Some few new faces and lots of
old familiar faces. But we're happy to be here, just
so happy. Turn back to Luke chapter 12 that Brother Jason read for
us. Luke chapter 12. This I hope
will be a message of comfort for God's people. God's people. The Word of God, most of the
Word of God is written to God's people. God has very little to say to
an unbelieving world except repent, bow, believe. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But all the
promises of God, the word of God is to God's people, okay? My pastor, and some of you remember
this, He said when you read the scriptures, you need to understand
three things in order to understand the scripture. You need to understand
three things. To understand and to rightly
divide. When Paul told Timothy rightly
divide the word of truth, that means rightly apply it. Every single scripture doesn't
apply to everyone, okay? The Lord here in this, Chapter
is speaking to his disciples. We're gonna see that. He calls
them little children and he talks about God being their father.
God is not the father of all human beings, okay. But my pastor
used to say this. Number one, you need to understand
who is speaking. Who is speaking? Number two,
you need to understand to whom he is speaking. The epistles
are letters written to the churches, aren't they? And they're addressed
as such, to the church at Ephesus, to the church at Galatia, and
so on and so forth. And you see people everywhere,
church signs that take scriptures out of context and apply it to
everybody without exception. You write a letter to your loved
one. Let's say I write a letter to my wife, express my love to
her. I address it. You always address
your letter to someone. Dear Solzhenitsyn, dear Mindy,
I love you. I will always love you. Everything
I have is yours. What if some woman picked that
up and said, look, Paul loves me. Everything he has is mine. She would not only be lying on
me, but she's lying to herself. Okay, so this, to whom is he
speaking? Our Lord, look at verse 22. It
says, he said unto his disciples. You see that? His disciple, that's
who he's speaking to. And thirdly, my pastor said,
you need to know what the subject is. The subject is, or you'll
take it out of context. Okay. So this is to his disciple. And one verse of scripture I
wanna look at, just one. Look at verse 32. As said, this
is, I hope, will be a message of great comfort to God's people. In verse 32, he said this. Fear
not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to
give unto you the kingdom. It is your father's good plan.
Fear not, little flock. This was a good message for this
little flock, okay? You have scriptures that mean
a lot to you, have meant a lot to you over the years, don't
you? Everyone in here has certain scriptures that you remember
the Lord using at a certain time when you needed that scripture.
He spoke, this is God's, this is not just a book with words.
This is God's voice. This is how God speak. This is
the only way that God speaks to people. He speaks to his people
very readily, very personally, to their heart. Through God's
work. And there have been times you
have, he's spoken to you. You wish it were always so, but
it's not. But there have been times when he's spoken a word
to you at the very time when you need it. Such was his scripture
to me. I was young, working on the railroad. All the live long day. We always
think of that, don't we, Jason? Jason with the railroad. It seemed
like it. I did. I worked all day and all
night, right? Where's the date? You remember.
But I was a brakeman, and the brakeman had to walk the train
for miles. I mean, walking miles and miles.
Were you ever a brakeman? Okay, so you know that. It was
a lonely job. And I remember, I was a young
believer at the time, and I was walking that train about 2 a.m.,
and Had my lantern, you know. I was full of doubt and fear
about my own salvation. I was a young believer and I
was full of doubt and fear like all God's people go through.
And I was just worrying about whether or not I was a child
of God or not. I had a little Bible in my back pocket, okay? And I pulled it out at a venture,
Brady. I just opened it up and it fell
open to this very scripture. I took my lantern, look, fear
not. Little flock, it is your father's
good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. I don't remember
walking the rest of the trail. I was walking that high off the
ground. It's to me, he spoke to me. Fear
not, fear not. As said, this is to his disciples.
What is a disciple? A disciple is a believer on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not just in Him, but on Him. You trust Him. You look to Him.
You really do. You know Him as much as we can. You love Him as much as we're
able. You really do. You love His person.
You love His word. You love His worship. You follow
Him as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that you? You're
here this morning. I hope you're here to worship
the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you're here to hear his
word. If you are, if you really are from the heart, then you're
a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. A disciple is a student,
a learner, a learner. He kept calling his disciples
little children. Is that you? Do you receive the
word of God as a little child? Lord, I don't know much, please
teach me. They knew everything. In fact, they knew nothing. But
his disciples, they hung on his every word. Is that you? A disciple
is one who has confessed the Lord. Every one of these disciples
left their home and family. They were married. They had fathers
and mothers. Very little is said about their
families. They didn't, that didn't matter to them supremely. Christ did. And they followed
him. And they confessed him in believer's baptism. Have you?
If you're a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you really believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. Why haven't you confessed him?
Huh? It's a privilege. It's a privilege, an honor, okay?
A disciple, follow him. This is to the disciples, and
look at what he said. Very simple. He said in verse
32, fear not. I meant to say a disciple, a
child of God, a true believer is one who fears the Lord. Scripture
says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those
who truly know God fear God. Because they know something of
his character. Most of the world, If you ask
them to describe God, to give one characteristic of God, his
chief attribute, you know what they'll say. God is love. God
is love, but that's not his chief attribute. If I would ask most
people in this room, you could tell me, couldn't you? What is
it? Holiness. Holy, holy, holy. God is holy. God is righteous.
God is just. God is of two pure eyes to look
on. That's why we know Christ had
to come to cover our iniquity. And so the Father loves us in
Christ, but his chief attribute is holiness. Our God is a consuming
fire. Most of the world has never heard
that part. That's what our Lord said, the
one whom Catholics refer to as gentle Jesus, meek and mild.
He said, I am come to bring fire on the earth. He said, I am come
to bring a sword, didn't he? That's a Jesus men don't know. You know him, and you fear him. You fear him. Fear of the Lord's
the beginning of wisdom, all right? To those who truly fear
the Lord, he says, fear not. To those who truly fear the Lord,
he says, fear not. When you find out, when someone
finds out that that Jesus, that man who walked this earth 2,000
years ago, a man, is God, then you'll fear him. Men didn't fear
Jesus when he walked this earth, did they? They didn't fear him?
The Pharisees didn't fear him? Even the disciples didn't fear
him till they knew him. Remember when our Lord revealed
himself to Simon Peter and a few of them? Remember? He said he
went and got in his ship, his boat, didn't he? Didn't ask him,
Jason. There were ships everywhere,
fishermen everywhere. And the Lord went and got in one ship.
Why? That's his boat, that's his ship,
that's his lake, and that's his disciple, as you're gonna know
it. He got in his ship and he said, launch out. Didn't ask
him. All right, he launched out and
he preached to the people on the shore, remember that? Simon
Peter is in that ship. He may have been worried about
what's gonna happen to his boat. And then the Lord said, launch
out into the deep, we're going fishing. Simon, that old fisherman, this
rabbi doesn't know how long we've been fishing. We've been fishing
all our lives. We know this water better than
anybody. Okay, rabbi, teacher, at your word, we'll launch out. Okay. And they cast that net on the
rights and couldn't take it in. What did Peter do? Hit his knees
and he said, Lord, He suddenly realized that man is not just
a man, that's God, who knows every fish in the ocean. If he
knows every fish in the ocean, he knows every thought in my
head. And it struck fear in him. And then the Lord said, fear
not. Fear not. I'm gonna make you,
I'm not gonna ask you, I'm gonna make you a fisher of men. when
our Lord stilled that storm on the ocean, remember that? He
woke up, he was asleep, and he woke up, disciples, we're gonna
die, we're all gonna die, and he woke up and told the ocean,
stop, told the wind, cease. And it says they feared exceedingly. They were afraid of him. May
I say that? Yes, I'm going to. They were afraid of him, but
they were not afraid of him. When they got to know him, when
he revealed himself to them, they realized they had nothing
to fear. Once they feared him, they realized they had nothing
to fear except him. You understand? He's the one that raised that
storm. Fear not. Now, we have many fears. It's human, human nature. Too
many fears. Let me read an article by my
pastor. You may remember this. He said, we have entirely too
many fears for a people to whom the Lord has said, fear thou
not. I'm with thee. Don't be dismayed. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. We have
far too many doubts and fears concerning God's mercy, love,
and grace for a people to whom the Lord has said, him that comes
to me, I will no wise cast out. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. He said, we have far too much
anxiety and care and fear, far too much concern for earthly
material things for a people to whom the Lord has said, your
heavenly Father knows what things you have need of. Is that so
with you? We all fear many things. And
largely, mostly, it's unbelief. And it's dishonoring to our Lord.
Let me give you a few things, all right? Number one, we fear
death, death. I want you to turn to Hebrews
2 with me, Hebrews 2. We fear death, all our lives.
Every single living thing actually has a fear of death. You could
call it self-preservation. God gives every living thing,
animals, human beings, this will to live. But we can't make ourselves
that. We can't give ourselves life,
we can't keep ourselves alive. Who does? God does. He says, I can. I'll make it
happen. He may use things, he may not.
It's not the things, it's God. You understand? There will be
no peace unless you believe him. You'll fear things, you'll fear
men, you'll fear other things. You'll fear the things that God
sends and not God himself. We need not fear. And death is
the thing that we fear the most because we think it's the end
of life as we know it. Well, look at Hebrews 2 verse
14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same. As said, our Lord went through
everything that we go through. He went through that storm. He
raised the storm, David. Didn't. He raised the storm.
But he went through it. And every single one of them
thought they were gonna die. We perished. What was he doing? Sleeping. He lived by faith. In who? God. Okay. He knew that he's immortal. His
life cannot end until God says so. The same with us. And you can't stop it if he says
so. Right? He's asleep. You know what the
rest of them should have done? Crawled back there in the back
with him and cuddled up to him and said, well, we should sleep
with you. Wake up. It'll be over. One way or another,
either storm will end or we'll all go to glory with him. Isn't
that the way we should think? Look at verse 14. It says, through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. We fear death. We fear death. The disciples were with him for
three and a half years and often afraid for their lives. They
were. No one heard what they heard.
No one saw what they saw. No one was in the presence of
our Lord so often to see His power and see His glory and hear
His word and see the thing that they saw from Him. No one but
them. And for three plus years, didn't
they, Joseph? But they still feared for their lives. That's no excuse. It explains
it. It's human nature. It's unbelief.
But it's still, there's no excuse for it. He can't lie. He said
unto them, I quoted, my father quoted the Lord. He said, I give
unto them eternal life. And they shall what? Never perish. During that storm, we perish.
Isaac, they said, don't you care that we perish? Care. This is why he came down here,
so we wouldn't perish. They can't perish. He said, I
give unto them eternal life. Go and learn what that means.
You'll never perish. Never. I'm talking to God's people
now. He said, he that liveth and believeth. Martha and Mary
were distraught at the death of their brother as we all are. Lazarus was a believer. The Lord
loved Lazarus. And I understand, you know, we
lose our loved ones and what? What grieves us most is the thought
that we're not gonna see him again on this earth. It grieves
us and we don't even wanna think about that. I don't wanna think
about losing my wife and my daughter. I don't wanna think about that. And the Lord said we need to
think about that. It's coming. But he said this promise, he
said, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Didn't
he? Is that a figure of speech? No,
our Lord never used a figure of speech. He never exaggerated. He told the plain truth, holy
the truth, and never die. It's not death. Death is not
the end for God's people. It's just the beginning. What
if I told you that through that door right there, through that
door right there is eternal peace and joy and happiness, no more
tears, no more sorrow, no more death, no more separation, no
more sin, no more temptation, no more troubles ever again.
Right through that door. Would you go through that door? How fast would you? Death is
a door, it's just a door, it's just a portal into Those things
I just mentioned. Who said that? He said that. Fear not death. Fear not. Death's not the end. Have you
ever read Ecclesiastes 7 verse 1? It says it. The day of one's
death is better than his birth. What do you think about that? A little child is born and you
need to read Psalm 90 all the time. And 91, Psalm 90 is about
the frailty of human life, the eternality of our God and the
frailty of human life and how we're in His hand. And Psalm
91 is doesn't matter what's coming, you need not fear it. Read those
all the time. I tell our people that. Read
them all the time. Okay. But It says the day of
one's death is better than life. A child is born and a parent
has great hopes for that child, they love that child, a little
child, but yet there's mixed emotions there. You know, all
the trouble, all the sorrows, all the grief, all the sadness,
all the trials that they're gonna go through. If they don't know
the Lord, it'd be better than never born. My son-in-law said that before
they had children. He said, Lord, don't give me
children if they don't belong to you. Better if they've never been
born. But that person who grows up through all that sorrow and
trials and troubles and all that, and the Lord reveals himself
to him, the Lord comes and makes himself known, death that awaits
him, Something to look forward to. The Lord keeps telling us and
them, fear not. Another thing, we fear the unknown.
We fear darkness still. We fear the unseen. Our Lord
came to make the unseen seen, to make the unknown known. We're
not in darkness even as others. God's people are not in darkness.
The entrance of thy word giveth light. We're not in darkness
as others. We know. He's told us. He's told us what's
beyond there. We know that the seen things
are temporal. The unseen things are eternal.
These things don't last. It's gonna end no matter what
you do. It's gonna end. And end in sadness. We fear the unknown. We do. Anybody in here afraid of the
dark? Yeah, you, ask some of you big, strong fellas. Jason,
Adam, you afraid of the dark? Ever? He says, what's wrong with
you? After all these years? One time,
we were building the last house we built, or a house. And my
father came and mother came to stay with us and kind of watch
Hannah while we were over there working on the house. Hannah
was just a little girl. And the worst storm I'd ever
been through. We were living in a trailer.
We were trailer people. We were living in this trailer.
Have you ever been in a mobile home when a huge storm and thunder
is out there? It's amplified 10 times. Well,
we were in the middle of that storm and I woke up in the middle
of the night, I couldn't sleep. Well, my dad was awake. He was
up, he couldn't sleep. You know what I thought? And
I was, I don't know, 40 years old at the time and I thought,
boy, sure glad dad's here. He'll take care of it, I'm going
back to bed. He that keepeth Israel shall
never sleep, Go back to bed. We're human, and he knows that. He knows our frame. Afraid of
the dark. Our Lord is Lord over the darkness. Nothing happens undercover. He's in control of that, but
we're afraid of the unknown. We're afraid of what we can't
see. We're afraid of the future. Aren't we? Afraid of the future.
We do not know what tomorrow holds. And our Lord said, don't
boast of tomorrow. You don't know what's gonna happen.
Always say the Lord willing. I'm trying to get that in my
vocabulary. Never say, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. Everybody in here has experienced,
has woken up to something traumatic, some life-changing event, a death
of a lover or a sickness, Who holds tomorrow? What does
tomorrow hold for God's people? He said, all things work together. People just quote this at funerals.
This is something to live by. All things, we know, who's we?
God's people. All things work together, we
know. For good to them that love God. God of the Bible, no God. Who are the called according
to his? Purpose is gospel. All good. David said, my times are in your
hands. We used to sing that song, didn't
we, Mike? My times are in thy hand, my God, I wish them there. And that's where they are. Your
times, your future, everything about you, everything about your
children, everything you have, everything you own, all that
you love are in God's hand. Think about this church. Jason
prayed for this church, and I'm glad to hear him do that. And
I do, too. We do, too. Do you? You do, too. You do, too. What
about this church? What's the future hold for this
church? Well, if it's a church, and I believe it is. How many
does it take to have a church? What does the Lord say? Two or
three. I believe I'm here in his garden,
in his name. I believe men did. I believe
there's some others here. That's more than nothing. That's his church. What's the
future hold for this church? I'll tell you what it holds.
Nothing but good. Nothing but good. You know the church at Kingsport?
You been there? God's blessing it. And I'm not talking about
numbers. I'm talking about the gospel.
I'm talking about a spirit of unity and fellowship, okay? God sent them preachers in. Oh,
did he? Took my son-in-law away from
me. But that's fine. When it happened, it was the
toughest thing. We've lost our family twice over the gospel.
We left everybody and everything to go to Rocky Mount. And lo
and behold, the Lord took Hannah and gave her granddaughters and
took them to Kingsport. Could have been worse. Could
have been San Diego. But oh, we lost sleep over that
then. We cried over that. Would we
change it? No way. He does all things well. Kingsport had a church there
50 years ago. You know that? Sixty years ago,
I went there as a child. My father preached there. The
man's name was Ed Kettner. He was pastor of a church in
Kingsport, Tennessee. And it was there for several
years. I loved Brother Ed. His sons, his family, they visited
with us and vice versa. Okay. Something happened and
the church languished. Tony Moody, to make a long story
short, the Lord still had some people in that town that were
holding that church together just long enough for Gabe Stoniker
to arrive. And now the rest is history.
And the Lord is holding this place together. Isn't it? Look
at this. What's gonna happen? Nothing
but good. Fear not. It'll fly. It's your father's good pleasure.
Wherever he's honored and God's people meet in his son's name,
that's where he is. And he said, I'll never leave
you. I wish thank you. We fear man, we fear our enemies. Look here in this chapter 12,
in verse, he talked about the darkness, and then verse four,
he said, I'd say unto you, Luke 12, four, be not afraid of them
that kill the body, and after that, them, that's whoever or
whatever, whether it be man or bullets or disease or whatever
it is, after that, I never looked at them. Fear
not them that kill the body, and after that there's no more
vengeance. I preached the whole message
on that. Nothing more can be done. Can't
ever trouble me again. The three Hebrew children, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego said to that king, go ahead and throw
us in the fire. If God saves us, He saves us.
If He doesn't, we're through with you. We don't have to deal
with you anymore in this God-forsaken place. Go ahead. That's the way we ought to look.
After that, there's nothing more they can do. Now look at the
next verse. I'll tell you who you should
fear. I will forewarn you. Fear Him which after He hath
killed. Who kills? Deuteronomy 32, 39. I killed him. I make a lie. He might use means,
he might not. It's God that killed him. Whatever
it is, God sent it. Don't fear the means. Don't fear
the means. Fear him who sent it. You don't
die from those things. You die with them. God killed
you. You hear me? That's a fact. Our
Lord said, don't fear them, whatever they are, don't fear them, don't
fear things, don't fear the elements, don't fear bullets, don't fear
germs. Back when the Lord sent that
plague, the first message I preached to our people was don't fear
their fear. Isaiah eight, don't fear what
they're fearing, don't do it, God sent it, fear Him, you have
nothing to fear. When the Black Plague hit Europe,
Martin Luther went about visiting every single sick person in his
congregation. When the bubonic plague hit England,
Charles Spurgeon did the exact same thing. Martin Lloyd Jones
was pastor of the Westminster Cathedral of London, England
when World War II was going on. They were bombing London. Every
building was being bombed. They were still holding services.
A bomb hit their building while he was praying, and he stopped
long enough to see if everybody was all right, and he went back
to praying. And he finished his message, and they never quit
meeting. Don't fear bombs. Don't fear
thanks. Fear God, and you have nothing
to fear. You hear me? I'm not the one that said that.
Fear not. Fear not. He says, I won't, I
heal, I won't, I heal. As said, there were two storms,
the disciples were in them, and the first time he was asleep,
showing them, leaving them a great example of how we should trust
our heavenly father, no matter what comes our way, just go shoot. The second time, he was not with
them, remember? The second time, he stayed on
shore and sent them out. They said, he's not here, he's
not here. He said, I'll never leave you.
And he came walking, listen to this. He came walking on the
water, and they all thought they'd seen a ghost. That's what they
said, they thought they'd seen a ghost. And he got in the ship,
he said, why do thoughts arise in your house? Meaning, why do
you always think the worst? Why do you always imagine things?
Why is your imagination running wild? Trust me. He said this,
Mike, he said, it is I. Whatever it is, it is the Lord. Eli, the Philistines killed Eli's
two sons. What did he say? It is the Lord. The Chaldeans, the Sabeans killed
Job's children and his servants and took everything they owned.
What did he say? The Lord gave me those children
and the Lord took them away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job was covered with boils from the top of his head to the bottom
of his feet. Did he cuss God? No, he blessed
God. God sent this sickness or I wouldn't
have it. That honors God. Unbelief dishonors
Him. He said this over and over, where
is your faith? We should apologize to God for
our unbelief and our fear. We should apologize to Him and
one another for promoting fear and not faith and not building
one another up. We should apologize. I'm talking
to myself. Fear not. Fear not. We fear temporary needs. We all do, don't we? We all did,
temporary needs. Our Lord went through here and
talked about the ravens didn't sow or reap and didn't put anything
in the barn. They didn't leave, they didn't
put anything up for the winter. Never. You have a preacher, shouldn't
you? You have a little savings account.
Just read what he says, okay? If you do, don't trust it. If
you don't, don't worry about it. Ask people in 1929 how much
a savings account is. All lost it. And people lost
it. They were jumping off buildings.
They lost everything. God's people don't lose anything.
Ever. You have the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Paul said, I have lost everything. It was just
dumb. Just dumb. We fear that woman,
that widow, you know, Elijah. All she had was a little bit
of meal in the barrel and a little bit of oil in that cruise, remember?
Just a little bit. Just a little bit. And Isaiah,
Elijah said, it'll never fail. That meal will never fail and
that oil will never run dry. And lo and behold, every day.
Every day, Travis. Sarah, every day she'd reach
down into that barrel and read one handful. That's all she needed,
wasn't it? One handful. Every day, just
enough oil to make the cake. Every day. It never ran dry. Never ran dry. Mindy was worried
we were gonna do something, and I had to remind her. Emma said,
honey, it's never gonna run dry. Never gonna run dry. Fear not. Fear not. Don't fear making the
house payment. if God sent Christ to make your
sin payment. Do you understand what that costs
you? And Romans 8, 31 says that very thing. He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not
with him freely give us all things? But we're human. How are we gonna
make this payment? Well, you shouldn't have bought
it in the first place. Oh my, here's two things we all
fear, perhaps some of them. We fear leaving our Lord. And
we fear him leaving us. Now, in John 13, the following
chapters to his disciples, he told them, he said, one of you
shall betray me. And one did. We need to fear
that. Yes, we do. Let us fear, lest
the promise being left us of entering in His rest, we'd come
short of it. Let us fear, it's a fearful thing
to follow. If we sin willfully after we've
received the knowledge of the truth, there's no more sacrifice.
I mean, you leave the gospel, you need to be afraid of leaving
the gospel. You need to be afraid of leaving
Him. It's a fearful thing. But we need not be afraid of
him leaving us. He told them, one of you is going
to betray me. And he said, I'm leaving. And
they're all afraid. Don't leave us. Don't leave us. And those are the two things
that every true child of God fears. And we should fear. We
should fear what we might do, and you know what that causes
us to do? If we fear what we might do, that we might leave
Him, if we might betray Him, if we fear, you know what it'll
make you do? It'll make you call on Him. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That doesn't mean one
time. That means for the rest of your life. You keep calling. Without Him, you can do nothing.
Without Him, you're gonna leave. If you can't leave, you will
leave. If you belong to him, you know what you'll be doing?
Calling, calling, calling, without fail calling. You'll be looking
to him, Lord, please help me. And you'll be where he is with
his people. You're afraid to leave. Fly. Which brings me to my next point,
our Lord. Look what he said. Fear not,
and we have many things that we fear, and we need not fear. But he said unto them, verse
32, fear not, little flock. Little flock. He was talking
to a handful of men and perhaps some women. This is comfort for
little people. This message is for little people.
I don't mean in stature. We're all little. Little people, little children,
okay? This is comfort for those that
are little in number. You know, the Lord's people from
the beginning of time have been in the minority. It's always
been the case. Truth has always been in the
minority. Look at Noah's Ark. Look at it. Do you know that
most of the old writers believed there were billions of people
on the earth at that time? Billions! How many were saved? Was Noah lamenting the fact that
he had few people in that ark? He's thanking God to high heaven
that he's one of them. He's thanking God for his great
mercy for saving eight, because there were eight people in that
ark that didn't deserve to be there. Little flop. Truth has always
been in the minority, in number, The Lord had 12 disciples. You
know, when the Lord left this earth, you know how many disciples
he had? You know how many disciples were in that upper room? 120. The greatest preacher to
ever live, the greatest man to ever live. Most people left him. He's a hard saver, he can't take
it. A few people, a remnant, according to the election of
grace, said, this is words of life. By your grace, I'm not
leaving, I'm not going anywhere. 120. It's always been the cave. Charles
Spurgeon, you remember when the Lord fed the 5,000, you remember
that? He had them sit down in groups
of 50, you remember that? It's by design, the Lord did
it. Everything he did had an eternal reason behind it. He
had them sit down in groups of 50. Charles Spurgeon, who pastored
a large cathedral full of people, thousands, by the way, just like
there were multitudes following Christ, there were multitudes
following a man. And in the end, there were just a few. And when
Spurgeon died, it just went to nothing. But there were some
real believers. But Spurgeon sent in, and it
was prophetic, he said, I believe that when this place is gone,
Metropolitan Tabernacle, that the church of God throughout
the world will be comprised of 50 or less people. Now you tell me if that's not
sad. Most of the grace churches we
know are small in number, little. Who hath despised a day of little
things? Oh my, my dad one time, when
he was a pastor, some of you were there, you know, I don't
know how many people there were, I never counted them, I don't
think he did either, maybe 300, I don't know all that, but you
know, I started pastoring a little flock there in Rocky Mountain,
he said, let's trade, let's trade for a piss. I'll trade you. I said, no way. I don't want all that trouble. I got enough as it is. But little
flock, fear not little flock. Little, little in number, little
in status. These were fishermen, they were
publicans. He's a friend of publicans and sinners. Not many wise men,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. God, you see your
calling, brethren? Nobodies and nothings from nowhere.
Is that you? That's who the Lord calls. That's
who his people are. He's a friend of publicans, not
republicans. Publicans and sinners. Is that
you? There's very few of them to be
found, isn't there? Go out there and ask people in churches and all. You
a sinner? Well, you used to be. Well, then Christ didn't die
for you. You don't need Him. All of God's
people, a few in number relatively. So I'm the chief of sinners.
So little in their own eyes, little in knowledge, little in
wisdom, little in ability, little in faith. Our Lord said, oh ye
of little faith. That's why we're here in it.
I want to grow in faith. I want to grow in the knowledge
of Christ. One time. Chuck Moore's, Chuck
Moore's son, son, one of them, Mark, or Michael and Mark, you
remember this character. You know, you had to go out into
the big auditorium when you were four years old, wasn't it? Well,
Michael had been in the nursery all that time, and he went back,
and so it's time for him to go out into the big house. And he's sittin' there, and he
sat through one message, and he told his mother, I've learned
all I need to know about the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to
go back to the nursery. Well, after 40-some years, I
haven't learned. And I'm the preacher. I feel
like I don't know anything. Where is my faith? Who or what could disturb my
faith after all that he's done for me, huh? I'm preaching to
myself now. What's wrong with you, idiot?
You're talking to me. Why can't you believe him? Dear, not little. Are you little? That's who he came for. That's
who he died for. That's who he ever lives to make
intercession for. Flock. Flock. You're not talking to goats.
Goats can make it alone. They can go it alone. They can
eat anything. And they do. Not sheep. Sheep. Are you a sheep? Tell you something
about sheep. They look quiet, don't they?
You look at them from a distance. Go up close. They're dirty. They're stinky. They have to be dipped all the
time. They're subject to all sorts
of maladies and all sorts of disease and parasites. That's
us! Be dipped, washed in the blood, constantly preaching the
gospel. They're dirty. They're dumb.
They're dumb. They're stupid. So you're not supposed to use
the word stupid today. Stupid, stupid, stupid. That's us. That means you're acting like
you're in a stupor. And that's the way we are. Oh,
look at the news. Oh, look, look. Don't look at
the news. Here's the answer. Don't look
at it. Look here. Let your eyes look straight on.
Don't look to the right. Don't listen to Pharaoh. Don't
listen to the wrong. Dove, fear not. Look unto me and be you safe
from all this. Stupid. Oh, we fear things. Oh, sheep
are dumb. They're weak. They have to have
someone to care for them. They're needy. They're poor.
They're needy. They can't do anything. They're afraid. They're
prey. Every single predator is after
sheep, after little lambs. Every single predator can kill
the strongest sheep. Is that you? Sheep need a shepherd. Sheep
congregate around a shepherd. They have to. You know why I
get together with God's people? You know why I have to? Why I
have to gather? Especially when God sends something. I have to gather. Nothing keeps
me from it. You know why? Like sheep huddling
together, waiting to hear something from the shepherd. And boy, did
we. There's never a time that we
were more blessed. He's our great shepherd. I fear
not, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
that shadows everything, hovers over the whole. There is no dark
cloud over God's people. There is no dark cloud over God's
people. Fear not, ye saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds you so much dread
are filled with mercy and shall break with blessings on your
head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense. Behind the frowning face
he hides a wonderful prophet. Stupid sheep. They love grass. Sheep love grass. Do you love
what you're hearing right now? I'm just telling you what the
Lord said. I'm just preaching what he said. You love it. I
can't live without it. I don't wanna hear anything.
I wanna hear what God said, okay? And look at this, and I quote.
He said, fear not, little flock, it is your father, your father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom, your father. I had a
good father. Some of you knew him, didn't
you? He was a spiritual father to you, wasn't he? I'm so thankful, so thankful. I didn't appreciate him. I appreciate
him right now more than when he was alive. By the way, somebody
asked me the other day, I told him my father died. He
said, what'd he die from? I said, well, he's 93. Yeah, but what'd he die from? She's 93. He didn't die from anything. God
took him. Mom's 99. Somebody was afraid
for her, you know, during this outbreak. And I said, I said,
she wants to get it. She wondered why she's still
living. As a testimony to God's grace,
she's in every single service. She lives alone by God's grace
and she's in every service. Crawls up those stairs practically. She's in every service. That's
a witness to God's people. I wanna die just like that sitting
in a pew. Well, your father, We have a father,
God's people have a heavenly father. I had a good father.
We've got a great father, a heavenly father. You being evil know how
to get good, get, get. I don't know how to say it. Give good gifts unto your children.
Is there, is there anything you wouldn't
do for your children? Anything? If only they
knew. If my grandchildren, one time,
we did tell them, we told them to, we told them, everything
we own is yours. And I meant that. We don't need
it. We're too old to use most of it. Take it. And we told them,
write down, right now, write down a list of the things you
want. Well, boy, they did. Brady, they did. You know, Sophie
wanted the front door. I take it. We'll get another
one. My easy chair. That would be
hard to give up. I'll take it. Everything I have,
they want. Take it! Our Lord, your father, it's his
good pleasure to give you what? The kingdom. Not part of it. The whole thing. If those girls only knew that
my thoughts toward them are nothing but good, nothing but love, that
I would literally lay down my life without thinking about it,
that if they need it, if they want it, I would sell everything
I have to ensure their preservation. If they just knew that, well,
I'm here to tell you that that's our God, infinitely more than
that, infinitely more. Our Lord Jesus Christ is heir
of the kingdom. What's it say? That means he
gave, God gave him everything, everything. Ask of me, I'll give
you the heathen, everything. It all belongs to him. Heaven,
earth, and hell, the new earth, it all belongs to him. It says
we're joint heirs. Everything belongs to him, like
a husband and a wife. Everything I have belongs to
my wife, it does. And it just gives me great joy.
And that's our father. Are you a disciple of God? Are
you? Yeah. Did you need to hear that? Did you get any comfort from
that? Was God honored, God glorified, Christ exalted? Is that true
to God's word? And this is what he said. And
he says unto his people, fear not, it'll fly. It's your father's
good pleasure. It gave him great pleasure to
make you his people. It gave him great pleasure to
bruise his son, to send his son to Calvary's tree for you. It
gives him great pleasure to give unto you eternal life. And it's
gonna give him great pleasure someday to come back for you.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine? No, we can't.
Fear not. Fear not, okay? Okay, all right. Lord bless you.