word preach
the word and beloved all wisdom all truth and Understanding is
contained in these scriptures in the Word of God and we're
to draw our doctrine we're to draw what we believe and what
we teach and And what we stand by, we're to draw it from the
Word of God. And we're to give instruction
from no other source. We have no other source to glean
from when it comes to giving instruction and exhortation except
from the Word of God. I have no authority just simply
to impose upon you a set of rules and regulations. I have no authority
to impose upon you my own feelings about anything. My business is
to instruct you from the Word of God, to tell you what God
says. The book, the Bible, is the authority. I want to impress this upon you.
The absolute authority of the Word of God we must maintain
and we must honor. Now, beloved, the only way to
remain safe is for us to believe in the absolute authority of
the Word of God. That's the only way. Whenever
you begin to question the authority of the Word of God, then is when
the cracks get in the foundation, and then's when these ideas,
misguided ideas of the teachers of our day begin to get in and
get into the churches and destroy the foundation of the church. And so we must maintain the absolute
authority of the Word of God. if there were to be a young man
here this morning whom God would lay hold of and say, I want you
to preach my word, I want you to preach my gospel, if that
individual, if that young man would say, well, the authority
for my whole life from this hour on will be the word of God, it'd
be safe for you to listen to that man. It'd be safe for him
to grow up and preach the gospel and for you to listen to that
individual because he believes that the Bible is the authority
for our doctrine and for our instruction. We shall give an
account of our ministry before the Lord. That's one thing that
always haunts me, to know that we must give an account of our
ministry. James says, My brethren, be not
many masters, knowing that we shall receive the more severe
judgment. God's preachers are going to
stand before Him. Preachers must give an account
before the Lord when He comes. Therefore, it does not matter
what men may think of our message. It doesn't matter what people
think. Somebody says, Ah, that message is old-fashioned. We
don't want to hear anything about God's elective grace. What do
we want to hear about substitution? We don't need any substitute.
We're doing quite well ourselves, and we'll get along without a
substitute. Well, we don't care what men
may think of our message, nor how they respond to it, really.
because how they respond to it is in the hands of God. It's
not in our hands. It's not my business to make
men give the right response. My business is that through the
preaching, that the preaching might be fully known and that
the Gentiles might hear, as Paul said. That's our obligation. and the response or the results,
that's in God's hands. It's our Lord to whom we are
accountable and whom we seek to honor and to please. The time
will come, and it has come, when people will not receive the word
of God, but the battle, beloved, does it not seem to be lost?
The time will come, Paul said, when men are not gonna receive
the word of God. Does it seem to you that the
battle is lost? Well, there are some ways and
there are some days when I suspect that it probably is. The battle
is probably lost. Well, we trust that Knowing what
we know about the Word of God, we believe that when the Lord
comes, that he will find the faith on the earth. And we know,
and the only confidence we have this side of heaven, that this
thing will endure and that the Lord will faithfully preserve
his church is that he said, the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. Upon this rock, I'll build my
church. Upon this rock, Christ, I'll
build my church. And the gates of hell will not
prevail against the church that I built. And the Lord's truth
and the Lord's church, I believe, will be found on the earth when
He comes back. But men, self-righteous by nature,
proud, boastful in spirit, lovers of pleasure more than lovers
of God, they have turned their back on the Bible. They've turned
their back on it, and they treat it with ridicule and contempt. and flock to hear so-called preachers
that are pouring out or spewing out their ignorant mouthings,
and the people hear them gladly. It's just what they want to hear. It's what they put on the questionnaire. It's just what they want to hear. And they're flocking to hear
it. And it's all around us. Brother, sister, the more that
error and false teaching and human wisdom prevail, the more
earnest that God's true servants must be in preaching the word. The more earnest that the church
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God has raised up in this area
to stand behind, to proclaim, and to set forth his truth, the
more earnest we must become. The more that compromise and
will worship press in and around us, the more diligently we must
watch. and keep faithful and preach
the word. The more it presses in. And you
know this will worship business, I'll tell you, it's amazing how
many people there are that bow their knee to the footstool of
the human will. And the human will, almighty
human will. Well, of course we know and we
believe with all of our hearts that there's only one will that's
almighty, and that there's only one will that will prevail, and
that is the will of the almighty God. That's the will of our sovereign
almighty God that sits upon the circle of the earth. This God
of ours, this God of the Bible, the God of truth, the God of
grace, and we believe Him to be the authority, and we believe
His will will prevail. We covet no man's praise. We
covet no man's silver, no man's gold, and we seek not our own. We seek not our own in this world. We deliberately turn away from
our own. We seek only the will of God
and the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we must
do if we're going to be faithful unto God and if we're going to
be able to continue to abide and to preach the word in the
midst of this apostasy that we have going all around us. Our
course is set, our orders are clear, and our one objective
as his ambassadors in this world is to preach the word. Preach
the word. Be of good courage, we read in
Psalm 31 and 24, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye
that hope in the Lord. Be of good courage. Be of good
courage. I need to hear that. I needed
to hear that word. I needed to hear that verse.
Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye
that hope in the Lord. Psalm 31 and 24. Will we finish
the race? I asked you this morning, will
we finish the race? Will we stick it out? Will we
be faithful until death? Well, I wish I could say that
I have confidence And I guess I have confidence in God's promise. I believe most of the time, at
least most of the time, that the Lord will give the victory
and that we will be strengthened and helped and we'll be able
to persevere and endure. But I have no confidence in myself
and I really have no confidence in you. apart from the Lord and
apart from His grace and apart from His strength, I have no
confidence in you as I have none in myself. I believe that the
Lord is going to prevail. I believe it, and I think we
need to believe it and need to trust the Lord. Now, you may
say, well, preacher, I just wonder why that it's so necessary to
have this preaching, this preaching. Why is it so necessary? Well,
I wish that there's some way, and I'm going to attempt this
morning if I can, I want to give you four reasons why that we
need to maintain this preaching. why we need to preach the word.
And I hope this morning that maybe in time to come that the
Lord will give you remembrance when it's necessary. When somebody
says, well, is it really necessary that we brave the elements and
that we go against all common sense many times to try to preach? Now, we didn't get to come last
Sunday. It was terribly cold, and we didn't get to come. But
there are many times when we come here and gather here, a
good little group, come and gather when we've had brave, inclement
weather, and when we've had to come against our own nature,
and sometimes against our own minds, even, that are set against
it. But why? We need to remember
why it's necessary to preach this word. Why would Paul say
to Timothy, preach the word. Preach it when it's convenient.
Preach it when it's not convenient. Preach it when it's in season
to preach. And preach it when it's out of
season. Preach the word all the time.
Preach the word. Why? Well, the first reason that
I give you, and I'd like for you to be able to get this fixed
in your mind, so that you will be able on those mornings when
you say I don't know why we ought to go and I don't know why the
preacher and why it be necessary for him to come and preach the
word I'd like for you to remember these things and down in the
years to come Maybe it'll fall out to some of you young people
here to preserve a church in this area. And you will need
to remember why it is necessary that the word be preached. Why
preach the word? Well, the first reason for doing
anything is to glorify God. That's the first reason. The
first reason for doing anything is to glorify God. Whether therefore
you eat or drink, 1 Corinthians 10 and 31, or whatsoever you
do, do all to the glory of God. My primary motive as a preacher,
and that which must be uppermost of importance, is that the Lord
of heaven and earth be exalted, that he be honored, and that
he be glorified through the proclamation of the word. God knows how best
to glorify Himself. And when we stick to the Word,
when we come to the Word, when we open the Word, and when we
say, Thus saith the Lord, and set forth the truth as it's revealed
in the Bible about God, we're glorifying Him. We're honoring
Him. And that's the reason for doing
it. My duty in each service is to exalt the name of God and
to debase the creature. My business here is not to make
you look better. My business here is not to make
you feel better about yourself. That's not my business. My business
here is to tell the truth about God and not lie on God. My business is to tell the truth
about you and not lie and tell you something that's not true.
My business is to exalt the Lord and to debase the creature. Put the creature where the word
of God places him. We don't have any desire to put
him any place except where the Bible puts it. The Bible says
man is born into sin. The Bible says that we come forth
out of our mother's womb speaking lies. The Bible says that we
love iniquity. The Bible says we've got an incurable
wicked heart. The Bible says we're worms, we're
wiggling maggots of the dust. The Bible teaches us that we're
less than a drop in a bucket. That's what we are. And we need
to put man in his place. So my duty in each service is
to exalt the name of God and to be the creature. We're often
asked, did you all have a good service today? I'm often asked
that on the telephone on Sunday evening. Did you all have a good
meeting today? Well, the primary test by which
we can determine whether or not we had a good service is this,
and you remember this. The primary test as to whether
we had a good meeting or not was the name of the glorious
God exalted and glorified through the preaching of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Now, listen to me. If Christ
was honored, God was exalted, then we had a good service. Regardless
of whatever else happened, it was a good service if God is
exalted and honored, if Christ is lifted up as the only Savior
of His people. All right, that's the first reason
we do it. We're dedicated to that. We're
dedicated to the proposition that God alone should be exalted
in the earth and that the creature should be debased. We do it for
his glory. Now, in the second place, we
also preach the gospel for the salvation of sinners. for the
salvation of sinners. Now I'm very concerned. I've
been burdened for a considerable length of time. We have some
young people here that are listening, that are listening to the word.
I'm very concerned about their souls. I'm very concerned that
they hear a clear sound on the trumpet, aren't you? I want them
to hear a clear sound. I want them to know the gospel. I want them to hear it. If I
could teach it to them, I would. I'd teach it to them if I knew
how. The Bible says in the book of James 1 verse 18, of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth. That's what it says. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. I'd like to be a primitive Baptist.
I really would. I love those people. I like those
people. I love them. But the primitive
Baptists miss the boat when it comes to God's use of means in
the salvation of sinners. They miss the boat. The Bible
plainly teaches that God is chosen through the foolishness of preaching
to save them to believe. I'm not saying they don't preach.
They do preach. But they do not believe that
God uses means in the salvation of sinners. I believe that God
chose every one of his people and that they were eternally
justified before the world began. And I believe they were actually
justified in the mind of God before a man was ever made. That
the Lord Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. I believe they were all chosen in reference to Christ.
I believe their salvation is certain as God's elective decree
can be. But I believe that the Bible
teaches that the gospel ought to be preached. And Paul said
here, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by the
preaching, that by me the preaching might be fully known and that
all the Gentiles might hear, that they all might hear. And
I'm inclined to believe that he was talking about all the
Gentiles. And I'm sure that our commission is to go into all
the world and preach the gospel. to every creature, to every creature. And that's why we preach. That's
why we're here. Paul says, I endure all things
for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory, 2 Timothy 2 and
verse 10. Now there's a lot in that verse.
He said, I endure all things for the elect's sake. Whatever
I gotta suffer, I will suffer it. that the elect of God, those
chosen of God, that they would come to experience His salvation
and obtain His salvation with eternal glory. I'll endure it.
I'll suffer it out. Whatever I've got to endure,
I will, Paul says, but it's for the elect's sake that I'm doing
this. And so, it's the case, it's the
case that we present to you this morning that whatever we endure,
whatever we suffer, whatever we must deal with, we'll do it
for the elect's sake. We'll do it for the elect's sake.
He was saying, this is what he was saying, that while preaching
the gospel, he willingly endured hardship because he knew God
had many lost sheep out in the world and they must hear how
that God through Christ shows mercy to sinners. They must hear
it. They must hear it. So we preach
the gospel in confidence, knowing full well that God will use the
message for the salvation of poor lost sinners, knowing that
he'll do it. I just know that God will save
somebody when the gospel is preached. Just keep preaching it, preacher
man, and God will use it to save somebody. Whether you ever hear
about it or not, God will use it. And then thirdly, We preach
the gospel, we preach the word for the spiritual maturity of
believers. There's times when the believer
needs to be rebuked. There's times, many, many times
when he needs to be encouraged, when he needs to be exhorted.
when he needs to be encouraged to do what is right, what the
Word of God teaches him to do. The Gospel and the Word of God
needs to be preached in order that the people of God will grow
up. in the Lord Jesus and become
mature believers in Christ. As God's sheep hear the word,
they grow in the grace and knowledge of their Redeemer. It is the
gospel of Christ that encourages, it is the gospel that strengthens
and teaches God's children in this life. And my great burden
upon my soul through the years has been that I just need to
tell what I know about God, about His faithfulness. I need to tell
what I know about God's ways to the Lord's people, to the
poor, afflicted family of God, to give them some encouragement,
to give them some hope, to give them the ability to reach out
in faith and lay hold of the truth of God as is revealed in
His Word and to be strengthened and have some rest and encouragement
and to have some peace. I want to help God's poor, afflicted
people. The more that they hear of Christ
and hear of His great work of redemption on their behalf, the
more that they will hate themselves the more they will hate their
sin, and the more they will look away from themselves unto the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, beloved, if you want to
be disappointed, you just look at each other. If you want to
despair, you look at yourself. And if you want to be encouraged,
you look to Christ. Now that's what you do, and that's
what I'm talking about. That's the reason why the gospel
must be preached. Most of God's poor children living
in this world tested, tried, living in an environment that
is contrary to them and to their new nature. They need to be told
where to look. They need to be encouraged to
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. They need somebody to tell them
to quit looking at their neighbor, and quit looking at even their
brothers and sisters in Christ, and to quit looking inside. They
need to be told to quit it! To stop it! To stop thinking
about your progress and whether you're just this or whether you're
that. Just start looking to Christ and rejoicing in Him. And praise
His dear name. Now then, the fourth thing, and
I must hurry because time is getting away. This is going to
take just a little bit of time. But we preach the gospel, and
this is so necessary, and I want every one of you to listen to
what I'm saying right now. I want you to listen very carefully. We have these services. There
are those that are paying the bills. There are those that are
keeping this thing going. There are those that are interested.
There are those that have a feeling of obligation. There are those
that feel pressed down. And this is one of the reasons.
And I want you to listen. I want you to listen to what
this is about. We preach the gospel in order
to leave all without an excuse. We preach the gospel to leave
all sinners without an excuse. Beloved, we would feel that your
blood The blood of these young people, the blood of everyone
that we preach to is upon our hands. If we don't preach the
word of God to you, if we don't preach the truth to you, and
that's what Paul felt, that was the burden he had, is that he
knew that he must leave men without excuse. And the only way to do
that, to rid the blood of men's souls from our hands, is to preach
the word. Preach the word. under sinners. Jesus Christ came into this world. The Bible says he came to seek
and to save that which was lost. The Lord Jesus Christ came down
from heaven. He came down here on the mission
he was sent by the Father to accomplish. And he accomplished
that mission by the sacrifice of himself, by his obedience
unto death. And God will save, he will save,
he has saved, praise his name, and he will receive every sinner
who comes to him through the blood and righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you can come to Christ, You
will be saved. If you can get to Jesus, you
will be saved. Beloved, will you come to Him?
You that are lost here this morning, will you forsake those rags of
self-righteousness and come to Christ and be robed in His spotless
righteousness and washed in His blood? We sang that song this
morning. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunge beneath that flood. Lose all their guilty stains. This is the only way of salvation
and now you've been told you've been told that there's a fountain
That's filled with blood and the only way you can be cleansed
from your sin is is to be cleansed in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sin. And so you come to Christ. This
is the only way of salvation. And now you've been told! And
now you're without an excuse before God. You've heard it right
here in this church. You've heard it. You're without
excuse. So you come to Christ by faith,
or you suffer the consequences. You go to hell if you don't trust
in the redeeming grace and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
listen to me. Jeremiah 8 and 20 says the harvest
is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. And we are not saved. The last
summer will soon come, the last harvest will soon be reaped,
And you and I must go to our long home. It's coming. We must
go to our long home. I will and you shortly must leave
this world and go yonder into eternity. The living know, the
Bible says, the living know they're not like dogs and cats. The living
know they must die. A few more days, a few more hours
must end the struggle for existence and we're all bound. bound for
heaven or bound for hell, we must stand before God. May God
save us from an unready deathbed. May God save all of those that
are here this morning from dying and passing off into eternal
judgment, into eternal hell. The naked spirit, this naked
spirit of ours, one day will be disrobed of its body and we
must appear before the judge. What shall we do? What shall
we do? The harvest passed, the summer
ended, and we are not saved. And when we speechless stand
before Him by our silence, owning our guilt, what will we do? What will we do? The gate of
heaven is shut. We cannot enter there. I have
not the password. I don't have any password to
give you. I have rejected the way. I've
rejected the way. I've rejected Christ. Who's the
king of the place? I've rejected Him. I have no
other password. You're not dogs and cats, as
we said. Neither are your horses or cattle. You have an ever-dying
soul. And you are not saved. You're not saved. Can you say
that? Can you say that? Could you say
that out loud to your own ears? I am not saved. I'm not saved. I'm not saved. And this preacher is going to
leave me without an excuse this morning. He's going to leave
me. This church has met, maybe the last time we'll ever meet,
but this church has left me without an excuse. I've heard the word
of God. I've heard it. I've heard it.
The harvest is past and it's missed me. I have not saved. Some have had a summer divine.
Some have had a summer of warmth and they have felt the nearness
of God and they felt the grace of God. The sun has shined in
their hearts. The sun has shined in our hearts
and we're saved. We're saved. The harvest Thank
God that we were saved before the harvest was passed, before
the summer ended. The summer sun shined in our
hearts. Can you say, Lord, I'm not saved? I'm not saved? I'm not saved
from my hard heart. I'm not saved from my love of
sin. I'm not saved from my guilt of
sin. I am not saved. We pray for you,
but you're not saved. You've got a mother, a father,
You've got a grandmother, a grandfather, you have friends that's prayed
for you, but you are not saved. You're not saved. You're without
an excuse. You're not saved. The preachers
preach to you, but you have not believed. You've not believed
that record that God gave of His Son, that life is in Him. And he that has the Son has life,
and he that rejects the Son has not life. you're without excuse. There's going to come a day when
you lift up your eyes in hell being in torments and then as
you look up and see the people of God glorified at God's right
hand, you'll have to say, the harvest is past, the summer is
ended, and I am not saved. That's what you're going to have
to say. That day is coming. That hour is coming. And these
words are going to sound different to you then than they do now,
there'll be a difference then. The way those words sound. Do
now when you linger in your situation and procrastinate and say, well,
I've got plenty of time, I've got plenty of time, you don't
have any excuse anymore. And the day will come when you'll
be in eternal torment and pain, and those words will ring in
your soul. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am
not saved." Now, beloved, that's the reason why this church exists.
Those four reasons right there. We're here for the glory of God.
We're here to be an instrument in God's hands to proclimate
the gospel that men might hear fully the preaching. And we're
here for the edification, the up-building of God's church until
we all grow up into the measure, the stature, the fullness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're here to leave sinners
without an excuse before God. We're here because God sent us
here and every one of us has got a lick of spiritual sense.
Feel that your blood is upon our hands. The blood of your
souls are upon our hands. And we're here to leave you without
excuse before God. Trust in the Lord. Father, in
the name of Jesus, take this message and use it as you see
fit bring to pass the salvation of these poor sinners, and edify
these believers, and give us the encouragement that we need,
and the support that we need, and Lord, the means that we need,
that we might continue on to preach the word when it's convenient,
when it's inconvenient, when it's in season, and when it's
out. Paul said that He was soon going away. He spoke those words
to Timothy because he was about ready to leave. His time was
running out. He said, I'm about ready to depart.
Lord, give us grace to finish our course. Give these dear ones
here, who I believe are my friends, who I believe are co-workers
with me in the things of Christ, Give them a burden that they
will pray earnestly for their preacher and that they will do
what they can to help us in these days. Forgive our sins, our shortcomings,
and be with us in the coming days that we may bear the word
and bear the truth wherever we find ourselves. For Jesus' sake,
in his name, amen.