In Philippians chapter 3, and
I want to begin reading this morning in verse 1. Philippians
chapter 3 and then verse 1. Finally, my brother, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. It is
profitable for you. It is good for you. Repetition
is a good thing. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof,
he might trust in the flesh. I more. Circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew
of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, I was blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ's,
and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is
of the but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power
of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made confirmable unto his death. If by any means I may
attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I
had already attained, Neither were already perfect, but I follow
after, if that I might apprehend, may apprehend that for which
also I am apprehended of Christ. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I want to title my message today,
and I want to title it with a question. I want to ask the question, and
it's just a short question, five words in this question. You'll
be able to remember the title of this message. And this is
the most serious question that you and I or anyone will ever
be asked in all our lives. It's the most serious question.
It's the most searching question. It's the most, well, it will determine where
you and I spend eternity. It's a very, very awakening question. I worked with a man for many,
many years in the factory. And one day we were standing
there at the clock, ready to clock out. And to my surprise,
he said to me, do you know that I went to the seminar? And I
asked him this question, and his answer to this question was
no. And when he answered my question
no, he bowed his head, and I think he realized, as I did, that all
his seminar training was in vain. That's how serious an awakening
and searching this question is. The question that I would ask
today is not, if you died, if you died today, do you believe
that you would go to heaven? That's not my question. That's
a serious question. And it deserves an honest answer. One that only God would bear
witness to. But that's not the question.
The question is not even, have you been barned again? That's
a serious question. But my question is one much more
serious even than that. And it's this. Do you know the
Lord? Do you know the Lord? That's a searching question,
isn't it? That's a serious question. If we don't know the Lord, we
don't have eternal life. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. If we don't know the Lord, we'll
get in our sins. We'll get guilty before God.
All shall know me from the least to the greatest, for I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more." What a searching question. Do you
know the Lord? Someone might say, Bruce, I've
been religious most of my life, and I'm not here this morning
to argue with you or anyone. about your religion. It may be
a good religion. There is a pure religion, even
before God and the Father. But there's a bad religion. But
it's not my point today to ask you, are you a religious person? That's not the question. Do you
know the Lord? And someone might say this this
morning, Bruce, I've gone to church for most of my life. I've not only been religious,
as most people are, but I've gone to church most of my life. I've attended worship services. And I tell you, if you've attended
a place of worship where the truth is preached as it is in
Jesus, I commend you. Everybody should attend the worship
service. I wish this place would be full
of people every time these doors are opened. But that's not the
question, is it? That's not the question I want
to ask this morning. Someone might say this, I read
my Bible often. I've read my Bible through. That's
wonderful. I wish everybody would read the
Word of God. Hear, O earth, the Word of the
Lord. Search the Scriptures. Let the
Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Everybody should read the Scriptures.
That's why we have Bibles in our pews. If somebody forgets
their Bible, we've got one here. If somebody comes here and doesn't
have a Bible, we'll buy you a Bible. But that's not the question,
is it? The question is not, do you search the scriptures? Do
you read the scriptures daily? The question is this, and it's
even much more serious than that. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Somebody might say this, Bruce,
I pray. I am a praying person. I pray
daily. I pray often. And I tell you,
I've got no negative thing to say about prayer. I often think
of the verse of Scripture when I'm praying myself, that God
sent His Son into this world to teach all men to pray and
not to faint. Pray without ceasing. Everybody
ought to pray. Everybody ought to be callers
upon the name of the Lord. And you know we've even got a
warning from the prophet that said this, Lord pour out your
fury upon the families of those who call not upon your name.
You know there's whole families that never pray. There's whole
families that they leave their houses in the morning. They never
seek the face of God. They eat their meals and never
give thanks for it. They lay their heads down of
the night upon their pillows. They never stop and commit their
souls to God. There's whole families that never
pray. There'll be families in hell
that have never prayed. But that's not my question either.
As important as that is, my question is not, do you pray? Do you know
the Lord? What a searching question that
is. Somebody might say this, Bruce, I have a hope. I have
a hope of heaven when I die. And I tell you, if it's a good
hope through grace, if it's a hope that God has given to you, I
bless Him for it. I bless Him for you. There was
a funeral home director that said he had been in the funeral
home business and buried people for thirty years. He had never
buried the first man without some kind of hope. Almost everybody is having hope.
If you've got a good hope, if it comes time that you leave
this world before I do and I preach your funeral, I'll bless God
for a good hope that you had. But that's not my question this
morning. My question is even much more serious and awakened
and certain than that. Do you know the Lord? Now, Bruce, why do you say all
of these things? Well, a person may be religious.
A person may be religious and not know the Lord. How often
does that happen? A person may attend worship services. Ananias and Sapphires was in
the church service when the Lord killed them for lying to the
Holy Ghost. Many, many attend the worship
service who do not know the Lord. A man may read the Scriptures.
A woman may read the Scriptures. The scribes and Pharisees printed
them and hung them on their foreheads and on their bodies and their
clothing. They copied them. They quoted them. They could
call them to mind. They memorized them. But they
didn't know the Lord of the Scriptures. They didn't know who the Scriptures
revealed. The Lord Jesus Christ. And how many as we read the Scriptures
do we read about praying often? They loved to pray. Did they
not? They loved to pray on the street corners. They loved to
pray in the synagogues. They loved to pray in the widow's
houses. But just to be seen of men. And they didn't know the Lord.
And aren't we told about the hope of the hypocrite which shall
perish? There is a hope. That's a good
hope through grace. But there's a hope of the hypocrite
which shall perish. Now, how can I confront you with
these things this morning? How can I seek to take all of
these things from you and leave you with nothing but do you know
Christ without you being offended? Well, here's how I can be confident
with stripping all of these other things away and be confident
that you're not offending me for this reason. If you know
the Lord Jesus Christ, now listen to this, if you know the Lord
Jesus Christ, that knowledge of Him is so excellent that everything
else is worthless in comparison to that knowledge. You want it
stripped away. You'd be content if everything
else was taken away but the Lord Jesus Christ. and knowing him. That's why Paul said here in
verse 8, he said, I count all things lost. Why, Paul? For the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus. This word, excellency, it means
of the highest esteem. The Amplified commentary quotes
this like this. He gives the definition of excellency,
and he says, the priceless privilege, the overwhelming preciousness,
the surpassing worth and supreme advantage of knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ. The excellency, Glenn, of knowing
him. And here's one way that you and
I know. that our knowledge of him is a saving knowledge because
it is excellent. Would you trade your knowledge
for someone else's knowledge of Christ? Even in the times
when you're severely tried, when your understanding is terribly
darkened, when your faith is so weak, you would not trade
your knowledge of Christ for someone else's. Why? Because
knowing him is excellent. There was a time when you did
not know Him. You knew something about Him,
but that's all. You talked about Him, but that's
all. But now you know Him. You've been brought to the knowledge
of Jesus Christ. And oh, what an excellent knowledge
it is. Did you ever wonder when Zacchaeus
was called down out of the tree by the Lord Jesus Christ? And
the Lord Jesus said, Zacchaeus, I'm going to abide at your house
today. I'm going home with you. And I tell you, he not only went
to his house, he went to his heart. Didn't he? He went to
his heart. And you know what that made that
man say? Something spontaneous happened
to him. He was a rich man. And when the
Lord called him down and made himself real to him, he said,
Lord, the half of my goods I'll give to the poor. And if I've
cheated anybody, if I've falsely accused anybody, I'll repay them
for it all. Half of my goods? Some people
have a problem paying ten percent. Half of my goods? Why would he
say that? Why would he be honest in saying
that? I tell you, everything else was secondary. Everything
else was lost in comparison to this knowledge of Jesus Christ
that he just came to. That woman of Samaria that took
her pot, I don't know what that water pot cost her, but she was
probably a poor woman. She came to Jacob's well to fill
up that pot. And the Lord Jesus Christ met
her there and converted her. We've heard that Christ comes,
she said, I that speak unto thee am here. And what did that woman
do? Why, she was beside herself,
wasn't she? She left her waterpot. She forgot her water. And she
went back to all of those men and said, come see a man that's
told me all things that ever I did. Is this not to Christ? and excellent knowledge. You'll see those blind men when
the Lord Jesus healed them. I think often of blind Barnabas
sitting there begging, crying out, Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. And the Lord called him right
up in front of himself. and said, What do you want me
to do? He said, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And the Lord
gave him his sight. And who was the first man that
he saw in all his life? He was Christ, the Son of David,
the Son of God. And you know what the Scripture
says that man did? Can you imagine the people that he loved and
had never seen before? He had never seen his parents.
He had never laid eyes on his siblings. He had people that
he knew and loved and never seen them. Instead of going home and
seeing them, you know what he did? He followed Christ in the
way. Oh, his eyes had got a glimpse
of the Son of God, and he was satisfied with that. I want no
more. That's what it is to know Christ.
That's what it is. It's an excellent knowledge. surpassing, surprising knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul tells us here in my text
why the knowledge of Christ was so excellent to him. He tells
us that here in verses 4 through verse 6, and let me explain it
to you this way. Here in verse 4, look at it again.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, If any man think
that he have whereof he might trust in the flesh, get that
now. Get that. Trust in the flesh. I'm over. Paul had these two
things. The first one was this trust
in himself. Trust in himself. This is what
the Lord told us about these Pharisees. Remember the parable
in Luke 18 He told us about the Pharisees, and Paul was a Pharisee.
He spake a parable to those who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous. Now, God has taught us. God has taught me, and He's taught
you. And sometimes it's difficult
to relate to Paul before his salvation, before the Lord saved
him. It's difficult to relate that a man could really believe
and think in his heart that he is good enough and that he does
good enough, that his works are pure enough, that he can work
his way and merit his way into the presence of a holy God. Ain't that difficult for us to
even talk about anymore? Did you used to think that? I
used to think that. I tried that for years. Paul
said right here, I could trust in myself more than anybody else
could trust in their self. Self-trust. Thinking, thinking that he could
earn and work his way into the presence of God. You know what
the scripture says about that. Every way of man is clean in
his own eye. Is that right? Is that so? Could man be so deceived that
he says, my ways are clean? There is a way that seems right
unto man, but to him there are other ways of death. Could a
heart be so deceitful to say, I am a righteous man? I can trust
in myself that I'm good. That's what Paul said about himself. Trusting in the flesh. Can you
imagine how he felt when the Lord of glory appeared to him
on the Damascus road? Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? Lord? Who are you? Whoever you are,
you're obviously the Lord. I see your glory. You're God. Who are you? I'm Jesus whom thou persecuted."
And for the first time in this man's life, he realized that
he was a deceived man, that his heart had deceived him. He thought
before that he was a righteous man doing the will of God. But now suddenly he saw that
he was against God. Don't you think he was overwhelmed
with despair when he saw this? He was so full of confidence
in himself. I'm a good man. I'm a righteous
man. God is well pleased with me.
And now suddenly all that is stripped away. It's burned in
ashes before his feet. And here now, a man that was
thinking all his life that he was doing the will of God, suddenly
realized he was God's enemy. Heaven is for me. And now he
realized, I have been against heaven. Can you imagine how that
man felt? There was a young man when my
daughter was still home. to pick my daughter up one afternoon
to go someplace. And he had to come in. They don't
do that much anymore. The girl just goes out, but he
had to come in. And I sat and talked to him for a while. My
daughter just conveniently wasn't ready. So me and him sat and
had a conversation. And I found out he was a religious
young man. So I began to talk to him about
the Lord, about his soul. What do you think of Christ?
And I asked him the question. I said, he talked about, you
know, walking with God and Him and God having the fellowship
and the friendship. I said, well, that's good. Have
you ever been an enemy of God? Has it ever dawned upon you that
there was a time when your mind was at enmity with God? He said,
oh my, I've never been God's enemy. I've never been against
Heaven. I said, what would you do? How
would you feel if suddenly God brought you to realize that while
you're standing here talking to me, you are His enemy? And
he said, that would scare me to death. That would scare me to death.
Well, here was a man that in his own apprehension had never
been an enemy of God. And now suddenly he realizes,
I have been. I'm not a righteous man at all.
I'm a bad man. I'm not a friend of God. I'm
God's enemy. I'm not saved. I'm lost. That's
where he found himself. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
it's a dangerous thing to be saved before you're lost. It's
a dangerous thing to be healed before you find out you're sick.
It's a dangerous thing to talk about reconciliation until you
find out you're the enemy of God. And here's what he said. Can
you imagine how he felt? Saul, Saul, you're against heaven. You're against me. You have been
all your life. You think you're a good man,
a righteous man. You've got all this confidence
in yourself. But I tell you, you're wrong. You're wrong. You're lost. And there he lay. There he lay
in the dust before the Lord of Glory. And all his goodness was
just heaped up in ashes at his feet. Imagine how he felt. Can
you imagine? He was overwhelmed with confusion,
overwhelmed with darkness, overwhelmed with despair. What am I going
to do now? There's no hope in myself. This
righteousness that I've been boasting of is filthy rags. What
am I going to do now?" Then he found out some wonderful news,
that this righteousness that he had been trying to produce
all his life had already been accomplished by another man,
the God-man, Jesus Christ the Lord, the Son of God. Oh my, when he by faith laid
hold of this, that Jesus Christ was his righteousness, by his
own obedience he has saved me, by his own obedience he has justified
me. Oh, the good news was so wonderful,
was so wonderful. He came to the knowledge of it.
He said, oh, what an excellent knowledge. Oh, Christ my Lord,
He's done everything that God requires to deliver me. He's
brought in this everlasting righteousness, and now He's given it to me.
Oh, that's why you find Him here saying, I rejoice in Christ Jesus. And I count all of my former
righteousness but done. I cast it to the dunghill that
I may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. I want
the righteousness of Christ, he said. Oh, and it's excellent. It's excellent. He never got
over it, did he? I tell you, we read this sometimes and we
forget how amazing this is. It's difficult to strip a man
out of what he's trusting in. If he's established in this deception
for years and years and years, he's not going to let it go.
It takes God to root it out of it. And here's a man that said,
all my religion and all my works and all my righteousness, it's
lost. It's done. Give me Christ. Give me Christ. What does it
mean to know the Lord Jesus Christ? It means the knowledge you have
of Him is an excellent knowledge. And everything else means nothing
in comparison to that. Paul wrote some wonderful things
about the righteousness of Christ after that. He said, As by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. That's pretty
narrow, isn't it? You mean it's not my obedience
plus his? No, it's just the obedience of
one, him, him. He lost all confidence in me,
and now all of his confidence is in him. What an excellent
knowledge. He says this also, Of God are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, And listen to this, God hath
made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him, in Him, in Him. Dear old John Bunyan, if you've
never read any after John Bunyan, get his Pilgrim Progress and
read Pilgrim Progress. He was in jail at the time, the
Bedford jail, when he wrote it. But he came to the same knowledge
that the Lord had brought Paul to. And he said, it's an amazing
thing, it's a wonderful thing, that I, a poor sinner upon this
earth, could have the righteousness of one who is in heaven. And he never got over that. He
never got over that. You read the book of Psalms,
read Psalm chapter 71 sometimes, and you look there at what David
says about the righteousness of Christ. Lord, deliver me in
your righteousness. Save me by your righteousness. I will make mention of your righteousness,
even of yours only. Righteousness. It's only our self-trust and
self-righteousness. It's only when they're burned
at our feet. Well, we rejoice in Christ Jesus
and count it an excellent knowledge to know Him. Paul, you have the righteousness of
Christ now. You say to know Him is an excellent knowledge. How
does that affect you in your daily life? I bet you're a mean
rascal. I bet you just turn loose the
reins of your lust and live like you want to live. If you believe
that you're saved by another man's righteousness and his obedience,
why, you'd just turn loose the reins. You'd live like the devil.
But you know what he says in verse 10, O that I may know him. Not, O, I think I'll leave him. Not, O, I have no more interest
in him. This was such an excellent knowledge. He said, Oh, this is my aim. This is my goal. This is my ambition. This is my end. I gave myself
over to no nothing but Him. When everybody else was in bed,
you'd see the light on in Paul's kitchen. He was reading. He was praying. Oh, let me know
Christ. But Paul, you do know him. Oh,
I know so little. Let me know him better. He was having a conference at
Brother Henry Mahan's. And at that time, I think he
had pastored that church there on 13th Street for 40-something
years. Such a faithful pastor. Such a faithful pastor. What
a blessing God had made Henry Mahan to so many people. And
there was a few men there in the motel room, and Henry, after
one of the services, he came in to visit with those men there
in the motel room. And one of them told me that
Henry came in the door and just sat down on the bed and bowed
his head and said, Oh, that I may know Christ. That I may know
Christ. That's what I'm talking about.
If you really know Him, then you want to know Him. And you'll
never get over it until you see Him face to face. And you know Him as He is. Oh,
an excellent knowledge. I tell you, it made Paul realize
everything I am, the good person I thought I was, to earn my way
into God's presence. I see now what a vile thought
that was in and of itself. But I found salvation in another. But secondly, and right quickly,
and this is my final point, we see something else here concerning
Paul. Not only that he had been put
in all of his trust in himself, but there was something else,
and we are told that here in verse 6. And this is something
that Paul had never been confronted with. He had never acknowledged
this. He had never confessed it. And
that was his guilt. See what he says here in verse
6? Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law. Look at this. Blameless. Blameless. I could not be blamed
for anything. that I did. I kept the law perfect. Now this was his opinion of himself. This was his opinion, not God's
opinion of him now. This was his opinion of himself. You think he was brainless? How could he have been? Whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. You know the only way to keep
the law was through faith. Through faith, Moses kept the
Passover and the sprinkling of blood. To keep the law according
to the will of God was, when you kept the Sabbath a day, and
you bet Paul never broke the Sabbath a day outwardly. But
when you went to his house on the Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath,
you know what you did? You sat down and you never done
anything. You didn't even walk so much
as far as you could throw a stone. They killed a guy in the Old
Testament for picking up sticks to build a fire with. The Sabbath
was very strict. And Paul said, I've kept it.
But here's the problem about keeping the Sabbath. Those men
looked at that dead rest, and by faith, they saw the finished
work of Christ upon the cross. And that rest that every believer
was to enter into. And if you didn't keep it through
faith, you didn't even understand the Sabbath. When Aaron went into the most
holy place with the blood of those sacrifices, you know what
he saw in that? He looked through that blood
and he saw the blood of Christ. He saw Christ going into the
most holy place and sprinkling his blood before God Almighty
to obtain eternal redemption for him and all of his people. That's what he saw by faith.
Everything had to be seen in the law by faith. You must see
Christ in it. When you brought a sacrifice,
it just wasn't bringing a sacrifice. Through faith you saw the Son
of God, the Passover, the true sacrifice. And you know something? When the Apostle Paul kept the
Sabbath day, he didn't see Christ in it. When he offered the sacrifices,
he didn't see Christ in it. He had no faith. The law was
our schoolmaster to bring us into Christ. It never brought
Paul there until God opened his heart to let him see Christ in
it. The Pharisees told the Lord Jesus,
We have no sin. Ain't that what they say? We
don't have any sin. I wonder if when Paul brought, he said
concerning the ceremony law, I was blameless. I wonder if
he ever brought a sin offering. I bet he brought Thanksgiving
offerings and peace offerings. I bet you he never brought a
sin offering. I bet none of those Pharisees brought a sin offering.
You know why? They said we don't have any sin. We don't have any sin. I'll tell you something else
you don't have. You don't have a Savior either. You don't have a Savior
either. Those sacrifices themselves pointed
to a Savior, did they not? The very fact that you brought
blood of an innocent victim says that I'm in need to be washed.
Paul never saw that, did he? He never saw that. Oh, he was
blameless outwardly. when he kept this law. But God
doesn't look upon outward action. He looks upon the heart. And
there's where he was wrong. There's where he was wrong. Blameless? Blameless? Blameless? He had never accepted
the fact that he was guilty before God. The boy he did right here
when the Lord Jesus smote him, struck him down. He began to
see sin in the best duties that he ever performed. He had never
seen them done before. Going back to dear old John Bunyan,
he got very religious. He said he amazed himself how
strict he got in his life. He said, I used to cuss, used
God's name in vain. And he said, suddenly I just
stopped. And he used to lie and he just quit. A lot of things
you begin to do. And he said, I amazed myself
how straight and strict I got in my lifestyle. But he said
he heard two old ladies talking one day. And they was talking
about the love of Christ. And he said, I realized right
there, I did not understand the love of Christ. I knew nothing
of the love of Christ. And he said, this is what he
said about himself. He said, I began to see sin in all my
religious duties. And he said, the more I thought
of it, the more I realized, not only did I see sin in my religious
duties, but my sin had corrupted all my religious duties. That's what Paul earned. That's
what Paul earned. All my religious duties that
I thought was blameless, now I see it's nothing but sin. It's nothing but sin. Do you
often see sin in your duties? Has God taught you what he taught
Paul? Do you ever see sin in the religious things that you
do? Do you ever see self in it? Self-promotion? Self-will? Unbelief? How does that make you feel about
yourself? Does it make you abhor yourself?
You say with Job, now I see you. I've heard about you, now I see
you. I see how holy you are now. I see how righteous you are now.
And I abhor myself." How do you feel about yourself? We're living
in a day of self-esteem run amok. Where our kids in school are
filled with such an opinion of themselves, you can't get along
with them. You look at them cross-eyed and
they're ready to kill you. But when God teaches a man, what
does he teach him? I'm a sinner. Nobody in this
world any worse than I am. That's how we begin to feel about
ourselves. Oh, wretched man that I am. Here was a man that used
to say, I'm better than any man. And now he says, I'm the worst
man that ever lived. Ain't that what he said? The
chief of sinners. How do you feel about yourself?
will go very far in telling me and your own heart how you feel
about Christ. How do you feel about Him? Is
He precious? Is His blood precious? There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. What is your estimation of that
fountain? Is it precious? Is it precious? O precious fountain that saves
from sin, I am so glad that I have entered in. There Jesus saves
me and keeps me clean. Glory, glory, glory to His name. If you never feel your sin, you
never mourn over your sin, I tell you one thing, you've never had
a good thought of the Savior all your life. It's those who see themselves
as they are. It's those who cast contempt
upon themselves that values the merits of Christ. Oh, I counted all the laws. It's
dog scraps. Put it on the dung heap. I found
something better. Christ. Christ. We cleaned the carpet last week. We had company coming. We scrubbed
around on some of the carpet. Trying to clean things up so
we look presentable. Before our company got there,
a bunch of little kids ran in the front door and I was sitting
there. And they all had their shoes on. Coming right in out
of the rain, right in on our carpet. Boy, the neighbors. I know Fran, as hard as she is
to hear it. If you hear it, you probably hear it. Hold it right
there! You've seen these little cartoons
where these little fellows, they freeze in mid-air. That's not
what they look like. They just froze. I said, well,
just clean that carpet and get your shoes off. Get your shoes
off. Boy, that's the way we feel when
we come into God's presence. You hold it. You take your shoes
off. You're on holy ground. And how can we be accepted? How
can we have all this filth? How can we have this sin that
mixes itself with the most holy duties washed from us? This fountain. This fountain. There shall be
a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Mim Fram was out in the garden
one day. And I may have told you this story. I've never told
Dave this. Mim Fram was out in the garden. I was working and
she came out. And I knew she was burdened about something,
but I didn't say anything. You don't pry much into Dave's
mother's business. You learn that after a while.
But she said to me, Do you ever just have to plead the blood? I said, Every day. Every day. That's my only hope of being
washed. That's my only hope and confidence of coming into God's
holy presence. Having that high priest over
the house of God, let us approach unto Him with boldness and confidence
through the blood of Jesus Christ. What do you think about His blood?
Do you value it? Is it precious? If you know Him,
it is. It is. Some people are going
to be like Paul before the Lord saved him. They're going to keep
on saying, blameless, blameless, blameless. Blameless, blameless,
blameless. Never sinned. Ain't sinned in
ten years. Blameless, blameless, blameless. This is all I can say to such
a person. You never had one high thought of Jesus Christ all of
your life. And someday you'll stand before
Him and you'll say, have I not done many wonderful works? And
you know what He'll say? You've done not one good thing
all your life. You're not a good man. You're
a bad man. You're workers of iniquity. And
he'll say to his angels, you bind this ungodly man, you bind
this deceived man, and take him and cast him into outer darkness.
I want to take the blame here, don't you? I want to plead guilty
before God. I want to be found in Christ,
in Christ. Oh, John looked up to heaven
one day, and the angel said to him, John, what do you see? And
he said, well, I see a number that no man can number. What
are they doing, John? Well, they're singing. What are
they singing, John? They're singing this, Thou art
worthy, O Lamb, for You were slain and You've redeemed us
to God by Thy blood. Blessing and honor and glory
be to Him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. John. How did those people get that? They washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. Do you know Christ? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Gracious Father, gracious Lord
Jesus, our Lord and our God, O Lord, these things that we've
talked about this morning, We know they must be revealed to
us. We hear about them. We read about them in your blessed
word. Oh, grant us the Holy Spirit
to teach us, to reveal these things to us. Don't let us deceive
ourselves. Don't let our hearts deceive
us. We must know Christ. We want to know him. Oh, let
us know you, Lord. To know you is our aim, our goal,
our end. We must know you. Oh, we thank
you today for these that's gathered here. I pray that these few words
will be a blessing to them, will help them and edify and encourage
them. We thank you today for the food
that's been prepared for us. And we thank you for our health.
We ascribe all the honor and glory and praise to you for everything. It all comes from your hand.
In Christ's name, in his wonderful, wonderful name, Amen. He's all
I need. He's all I need.