2 Timothy chapter 2. I want to begin reading in verse
14 and read the remainder of that
chapter. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 14. Paul giving instructions here
to Timothy, the young preacher. Of these things put them in remembrance,
charging them before the Lord, that they strive not about words
to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain
babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. and their
word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus,
who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection
is past already, and overthrew the faith of some. Nevertheless
the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord
knoweth them that are his, and that every one that nameth the
name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are
not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and
of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore
purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor,
sanctified and fit for the master's use, and prepared unto every
good work. Flee also youthful lust, but
follow righteousness, faith, and love, and peace. with them
that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The foolish and
unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strives.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto
all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God preadventure will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth. that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him
at his will." Our subject this morning, I want you to think
with me for a few minutes, is instructing in meekness, or instructing
with meekness. Paul says you're instructing
in meekness, and that word instruction has to do with correction. It's teaching, but it has to
do with correction. In meekness, correcting or instructing
those that oppose themselves. Even those who stand against
the truth were to teach and were to instruct them. And try under
God and by the grace of God to correct their error or their
opposition to the gospel. And he says here that the servant
of the Lord must be apt to teach. Now he is speaking to those like
myself whom God has called to teach and preach publicly. But you know all of God's children
ought to be teachers. The instant the Lord saves a
person, they should have a testimony of what the Lord has done for
them. The Scripture says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say
so. If He's redeemed you and you're
aware of that, and I trust you are if He's redeemed you, then
you've got a testimony. No sooner had the Lord saved
that Gadarean, cast a legion of devils out of him. And I don't
know if that man could even read. But when the Lord saved him,
the first thing He told him was, to go tell your family, tell
your friends, your neighbors, what great things the Lord has
done for you. And that's what that man did.
He didn't go to a seminar. He didn't go present some system
of theology. He didn't go to his pastor and
say, what should I say? He went to his friends and neighbors
and told them what great things the Lord had done for him. and had had compassion on him. So I've just said this morning,
brothers and sisters, that all God's children should be teachers. We may not know how to articulate
a lot of things, but if we see somebody in error, sometimes
all it takes is giving them our testimony. Tell them what the
Lord has done for us. And so often that will correct
their error. And I trust this morning, if
the Lord has saved you, that you are telling people about
it. That you are witnessing to people as God gives you opportunity.
I've heard about people that had neighbors and co-workers
that they had lived by and worked with for years, and yet they
never knew that person professed to know the Lord. I don't understand
that, do you? Somebody made the statement,
if you were blind physically, and you had surgery and they
restored your eyesight, would you tell anybody about that?
Would you keep that quiet? I don't think you could. If you
were totally deaf and you hadn't ever heard the voice of anybody
or you had never heard the birds singing, and some miraculous
way they gave you your hearing, would you tell anybody about
that? Why, sure you would. If you were crippled from your
mother's birth and by some miraculous means they made you to walk and
you could run and leap, well, you'd be telling everybody about
that, wouldn't you? Well, of course you would. And
if you knew the most famous person in this world, If the most famous
person in this world was your friend, you'd tell everybody
about that. You'd be dropping his name everywhere,
wouldn't you? Well, how much more, brothers
and sisters, when we apply that spiritually? You and I are blind
spiritually. And the Lord gives us our sight. We see now. The darkness is past. Can you hide that and not tell
anybody about that? We're crippled from our mother's
birth, aren't we? We can't come to the Lord. We
can't follow Him. But He makes us to walk. And
we walk by faith. We're followers of God as dear
children. And you can't keep silent about
that. You're like the Gadarene. You
want to spread abroad His fame. And my goodness, to know the
Lord of glory, that's the most famous person in heaven or in
earth. And if you know Him, How could
you not tell people about it? So you may not be able to articulate
these deep doctrines, but I tell you what, you can tell people
who you know. There's a sign next to the door where you enter
Clarence and Gail's house, and it says, Do you know my Lord? And if you know Him, you can't
keep quiet about that, can you? You've got to tell everybody,
I know the Lord. Here's what the Lord has done.
for me. The Lord Jesus asked Peter one
day. He said, Peter, whom do men say
that I, the Son of Man, am? And he said, why, you're the
Christ. You're the Son of the living God. And brothers and
sisters, you can't know a more famous person than that, can
you? He's the most famous person in heaven or in earth. We should be teachers, shouldn't
we? All God's children should be teachers. Just tell what the
Lord has done for you. I remember a man by the name
of Apollos. He was a preacher, but he wasn't
preaching correctly. He was very firm in spirit, but
all he knew was the baptism of John. And he went about telling
everybody and preaching to everybody. You should repent and be baptized
and believe on Him that's to come. Well, that's what John
was preaching, wasn't it? But this man was preaching that
several years after the Lord had come and died and went back
to heaven. And there was a man and his wife.
As far as we know, they weren't preachers. I know she wasn't.
By the name of Priscilla and Aquila. And they took this man
aside And they taught him the way of the Lord more fully. They said, Apollos, listen, man,
you're really preaching and you're compassionate about this and
you're full of passion, but listen, you're wrong. The Lord Jesus
has came and He has atoned for sin. And now He's on the right
hand of God. And they straightened that old
boy right out. And then he went around preaching
the truth more clearly. And I'm just saying that's what
all of us should do. But brothers and sisters, we
know this from our text, that it's not just the truth that
we teach. There's something just as important,
and Paul tells us here about it, and that's the attitude in
which we witness and teach people. Did you notice that? The servant
of the Lord must not strive, but he must be gentle in meekness,
that is, in lowliness of mind and heart, instructing those
that oppose themselves. This word strive is only used
in this sense four times in the New Testament. And every time
it's used, it's used in a bad way. It's used in a good way,
strive is, strive to enter in at the straight gate. That's
a good way to use the word. It means labor. Apply yourself
to get through that straight gate. Give all your energy to
that. In other words, get to Jesus
Christ. Don't let anything stop you from
getting to Christ. So that's a good way to use.
But Paul here uses it in a bad way. It's a negative way. He
says here the servant of the Lord must not strive, and the
way Paul uses it here, he must not argue. He must not be a quarrelsome
fellow. He must not fight. James uses
it like this. You lust and have not, you kill
and desire to have, you cannot obtain, You fight and you war,
you strive and you war, and you have not. So Paul is telling
us here that when we witness and when we teach people, we
must not be argumentative. Well, there's a vast difference
between fighting and arguing, isn't there? It's good to reason. How many times are we told in
the book of Acts that Paul reasoned with the Jews out of the Scripture. And that's what we do. We sit
and reason with people out of the Scriptures. But there's a
vast difference in reasoning with somebody and fighting with
somebody and quarreling with somebody. You're better off not
to make an issue out of every subject. Be sure you learn that. I remember when the Lord first
saved me and nobody could say anything about any subject that
I didn't want in on. And looking back on those days
as a young Christian, I assure you of this, I did zero good.
I did zero good. All I wanted to do was argue.
I thought I knew everything. And my poor attitude was awful. There are some subjects you just
better off to leave alone. It don't profit anybody. Look
back over here in verse 14 that I read to you. Paul mentions
this. He says here in verse 14, Of these things put them in remembrance,
charging them before the Lord, that they strive not, argue not,
debate not about words to no profit, but to the subverting
of Now, I'll give you a good example of what Paul means here
when he says, don't strive about these words. There are certain
words, he said, and even subjects that's not worthy of debating
about. I was watching a debate the other
night between two pastors, and it went on for about an hour.
The best I could remember, it went on for about an hour. And
man, it got heated. passions was raw. And that debate
ended in confusion and turmoil. One of the debaters had to be
literally physically subdued and hauled out of the building.
And I watched it because I said, I've got to see how this ends.
They debated for a solid hour. And you know what the subject
was? You couldn't guess it if I gave you 15 minutes to try. Makeup. Two pastors. One was saying a woman shouldn't
wear any. The other was saying she could
wear some, but not too much. And they went on like that for
a solid hour in a heated debate and left mad at each other. And I started noticing, listening
to that debate, you know what was never mentioned? You know
who was never mentioned? The Lord Jesus Christ. You go and debate a solid hour
and never mention the name of Christ? Faith in Christ. The essential
of it was never mentioned. The absolute necessity of being
born again was never mentioned. Makeup. Is it all right for a
woman to wear a lot or little or none? And boy, they left. And they left divided. They left
subverted. How many people did they demolish?
That's what that word subverted means. To destroy, to demolish.
How many people did they drive away from the faith? If I'd have
been there in that debate and I'd have been lost, I'd have
said, man, I don't want to have anything to do with this. That's what Paul's talking about
here. There are some subjects that's just not worth talking
about and surely not worth debating. Sad to say that most of those
religious controversies that men have always produce a bad
effect. Most religious controversies
produce a bad effect because most of the time the matter in
dispute is of little importance. I'm not looking at you ladies'
face to see how much makeup you've got on. I don't care. I'm not
saying that any woman, any child of God should go around looking
like Jezebel. And she certainly has no business
being on the beach with her backside showing. But I'm saying I'm not
going to give myself to debate such things as where a woman
can wear makeup or not. See what I'm saying? That's what
Paul said here. I heard two men arguing. And
they argued about this, whether God could make a rock that he
couldn't pick up. Answer that one if you can. Can
God do everything one said? Yes, he can. Can he make a rock
that he can't pick up the other said? Well, you got me there,
he said. If you want an argument like
that, what have you got? Tell them to strive not about
these words and these subjects that do not matter. All they
do is divide people and subvert people. Run them away from the
faith. You're not likely to convince
a man that he's wrong if the first thing you're going to do
is make him mad at you. Do you know it? It matters how
we approach people. It matters how we testify to
people. Therefore, be gentle, be mild,
be respectful, and in meekness instruct in those that oppose
themselves. It's our aim. It should be the
aim of every church under God. To speak to people, to this lost
and dying world, with this aim in mind. Not to win an argument. Not to make them see how smart
we are and how well we're studied. But it should be our aim, brothers
and sisters, to bring men to a knowledge of the truth that
they might be saying. That should be the aim in our
talking to lost people. There's three things here concerning
repentance I want you to see in our text. And that's what
the Apostle Paul is speaking about. In meekness instructing
those, in verse 25, that oppose themselves, they oppose the truth,
if God perhaps will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. It's about repentance. There's
three things that the Apostle Paul says here about repentance. that I want us to look at just
for a minute. And first of all, we see in verse 25 that repentance
is vitally linked to the acknowledging of the truth. Repentance is not
just saying, I'm sorry. It's vitally linked to the acknowledging
of the truth. Vine's dictionary breaks this
word acknowledging down into three parts. I thought this was
very interesting. First of all, they give the definition
like this. It means to recognize a thing
for what it really is. To know something, to discern. You shall know the truth. You shall recognize the truth.
You shall discern the truth. We find that everywhere in the
scriptures, don't we? Listen to these passages. God
will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of
the truth. See two things there that's vitally
linked one to another. Salvation and the truth. You can't be saved without the
truth. Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth. Begotten us and truth are two
things that's vitally linked together. Seeing you have purified
your souls in obeying the truth. Purification of the soul is vitally
linked to knowing and believing the truth. When the Spirit of
truth is come, He will guide you unto all truth. John said, I've not written unto
you because you don't know the truth, but because you know it. You know the truth. And how vital is that, brothers
and sisters? Which vital to repentance is
it? Knowing the truth. David said this, Lord, lead me
in thy truth. Lord, teach me. Why, David, do
you want him to teach you? It's vitally linked to salvation. For thou art my God, the God
of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. So first of all, repentance is
vitally linked to knowing the truth. But there's a deeper meaning
here that Bynes gives to acknowledging, and it's this, and I love this,
it means also intense. It's intense. It's not just have
some facts in your head. It's to know the truth in your
heart. To know it intently. To grip
soundly, extreme in degree, even violent and severe. Have you
ever heard anybody say, that person's views are extreme? That's
what this means here. Is your views extreme? They are,
aren't they? You believe in one God, you going
to let that go? No, you're not. Boy, that's got a grip on your
heart, isn't it? You believe there's one mediator
between God and man? Only one? There's no woman between
death and Christ? Only Jesus Christ is the mediator? That's gripped your heart, hasn't
it? And you've bought that truth and you'd never sell it for anything. It's extreme knowledge. No wonder
the Lord Jesus Christ said, you shall know the truth. You're
going to know this in your heart to the point that it's going
to set you free. I know for myself that all through
my teenage years and up into my early twenties, I was bowed
down and lived with guilt and fear, fear of dying, fear of
facing God in my sin. But when I heard that Jesus Christ
had suffered and died for my sins, that came home to my heart
in such power that it freed me from my guilt and the dominion
of sin. It's extreme. It's not something
you can live without once you know it. There's no wonder those
German princes in Luther's day came before the council, the
Roman Catholic council, that told him, you're going to have
to keep your mouth shut. You've got to give up your Bibles.
And Luther said, here's the telling time. Here's where the rubber
meets the road. Are you going to give up the
truth or are you going to hold on to it? And he sent the princes to meet
with the Roman Catholic council and every one of with their huge
robes on, men of dignity, they bowed and stuck out their necks
and said, you can cut off our heads, but we won't give up the
truth. Why did they say that? That's
what this word acknowledgement means. It's extreme. It's got
into your heart. It's did a work there and you
can't let it go. What does the truth mean to you? Well, that's what that word acknowledge
means. You can't let the truth go. You can't leave it. You love
it. It means something else. Thirdly,
Vine says this, it means to confess. Well, if you've got the knowledge
of the truth and it came on with such power and light to your
mind, you can't help but confess it. When you know the truth in
your heart, I'm telling you, you're going to own up to it.
If somebody comes and calls you a sinner, you know what you're
going to say? That's true. That's true. You're so dogmatic,
you just believe in one way of salvation. That's true. That's
true. Confession. I acknowledge my
sin. That's what David said, isn't
it? When he was brought to the knowledge of the truth of who
he was and what he had done, he didn't hold back. And you
won't either if you acknowledge the truth. If it comes to your
heart, if we confess our sins, that's what that word acknowledge
means. It means a confession of the truth. You agree with
the Lord against yourself, don't you? So it's vitally linked to
repentance, the acknowledging of the truth. And Paul doesn't
tell us here in this verse what the truth is, does he? I know
this is not makeup, but he doesn't tell us what it is. We have to
go elsewhere to understand what truth he's talking about. But
if you read Paul's epistles, you know what the truth is. He's
talking about the truth of who God is. Acknowledging who God is. God
has been made known to your heart in His holiness. in His goodness,
in His justice, in His grace. God is a holy, eternal Spirit. And when you come to the knowledge
of Him, you've come to the knowledge of the truth about God. I used
to try to manipulate God. When I was in my teenagers, I
promised Him when I'd get afraid before I went to sleep of the
night, I'd promise Him all sorts of things. And I thought I could
manipulate Him and coach Him into giving me just one more
day in this world until I come to realize who He was. He cannot be manipulated. He
cannot be deceived. And He won't be mocked. He's
the eternal God of truth. And there's no darkness in Him.
And boy, when you come to know Him, that changes everything,
doesn't it? It's the truth about Jesus Christ, the Lord, that
He's come down from heaven, the eternal Son of God. He's taken
our humanity to Himself. And He's put away our sins by
the sacrifice of Himself. What good news that is! That's
the truth, isn't it? I am the truth. And boy, when
you come to know Him, that changes everything. And it's the truth
about ourselves. Aren't we a mystery to ourselves? Ain't it a mystery how a man
could live his whole life and not even know himself? There's people that live 80,
90, 100 years and don't even know their sinners. You know
that? But when the Lord brings us to
the knowledge of truth, we know ourselves. The Spirit searches
out the truth and He opens our hearts to it. And then when he
judges you, you can't deny it. He told that Canaanite woman,
it's not me to give the children's bread to the dogs. And she never
said, well, what do you mean, dogs? What are you calling me? You're awfully rude. What did
she say? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. What did she know? She knew the
truth, didn't she? She knew the truth about herself. So the first thing we see here
about repentance, it's linked to the acknowledging of the truth. The second thing about repentance,
and we have to deduct this, I guess, from the text here, but it's
true. It's necessary. It's absolutely necessary that
God gives us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. It's necessary to know the truth
before we can turn from sin and self to the Savior and bring
forth fruit worthy of repentance. The Apostle Paul taught repentance
everywhere, didn't he? He said, I teach it publicly,
just like I am this morning. And he said, I teach it privately.
When I go in to visit people's homes, I talk to them about the
necessity of coming to the knowledge of truth, and repenting of what
they are, and their rebellion against God, and believing in
Jesus Christ the Lord. Christ taught repentance. And
it seemed sort of harsh when he taught it. being the Lamb
of God that He is, He said one day, except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish. So that tells us that it's necessary,
doesn't it, to be brought to repentance. Repentance is a gift of God.
Notice what He says here in verse 25. That's the third thing. That
God would give Them repentance. Boy, it's a gift, isn't it? This
is not something we muster up. It's not something we say with
our lips. I'm sorry. I know I did wrong
and I'm sorry about that. It's coming to the knowledge
of the truth. And in that light, we begin to repent. And all of
our lives we repent, don't we? It's a gift. of God. You see that old publican standing
in the temple, and he's beating on his chest, and he's saying,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You know what that is? That's
the gift of God. That's the mercy of the Lord,
isn't it? That man didn't always feel that
way about himself. Why does he now? God has granted
him, gave him repentance. You see Paul on the Damascus
road and he's down in the dust and Christ has revealed himself
to him and now he's praying and now he's seeking the Lord. You
say, Paul, what in the world is wrong with you? He says, I've
obtained mercy. Oh, I tell you, it's a gift of
God, brothers and sisters, to be brought to the knowledge of
the truth and to repent. in the light of it. That's the
gift of God. They shall all be taught of God. I want people to know the truth,
don't you? I do. I want my neighbors to
know the truth. I have children. I want them
to know the truth. You have friends and loved ones.
I want them to know the truth. But there's only one way they're
going to know it. And that's God grants it to them. if that
God gives it to them. You can't talk them into it.
Some of you are old enough to remember Dr. Howell up in Hammond,
Indiana. He had the first mega church
in the United States. Jack Howells. He wrote a book
on how to win souls. And in the book, and I read this
myself, he said, I can win a soul to Christ on an elevator between
the first and second floor. He may win them to himself. But
nobody can do that. Nobody can take a lifetime and
win a soul that way. It's God that grants repentance. They shall all be taught of God. I've won some people. I have
won some people and lost every one of them. They're not around. They're gone. Except the Lord
build the city. They labor in vain who build
it. It's a gift of God, isn't it?
Now look in verse 26. Speaking about really in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves. And look what he
says in verse 26. This is one of the reasons it's
necessary to be brought to the knowledge of the truth that they
may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are
taken captive by him at his will." Well, we talk about our wills.
We talk about the will of God being sovereign. And here we
see something about our chief enemy. He has a will too. And
you know what his will is? This is his aim, and he aims
at nothing else. He is a black fallen spirit. And his aim is to damn every
soul that he can. Keep them in his prison house
of darkness until the last breath leaves their body and damns them
forever. That is his aim. I come to realize as a young
man that I was a slave to my sins and my guilt. But I had
no knowledge, brothers and sisters, that I was Satan's slave. There
are some things about our salvation that we have to look in the rearview
mirror to see. And this is one of them. We are
slaves to Satan. He had us pinned behind his bars. in darkness and we could not
escape. We could not get out until the
Savior come and frees us from His bondage. We hear all the
time now, you need to make your decision for Christ. How often
do we hear that? Need to get in church and accept
the Lord. Need to do this and you need
to do that. And those people have no idea
of the condition they're in. And here's the condition they're
in. They're slaves. They're in bondage to that powerful
spirit called Satan. And you can't get out of that.
You can't get out of that. And people don't even know it.
And I don't think anybody wants out of it. until the Lord makes
them sick and gives them the truth. Knowing the truth, how could
you and I ever rise up out of the dust in our pride? I think a Christian sometimes
should find him an old log road with a deep rut in it, and that's
what his life should be, just crawling along that rut. And
to even raise up our head is sinful, isn't it? We've got one
person we can glory in, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't
glory in ourselves. We can't do nothing in and of
ourselves. We glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. How could we pretend that we
made ourselves to differ? What should you and I be telling
lost people when we talk to them? I contend that we should say
this, I know where you're at because I've been there. I was
born like you and I live like you. I know where you're at.
I mean, you came from the same cloth. We're both sinners in
need of a Savior. Ain't that what we should tell
people? I'm not out for winning an argument. I'm not out for
knocking my enemy down and go away grinning at him. I'm out
for helping him. And when one sinner tells another
sinner where he can get bread, where he can get salvation, I
think that's the way we should testify to people. Meekness is something you can't
fake. People will see through it, won't
they? It's not a pretended meekness. You've got to really have it
in your heart. It shows itself if you don't
have it when you start talking. It even shows itself when you
start praying if you're not really meek. There are those who talk
about being saved, and yet pride is flowing from them. I don't
know how this works, but they talk about election, and they
don't talk about it with humility. They talk about it as though
they had something to do with it. I'm one of God's elect. I'm one of His elect. He chose
me. What did you have to do in that?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. How could we be proud, brothers
and sisters? How could we look down our nose
at anybody? There is not a man in this world
or a woman in this world that is so open and profane that you
and I should not be willing to sit down by and say, I know where
you are at. I was there. And my Savior can
deliver you just like He delivered me. Humbleness of mind. That is where
we need to be, isn't it? I want you to look in Acts chapter
20, and I will read this to you and we will close. Acts chapter
20 and verse 17. In meekness, in humility, in
lowliness of mind, instructing those that oppose themselves.
Acts chapter 20 and look in verse 17. This is where Paul called
the preachers. And he had one last message for them. In Acts
chapter 20 and verse 17. And from Miletus, He sent to
Ephius and called the elders of the church. And when they
were come to him, he said unto them, You know from the first
day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with
you at all times, all seasons." Look at this. Serving the Lord
with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptation
which befell me by the line and weight of the Jews. And I kept
back nothing that was profitable unto you, but showed you and
taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both
to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul taught publicly And he taught
privately. And he taught repentance. He
taught the truth. And he prayed for men, even those
reprobate Jews, that God would be pleased to save them. But
here is the attitude that he taught in, in all humility of
mind. You know why you and I have trouble
sometimes witnessing to people? I'll tell you what our trouble
is. First thing we think about, we want people to know just how
smart we are. I want to tell somebody something
new. I want to shock them. I want
to impress them. And it's difficult to witness
in that attitude, is it not? But when our minds are filled
with humility, when we're like the Master, who was meek and
lowly in his heart. It gets so much more easy to
witness to people because you are not trying to get outside
yourself. You are just telling them what
Christ the Lord and Savior has done for you. Try that. Try that. I was talking with a lady. I
was up north talking with a lady. I knew her pastor very well. And my wife at that time stayed
all night with her and her kids. And she sat us down before we
went to bed. And man, she just taught us and
taught us and taught us and taught us and turned to this Scripture
and that Scripture. And when she got up and left,
I looked at her Bible. It was all her pastor's notes. I wonder if she knew anything
herself. It didn't impress me. If I want
to hear a pastor preach, I'll go hear it from him. Who do you
know? Do you know the Lord? Then tell
me about Him. And don't do it by trying to
cram something down my throat. Do it with meekness and lowliness
and gentleness and show some respect. Because if you make
me mad, I ain't going to listen to you. And I can be made mad. That old fellow that they carried
out the other night in the debate, I said, man, I can relate to
you. I'd have been mad too. In meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves. Our Father, we thank
You for Your Word. Thank You for the Spirit of promise. Thank You for our Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank You for teaching us that
we're nothing and less than nothing. Thank You for teaching us that
You are all and all. We are nothing without You, Lord.
We can't know anything. We can't do anything. We are
absolutely nothing and less than nothing. But You are all and
all. Give us grace to go tell others
what You have done for us in this day when error is so prominent. even in our churches, give us
grace to gently but firmly sit down with people and tell them
about our Lord and His sovereign grace. For Christ's sake we ask. Amen. I want to come and let's
sing 118. Page 118. An old hymn of Isaac Watts that goes
along good with the message. Page 118. Why don't you stand
with me? 118. When I survey the wondrous cross on
which the Prince of My riches gained I count but
loss, And for contempt all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that
I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm
me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. Seeth from his head, his hands,
his feet, Sorrow and love flowing cold out. Did e'er such love
and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? were the whole realm of nature
mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so
divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. A couple of announcements. John is going in for an ablation. Is it the 19th, John? Kathy? Please remember John. Brenda's
going in for hip surgery this very same day, the 19th of this
month. So please remember them. John's
been going through a tough time, and I'm sure Kathy has too. It's
been a terrible time. She's what? She's got a strong
back. It's getting stronger. She's
had to be strong. This is tough, John. We've been praying for
you and Kathy both. And it's such a joy to see you
two. Such a delight to see you. And
Brenda, she was here last Sunday, but she's in so much pain she
can't already walk. Sidney and I went up and saw
her the other day, and she can't already walk. She's in so much
pain. So please remember them. Jean Anne is coming back. When,
Marcia? She said next week. Next week. Jean Ann's coming back, so looking
forward to that. Unless she changes her mind.
Unless she changes her mind. So it's good to know that she's
feeling like coming home. Anything else before we go? We
have any birthdays or anniversaries, Kim? I'm not here. People aren't here
to have a birthday. Okay, people aren't here to have a birthday.
If they're not here, we don't have anything to do with it.
We don't sing for them, do we? Okay. The Lord bless you. Your youngest sister? Oh, my. How old is she, Cora? Fifty-one. What's her name? Remember Beverly, Cora's sister.
Anybody else? Okay, Jack, I want to hear about
your trip to New York City and Chicago. It's rainy everywhere. Rainy everywhere. You think you'll wind up in New
York City? I got a job in New York. You got a job in New York? Man, does anything good come
out of New York City? Now they've got Jack. Well, we can say now, yes, something's
good in New York City. Jack's there. He may do it. The Lord may use
him to turn that city upside down. And he went to Chicago. Well,
these young people, they've got more nerve than I've got. Brad
and Sarah's kids are scattered out of Colorado, California,
and now it's going to be New York. From coast to coast, they've
got kids scattered out. All righty, you're at liberty
to go. The Lord bless you. Thank you. I like your hair a lot. Are you
going to keep it like that? I do, I really like it. Does
Glenn like it? He says he does, but he don't
care. I think it suits your complexion. Yeah, I think. Is it going to
stay this color now or is it going to keep getting gray? It'll
keep getting gray the rest of the time. This right here is
all natural. That's all my natural color right
there. I still got a little blonde in
the front, you know, where I was highlighting. They tell me these
young girls are paying to get that color. Yeah. I'd keep it
if I was you. There's so much harshness and
so much chemicals that goes into putting that stuff on. And that
may get down in your system too. Yeah, it's got to. That's good, that's good. I hope
you... Believe me. To make it, you'll
have to just have that for yourself. It's a good message. Thank you. Thank you, Wanda. Thank you.
Getting in line. It's just like having a new visitor,
you know, the first time you walk in. Everybody's just all
over you. I'm trying, but everybody will
be happy. You doing alright ma'am? Take
care of yourself would you? I'd love to come up sometime. We'll come up sometime to sit
and talk. I ain't come to look at your house. What house is
a mess? I don't care. Come look at your house. Maybe
we should go out for lunch or something. That would be good. We used to do it, and now it's
just... Sometimes light, sometimes dark. Every single day, I have so many
things to do. You know, get him the band, pick him up, and all
my issues. I don't know what you're missing. Call me when you get some time.
I'd love to sit and talk. Yeah, maybe I can arrange for
Linda, too. Let me pass your briefs. I got something in here.
Thanks a bunch. Yeah, I have to ask Linda, too. Maybe we can
get together and go and have... Yeah, that'd be good. Okay. That'd
be good. I'm tired too. I bet you're tired. I'll be careful going home. You gotta do it for today. Did you ride with Bill? Yeah,
I'll go over there and take Bill back to the house. You're in
trouble. Yeah, I know. Bill, you might
miss Chan. Tell him we missed him. Yeah,
I will. I want you to remember Chan. He's in a really dark place. Chan? Yeah. I thought he was
doing better. Well, he thought he was doing
better because he thought I was going to be his, like, I'm his
salvation or something, and I'm not. It's Christ that has to
give us our peace and stuff. I told him, I said, if you want
to read my Bible every morning, because I said it's important,
that's what's important in my life. And he said, well, I've
read it three times. He said, no, he's an engineer.
He's smart. And I said, yeah, I know him. He said, I just don't seem to
get anything out of it. I said, well, that's my life,
you know. So, you know, there's a real
big thing there. I could never be, you know, if there was even
the slightest thought, no, because that's I didn't realize he was so depressed. Yeah. He just seems to think
that I make him so mad. I can't make him mad. So, you
know, I'm still mad because, you know, I don't want to, because
then he sent me a text saying he wanted to know if I thought
I was better than the other stuff, and he was married. But you don't
know me because I'm not like that. I don't think I'm like
that. I thought, well, you know. I
hope you can stay in contact with him without... Yeah, but
I... It's difficult to do that. But
I can. It's difficult. I agree. Yeah, it's difficult
to do that at all. I know, and I... It jumps to
conclusions. Yeah, I can't, I can't, you know. And I don't want to
hear, I've talked to him and talked to him and I can't, to
make him understand. Yeah, because I can't. I can't
do it. And the fact that he's walked
peace from He's mad at me because I won't
go out with him. So he went up somewhere, and
he was going to go sit by a lake. He built a place in the middle
of the lake. Did you know he went somewhere? He went somewhere. I don't know.
He pulled me out over a lake. But you know, I didn't say this,
but our mentality is to just know. You're not the match. Oh, no,
there's no way. And I told him, I said, because
he said, well, you know, you need to be different. Because
he said, if you're the same, it would be boring. I said, well,
me and Bob were the same. And I don't consider us as being
boring, because we enjoyed the same thing. You need to remember him. He's
really... I'll call him. I'll call him.
I need to call him. I appreciate you letting me know
that. Yeah, because he's in a dark spot. I didn't know that he was...
I thought he was feeling pretty good. He was. That shows how little I got a
little discernment about him. Well, the thing is, is he thought
that I was, you know... But I can't do that. I can't.
I just, no. I can't. You're going to have
to leave me alone. Just like I did. You got me through. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Take care. Okay. I'm
trying to get this thing on. I think I'm still recording.