I invite you to turn your Bibles
with me today to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 45. The book of Jeremiah, chapter
45. I want to read this chapter,
short chapter, five verses to you. The word that Jeremiah the prophet
spake unto Baruch the son of Neruah, when he had written these
words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah in the fourth year
of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, Thus saith
the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch. Thou didst
say, Woe is me now, for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and
I find no rest. Thus shalt thou say unto him,
The Lord saith thus, Behold, that which I have built will
I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up,
even this whole land. And seekest thou great things
for thyself? Seek them not. For behold, I
will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord, but thy life
will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. I want to read here verse 5,
and seekest thou great things for thyself, seek them not. For behold, I will bring evil
upon all flesh, saith the Lord, but thy life will I give unto
thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. I wanted
to begin our message this morning with the first part here of verse
5 where that the prophet Jeremiah is instructed by the Lord to
tell his friend and co-worker to seek not great things for
himself. He says seek them not. Now God
had given a message to Jeremiah and Jeremiah had asked his co-worker
here Baruch to write down the words that he had been given
by God in order that these words might be put in a book. And then
Jeremiah, he says to this gentleman, he says, I'm shut up. I can't
go into the house of God. I'm shut up in myself. I don't
have any liberty to go this morning and speak. And so you go and
you deliver these words unto the people. And so he went and
delivered the words of Jeremiah unto Israel and Judah, to the
leaders and to those in authority. But yet he added some words. He added some words. He had some
things that he wanted to say. He wanted to emphasize some of
the message. And so he went a little bit beyond
what it was that The Lord had given Jeremiah and what Jeremiah
had instructed him to read out of the book unto the people.
And so the Lord said, now Jeremiah, I want you to tell Baruch something. You tell him to seek not great
things for himself. And seekest thou great things
for thyself? Jeremiah says, seek them not.
God says, seek them not. Seek them not. Now, I believe
it was his privilege and responsibility to record the words of Jeremiah,
God's prophet, and to write out the message of God to his people,
and he done his job in a sense. There's no question about that,
and he wrote down what he should, but in some way he took it upon
himself to add words that would serve his own purpose. And you
could read the 36th chapter of Jeremiah and you would find this
story that I'm telling you. The Lord sent Jeremiah then with
this stern reproof. Seek not great things for thyself. Now this is God's word, I believe,
not only to Baruch, but it's God's word to every preacher
of the gospel who has an ambitious spirit. It would be God's word
to every child of God who would be desiring to make a name for
themselves in this world. Now, seekest thou great things
for thyself? Seek them not, God would say.
Now any preacher who craves attention and seeks to make his name known,
he desires to be in a position of significant influence and
power, he wants to be maybe the pastor of a large and influential
congregation, or he wishes to be a man to whom other men whom
other preachers would look for advice and instruction, well,
this individual certainly has his priorities bent out of shape. He hasn't been out of shape.
He's seeking great things for himself. Religious hucksters
in denominational religion, professional preachers, they strive after
such things as these. They would seek great things
for themselves. Now I do not doubt for a minute
that these men, while they're seeking great things for themselves,
would deny that they are. They would deny that they are.
And I'm sure that they think what they're doing is right.
What they're doing is the right thing. The more educated I can
be, the more I sit myself and push myself out front with my
message and with what I've got to say, well the more good I
can surely do. They imagine that once they have
attained their goals that they'll be an influence on many for good. But along the way they compromise
the truth of God because they would seek great things for themselves. They would enhance their own
life. They would have a name And whatever it takes to get
that name, they're willing to compromise the truth of God for
it, and they compromise the principles of the faith of the gospel for
which we're to be contending. Like Esau, they sell their souls
for a mess of beans, and like Esau, they find in the end no
place for repentance. They seek great things for themselves. So a preacher must not seek great
things for himself. He must seek nothing but to glorify
God. And that's the chief end of all
of our life, is to glorify God and to serve and love him forever.
And so a preacher certainly must seek to glorify God and to serve
the Lord's people. Paul said, we preach not ourself
but Christ Jesus the Lord and we're your servants for Christ's
sake. And so a preacher is to glorify
God, attempt to find God's message, attempt to know who God is, attempt
to know what the Bible has revealed about the God of the Bible, and
attempt to convey that with words unto the people. And then he
serves the Lord's people. Now in that he serves the Lord's
people in that he is that one who stands between God and them
and gives them the message. He preaches Christ unto those
that the Lord gives Him to preach to. We've said it before that
we cannot preach men to Christ, but we can preach Christ unto
men. And that is the responsibility
that we have. We know that Paul said, I want
to endure all things for the elect's sake. He said, I endure
all things for the elect's sake that they might obtain eternal
salvation. I endure these things. Well,
Paul, what part have you got in all this? Paul said, I preach
it to them. That's what I do. I preach it
to them. I just stand before them and
I mouth unto them words of wisdom which God has given by the Holy
Spirit which will bring them to a point where God will be
pleased to reveal to them through the foolishness of preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ, where God will make known unto them
the truth through the Lord Jesus. And so, beloved, we're to serve
the Lord's people according to God's will. Now, there are many
needs in the world. I know of, I could probably name,
if I would take the time to do it, at least a dozen places immediately
this morning where they need a gospel preacher. where they
need somebody who's not there to serve themselves, but somebody
there seeking the glory of God and attempting to preach the
word of God. Many, many places in America that needs that kind
of a servant of God this morning. Somebody that'll be faithful
in preaching the gospel of the free grace of God, the sovereign
free grace of God unto men. We're to be content, beloved,
with the place where God places us. that place of our calling
and with the sphere of influence that God has given us and the
way that He is pleased to use us. We're to be content with
that. We're not to say, well, I want to adjust the message
in order that I might be more useful, in order that I might
be more effective in my ministry. I want to grind the axe a little
bit. I want to put a finer, you know,
a finer cutting edge on the axe. I just want to be a little bit
more useful, and therefore we take a shortcut, and we begin
to leave off, and we begin to seek great things for ourselves. Now beloved, we must be content.
Whatever pleases God must please us. I know that's a difficult
thing to bow to. We need more meekness in our
day, and certainly that meekness needs to start with the preacher,
but we need more meekness We need, beloved, to be willing
to lie still before the Lord and to wait upon the Lord and
to be used in whatever way that God would use us. There's an
old saying that says that if you're the hammer, then strike
to the fill, and if you're the anvil, then liest thou still. And God's people need to learn
to lie still before the Lord and to be pleased with what pleases
God and to be content. Now this is against my nature
and it's against your nature because you want to seek great
things for thyself. You're interested in making something
of yourself so that it'll gratify and satisfy the desire of your
heart. You want to be something so that
somebody will recognize who you are. But we need to be content
with the Lord and with His will and with that which He's given
us and that place wherein He's placed us. Now, God did not call
us to promote ourself, but He did call us to exalt His Son. He did call us to minister His
Son unto men. Now God did not call us in any
way to serve ourselves, but His people. He did not call us to
be men of renown, but men of the Word. He called us to be
faithful, to give ourselves to prayer, and to study and to the
preaching of the gospel. That's what God called us to
do. That's what the mission is that the Lord has placed us upon. And those of you that are members
of this body, then that's your calling. That's your calling.
Oh, you say, I'm not a public preacher. I'm not a public speaker. No, you're not. But therefore,
you're a member of a body that is put here in this world called
of God to reveal the scriptures to men, and to be a voice of
God in the wilderness, to preach the gospel, saying, Behold the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. We're
in this thing together. That's what I'm trying to say.
And we need to seek the Lord together. and seek his will and
seek his word. And we're in this thing as a
body. We're members of his body, of
his flesh, and of his bones. But we're made up here. We are
a body of Christ in this locale. And we're here on business. Now,
beloved, let me say this to you. I believe it to be the truth
that one of the greatest causes of frustration and disappointment
in this world among all God's people is a sense that there's
a lack of fulfillment in our lives. By nature, we just feel
that there is something that we haven't yet achieved that
we ought to have achieved, that there's something missing in
our life. There's a sense that we just
haven't had fulfillment. Our dreams are often shattered. and our plans are often frustrated
and they go astray. Our work is disappointing to
us and we often sink down in despair because we feel a terrible
sense of worthlessness as we journey in this world. Now I'm
talking about God's people. I'm talking about the poor, afflicted,
tested child of God in this world. I'm talking about that one that
God has laid hold of and revealed his son to, the one that God
has taught what he is before him, one who feels their sinnerhood,
knows something about the depravity of their own heart and the wickedness
of their own heart and the incurable disease of sin that they have
in them, they feel a terrible sense of worthlessness and feel
that they're just simply not able to accomplish what they
would like to accomplish. Now I know that there are those
who the Lord has never touched. There are those in whose heart
the Lord has never in any way placed His hand, and His Spirit
has never come in, and He hasn't taught them, and instructed them,
and tutored them, and therefore they don't know anything about
what I'm talking about. They're proud as peacocks, and they feel
that they're achieving everything they need to achieve, and that
intellectually they're superior, or they're at least on the level
with anybody they ever met. and so they feel quite good about
themselves. But I'm talking about a Holy
Spirit taught child of God. I'm talking about a believer
in Jesus Christ. We feel this sense of that we've
done nothing, are doing nothing, and can really do nothing meaningful
and useful. Did you ever feel that way? Did
you ever feel that way? Did you ever just feel that you'd
just been wiped out and that you were a vain person? To a
very great extent, beloved, let me say that this is true. This
is true. Spiritually speaking, it is true. We're sinners, you know. We're
sinners, and as such, we are in ourselves, worthless and useless
in and of ourselves. The Lord Jesus, he said to his
disciples, he said, without me, you can do nothing. That's what
he said. I mean, he stood right in front
of them and looked them in the eye. And they were as able-bodied
as maybe most of the people that lived in his day. Expert fishermen
and carpenters. And he looked them in the face
and he said, without me, ye can do nothing. You can't do anything. The Word of God says that it's
not in man that walketh to direct his steps. That'll drain. That'll
knock a hole in your balloon. It'll puncture your balloon.
It's not in man that walketh to direct his steps. And the
Bible says that man in his best state is altogether vanity. David said in the Psalms, he
said, a man is born a liar. Do you know that? The Bible says,
David said that we come forth out of our mother's womb speaking
lies. We do. We come out of our mother's
womb speaking lies. We're sinners by nature, by choice
and practice. And most people don't want to
admit it. They don't want to admit it.
But beloved, we've come short of the glory of God. We're sinners
and in ourselves we feel that we're worthless if we've been
taught of God. Now let me say that the Bible says in Romans
3 and 23 that all have sinned and come short of God's glory.
The chief end of man is to glorify God. as he lives out his days
in this world. That's why God made a man, was
that they might love him and glorify him. The Bible says,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You are
a failure, my friend. You are a failure. And I'm here
to look you in the face and tell you you are a failure before
God because you probably haven't lived for the glory of God five
minutes in your lifetime. Five minutes in your lifetime. If you're lost and undone here
this morning, You are not living for the glory of God. You're
living for yourself. You're interested in what becomes
of you. You're interested in your plans,
in your future, and in your life. And you live for self. And you're
an idolater. You're worshiping yourself. That's
what you're doing. You're seeking great things for
yourself. And the Bible says, seek them
not, seek them not. Now this is painful and it's
humbling, but nevertheless it is a fact. It is not, listen
to me, the Bible says that all is vanity in this world and it
is vexation of spirit. Now it took Solomon a good while
to learn that and come to that. but true, taught children of
God who read the Bible, who meditate upon the Bible, and have some
experience in this world, walking with God, and have some of the
trials, the hard trials and the difficult times in this life.
I mean they have some days when the sun don't shine. I'm talking
about these kind of people. I'm talking about people that
have trouble figuring out why it is that there's a marriage
over here, and on the same day there's a funeral over here.
They can't understand why that everything is the way it is in
this troubled and vexed world. But beloved, listen, a true taught
child of God comes to this. Well, the Lord knows why it's
that way. and we'll just trust him and we'll leave it with him. We'll leave it in his hands. But our God, now you listen to
me now. I think these things can be helpful to you if you'll
listen to what I say. I don't want you to stop on me
right there and put a cork in your ear. I want you to listen
to what I'm going to say. But our God, our God is so overwhelmingly
gracious that when having made us new creatures in Christ, He
made us a people with a specific mission to accomplish in His
kingdom for His glory. Now did you get that? I said
that our God is so overwhelmingly gracious that when He made us
new creatures in Christ Jesus that He made us a people with
a specific mission to accomplish in His kingdom for his glory. Now the Bible says in Ephesians
2 and 10, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. And blessing on blessing when
he is finished with us we shall have exactly fulfilled his purpose. Now brother, sister, I know that
you may say this morning Did I hear that right? I want to
tell you how gracious our God is. Our God is so gracious that
He has fixed it up so that when His people, when they finish,
when God is finished with us, that we will have exactly fulfilled
His purpose. This is the promise of God, not
to a few special super saints, but to all His people. all of
his people, Isaiah 65 and 20. You can turn there in your Bible
if you want to, and I'll get to that text in a moment. But
it speaks of both the satisfaction and fulfillment of the believer's
life and of the lack of fulfillment and satisfaction the unbeliever
shall experience in this world, in his life, now and in eternity. insofar as God's elect are concerned,
it does not matter when or it does not matter whether they
die as infants or as old men. They shall all fill their days
and their purpose on earth. The text reads, now listen to
this, and 100 years old. The child
shall die and 100 years old. Now I want you to listen to this.
In other words, Isaiah is telling us that God's elect who dies
as infants shall lose nothing but what appears to be their
untimely deaths. Now, I'm talking to people who've
known themselves and have come to some understanding and have
felt this overwhelming sense of worthlessness and weakness
and inability to do what they think maybe they ought to do
to make a name for themselves in the world. This is what I'm
saying. For God's elect who die as infants,
they shall lose nothing by what appears to be their untimely
deaths. They shall die as one a hundred
years old, having perfectly filled their days on this earth according
to the purpose of God. And the wicked who die in old
age shall gain nothing by their long lives on this earth. But the sinner being a hundred
years old shall be accursed. That's what it says. All who
are in Christ shall find complete fulfillment and satisfaction
with their lives in Him. Now let's just back up a little
bit. Let's talk a little bit about
infants. Listen, I am fully convinced that all who die as infants or
imbeciles are chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, and shall
be sovereignly regenerated by the Holy Spirit when God is taking
them out of this world. Now that's what I believe. And
David's attitude toward his son's death in 2 Samuel 12 verse 20
and 23 ought to be sufficient to satisfy any question in that
regard. His confidence regarding the
salvation of the son of his adulterous affair with Bathsheba is recorded
in scripture to teach us that all dying, as this child did
in infancy, are chosen, are redeemed, and regenerated by the grace
of God. This was not a child of an imaginary family covenant. but a child of adultery. Yet
David knew that he would meet him again around the throne of
grace. He said, I can't bring him back
to me, but I can go to him. But the point I'm making is that
in this text here, Isaiah is telling us that those blessed
souls who die in infancy will not have any less satisfaction
with Christ or with their lives in Christ than the oldest, and
in my opinion, most useful of God's servants. What am I saying? I'm saying here that infants,
if they live six months or a year, or if they die and are stillborn,
they serve the purpose of God. All men are his servants, men
are his hands, men are his sword. God's servants they are, and
they accomplish a purpose for God and in God's kingdom. Matthew
Henry wrote these words. If an infant ends its days quickly,
yet it shall not be reckoned to die untimely. For the shorter
its life, the longer will its rest be. He went on to say, they
dying in the arms of Christ and belonging to his kingdom are
not to be called infant of days, but even the child shall be reckoned
to die a hundred years old, for he shall rise again at full age
and shall rise to eternal life. That child, as far as God is
concerned, lived a hundred years. because that child will be as
mature in heaven as any other saint of God is in heaven. That child will have all done
for it to make it acceptable before God and to receive of
all the benefits and blessings of the triune God throughout
eternity that any other soul will have done for it. What I'm
trying to say, the elect of God, whether they die as infants or
whether they die in old age, they all will fill their days
and God will see to it that his plan and purpose for their life
will be accomplished. And therefore, you need not seek
great things for thyself. You need to seek the Lord, whom
the Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things of this earth will be added unto you. But you just need to seek the
Lord and submit yourself to Him and leave it with Him. Those
that are in Christ, alright. Now then, that's that we're talking
about a child. And he dies as an infant, but
you're not to say it's an untimely death. You're not to say that.
You're to say, well, that child died if somebody's 100 years
old. As far as God is concerned, that
child is well before God. All is well because of our substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, old men. Let's talk a little
bit about old men, old believers. The old believer also, dying
in his old age, though he has lived long enough to have many
regrets, and certainly those of us that have got a few years
on us do have many regrets. When his life on this earth is
ended and he is entered into the rest in Christ, he shall
have none, no regrets, none, but only a sense of having filled
his days by the grace of God and for the glory of God. when
he gets to heaven. No regrets. This is God's promise
to his saints who live to be old men and women in this world. Those that be planted, listen
to the scripture, those that be planted in the house of the
Lord shall flourish In the courts of our God they shall still bring
forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing
to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no
unrighteousness in him. Psalm 92 verses 13 and 15. Next then, let's talk about sinners. Let's talk about sinners. It
says, yet it must never be. It says that a sinner, though
he lived to be a hundred years old, He'll still be accursed. You live a hundred years, to
be a hundred years old in this world, he'll still be accursed. This is talking about somebody
outside of Christ. I see these old people strutting
around, walking around, and there's nothing wrong with respecting
age. But I see old people who, oh,
they're 85, they're 90 years old, they're almost a hundred
years old. Well, fully on that. That don't
mean anything before God. It don't mean anything. If you're
not in Christ, if your sins are not under the blood, if your
name is not inscribed in the book of life, if you're not one
of those for whom Christ laid down his life and his death being
your death of sin, you don't have anything to think about
or talk about. Your eternity is going to be
black. It's going to be black. I said
I respect age. But when it comes to the things
of God, it must never be assumed that the aged unbeliever is under
the blessing of God simply because he reaches an old age. Somebody
said, oh God mightily blessed that man, he's 96 years old. Well, I don't know such much
about all of that. I don't know. Or somebody said,
oh I think it's a wonderful thing to live a long life. Well, it's
all dependent on how you look at it. Whether you're looking
at it from your standpoint or whether you're looking at it
from God's standpoint. God said that infant that dies
in infancy, why, he died as a hundred years old, as far as I'm concerned. My son did for him what he did
for that old believer over here, sitting over here in this seat
over here, or that seat over there. My son did as much for
him as he did for her. And both of them have equals
standing before me. I had a purpose for their life
and they served it. They served it, they worked out
their life in my kingdom for my glory. Now there's a lot of
things I understand, a lot of questions that could be raised,
but I'm just telling you basically what the Word of God teaches
about our subject. That you don't have to seek great
things for yourself. The Lord Jesus provided the great
things for our lives and they're all to be found in the person
of Christ. The sinner being a hundred years
old shall be what? Accursed! Won't do him any good,
having lived a hundred years and heart full of sin and breathing
out the venom of enmity against God and always being against
God all of his life, always trying to convey the idea that he's
something and that he's somebody and he's making this contribution
and that one to society. God says, that's foolishness
with me. The sacrifice of the wicked is
an abomination to God, and he's not interested in that. He's
interested in where you stand with his son. Are you in Christ? Do you know Christ? Are you in
Him? The unbeliever shall be unsatisfied
and unhappy, though he may live to be a hundred years old. His
long life is not a token of God's blessing or favor. Old age does
not shelter people from the wrath of God, but only intensifies
the wrath of God. And don't you live another hour
without getting and hiding yourself away in the Lord Jesus Christ. Old age is no blessing if a man
is outside of Christ. The man doesn't know the Redeemer.
It's really, beloved, I guess we should say it this
way, the longer the sinner lives upon the earth, the greater his
sins and the greater his condemnation shall be." So it's really insignificant
whether I live to be an old man, whether you live to be an old
man or an old woman, or whether you die young. The only thing
that matters is whether we live and die in Christ. That's the
thing that matters. Live and die in Christ. Now brethren,
you say, Preacher, you seem to heap Just dust and dirt upon
all human accomplishments. You just don't seem to have any
respect for anything that anybody does other than your Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, now beloved, if you rightly
read the Word of God, if you will study the Bible, And don't
let your mother-in-law interpret it for you. Hopefully your mother-in-law's
got some understanding and she has some spiritual discernment.
Read it for yourself. Read it for yourself. Man on
the best day that he lives. David said, I said it in haste,
but he could back up and say it leisurely, all men are liars.
That's what he said. And you can, listen, man in his
best day. I'm not talking about his worst
day. I'm talking about his best day. is altogether vanity. Now if you think I'm just up
here, you know, trying to make a, just fill up space with words,
uh-uh. You know what I'm trying to do?
I'm trying to preach you out of your sin. I'm trying to preach
you to Christ. That's what I'm trying to do.
I'm trying to preach Christ to you. I'm trying to tell you about
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm telling you this morning
how you can have some satisfaction right now. And you can have satisfaction
when you come to die. You can have some satisfaction.
Only one place to be. Now the object of our faith.
What did I say? It's really insignificant whether
you die and live to be old or whether you die young. The only
thing that matters is whether or not we live and die in Christ. That's the thing that matters
right there. And so you see, you can kind of give up a little
bit of this thought about, well, you know, I'm going to try to
live to be, you know, I'd like to be 85 years old when I die.
Well, I do not expect that if I live another ten years to be
any more righteous before God than what I am today. I don't
expect to be. Because the longer I live in this old body of flesh,
the more I see of its sin. And it's evil, and it's corruption. You know what the Apostle Paul
said? I'm talking about the Apostle Paul. I'm not talking about a
Pope, but I'm talking about somebody that is... I mean, I highly esteem
him, don't you? Paul the Apostle. And you know
what he said? In my flesh... You know what
he said? He said, in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. In my flesh. There dwelleth no
good thing. So I'm not up here just telling
you something contrary to the Word of God. I'm telling you
what the Bible teaches. I'm not just throwing dust on your human
goodness, your sanctified flesh. I'm not up here throwing dust
on it and dirt on it and trying to make you look bad. No, I'm
just telling you what the Bible says. You're bad, my friend.
You're bad. And only as we stand in Christ
will we ever be accepted by God. God will never touch you with
a ten-foot pole outside of his Son. You will stand in his Son,
and he'll reckon you to be as righteous as he is, or you'll
go to hell. That's the only way out. Only
way out. The object of our faith. Now
I said we have to live and die in Christ. The object of our
faith is Christ himself, the Lord Jesus. We know We love,
we trust, we adore, and we worship a person, a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We wait in hope for the coming
of him who loved us and gave himself for us. We long to be
conformed to the image of him who is the image of God. That's
what we long for. That's what our time is spent
thinking about, meditating upon. The object of our faith is a
person. Said it once and he's Jesus Christ
the Son of God, you know in John 10 Jesus said to those Jews He
said I and my father are one beginning there with about verse
31 I and my father are one and You know what? They did they
got real upset about it So they picked up stones to stone him.
They were going to stone him to death. He said, well, I've
told you about many good works, my father. And they said, we're
not going to stone you because of good works. We're going to
stone you because you, being a man, make us thyself God. That's why we're upset. We're upset because you, being
a man, make yourself to be God. Now, beloved, if he was not God,
they had a right to get upset. But because he was God, and is
God, they were blind, you see, to the truth. But I'm telling
you this this morning, it's a person. It's a person that we believe
in, that we hope in. It's a person, and that is Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. It is the person of Christ I
want you to get this. It is the person of Christ that
gives merit and efficacy to all that he has done, is doing, and
shall do for his elect people. It is his merit that gives efficacy
to all that he has done, is doing. Now, beloved, I want to know
him. I want to know him. I want to
know him. I don't know how long I'm going
to live. I don't have any idea. That's in God's hands. But I
want to know him. And when I die, I want to die
in him. I want to die in him. Now, there are some things we
need to understand. Were the Lord Jesus Christ not
who he is, both Almighty God and perfect man, his work would
be of no effectual value to either God or man. I wouldn't be able
to preach this message this morning if it wasn't that he is perfect
God and man. His blood could never atone for
sin. His righteousness could not merit
heaven for me or for anyone else. His intercession would have no
basis for acceptance. But because He's both God and
man in one person, Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by Him. That's why I say that the thing
that really matters is whether we live and die in Christ. Now then, eternal life is the
knowledge of Christ's person. It's knowing this Jesus. It's
knowing Him. The Bible says in John 17, verse
2 and 3, Jesus said, I've been given power over all flesh that
I might give eternal life to as many as the Father has given
to me. And this is life eternal that
you might know me, the only true God, or that you might know the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. This is eternal
life. This is what it is. That you
might know him. So my question this morning is,
is not what are you trying to do to build a name for yourself?
Is not what are you trying to do to get ahead in this world?
Not what are you trying to do to sad your conscience because
of all your failures and your mistakes in this world, but my
question to you this morning is, do you know the Son of God?
Do you know Him? Do you know Him? That is the
one issue that is vital. It is essential that we know
what Christ has done, and you may know all about His work and
yet not know Him. We must know Him, whom to know
is life eternal. We must know Him. You can know
a few things in your head and still not know Him. But now that
brings me to this last thing here, and I'm going to have to
hurry up and close. No one can know the Lord Jesus
except by the revelation of the Spirit. No one can know him except
by divine revelation. You know that we're told often,
preach the gospel so simple that the children can understand.
Preach it so simple that a wayfaring fool shall not err therein. But
brethren, listen to me. Listen to me. There's a mystery
about this gospel. There's a mystery about it. Conrad
and I was talking the other day about the virgin birth and how
that the world scoffs and men of intellect, how that they ridicule
people that believe in the virgin birth. But, you see, the problem
is this. They have received no revelation
from God. You see, I know that Jesus Christ
is, and I know he's seated at the right hand of God. I know
he was in this world. I know it! Somebody said, can
you prove that? I don't have to prove it to anybody.
I know it. I believe it with all my heart.
And believers, Christians, they believe it. They believe it.
There's a mystery connected with this thing, this thing called
the gospel. And there are people that sit
all of their lifetime and listen and listen and listen, and yet
they never hear. They never hear. Their ears are
never opened. Their heart is never, never touched
by the Spirit of God to know this Christ. He's not revealed
to them. And I'm here today to tell you that you're helpless.
You're hopeless, in a hopeless situation. apart from God revealing
His Son to you. And I say that you are to ever
seek and to pray for that revelation of grace. You say, well, I don't
know whether I can pray or not. You better begin to pray. You
better begin. Somebody said, well, pray and
save you. Well, I know praying won't save you. Christ saves!
But you had better begin to seek this revelation of grace. You
better begin to ask God to give you hearing ears and receptive
heart. Oh, the never lost sinner here
would pledge right now before God in this fellowship that you
will seek the Lord from this time on, that you might receive
this revelation of God in Christ, and that he'll reveal himself
to you, make himself known to you. Beloved, we cannot, you
know, we discover this even among our own people and fellowshipping
with each other, that unless somebody reveals himself, you
can't ever know him. You just can't. You say, well
I heard this and I heard that, and so and so said such and such,
but beloved, until a person will reveal himself to you, you don't
know him. You don't know him. And until
Christ reveals himself to you, you don't know him. You say,
I heard about him when I was a boy. I heard about him when I was
a little girl in Sunday school. But until he makes himself known
to you, you don't know him. You don't know him. You say,
well I think our preacher knows him. That ain't going to get
you past the judgment of God. That's not going to mean anything
when you come to die just because the preacher knew him or your
mother knew him or your grandmother knew him. You must know him. Do you know the Son of God? The
vital thing here is not how long we live and not how important
we become as we live in this world. The vital thing is whether
we live and die in Christ. Do you know him? Do you know
him? Father, in the name of Jesus, take the message and use it. And may there not be a restful
hour in the life of any lost sinner here until they seek the
revelation of the mercy and grace of God in Jesus Christ. I pray, Father, that you will
cross the paths of these sinners and that you will disturb them,
that you will show them that you're after them, that your
bloodhounds are on their trail, and that they will be so crossed
that they will have to pause and bow their head and hearts
and knee before the living God who said that every knee is going
to bow. And every tongue is going to confess me to be Lord, to
the glory of God the Father, and the day and hour is coming
when it shall be so. May it become so in their lives
very shortly. Father, bless the saints here
and give them a rejoicing heart over what they've heard today.
Though it's been stammering and though we haven't been as clear
as we'd like to be, This is a great subject, a powerful subject,
and may your people rejoice in their Redeemer. Father, we rejoice
in Him. We're glad in Him. Thou hast
made us glad through the works of Your hand. We thank You for
Jesus. In His name, Amen.