Well, it's good to be here. Can't tell you what a blessing
it has been in my heart. If you would, turn over to 2
Kings, Chapter 18. Now if anybody doubts the working
of the Holy Spirit in not only the preaching of the gospel,
but in the reading of the word before the message, I didn't
come up with this scripture right here to preach for the second
service just because Tannis read what he read. I didn't call him
on the phone either. But it is the exact same story,
it is the exact same place that he read from. out of 2nd Chronicles
that is found here in 2nd Kings, which is where I take my text.
Now that gives me comfort. I know that what he read was
by the power of the Holy Spirit put in his heart, and I know
what I'm going to preach here tonight, or this afternoon, is right.
It's right. It is right. The first thing I'd like to say,
though, is I hope that everybody here can enter into the simplicity
of the gospel. You know, this is a... I love
this message because it's so simple. It's so simple. And yet
there are some things you have to understand before you can
see it. There are. But once you understand those
things, it just all makes sense. It does. The first thing that
the Lord has to show you is that God, He's sovereign. He's holy. He's perfect. He's righteous
in everything that he does. There's no questioning God. Error
comes from that, doesn't it? Questioning God? There's no questioning
God. He's sovereign. If we can get
that in our hearts, we can understand that. The Lord's got to show
it to you, though. The Lord's got to show it to
you. And everything else is going
to make sense, because if you see that, you're going to understand
that you're a sinner. That you're in need of this holy God. This
sovereign God. You don't have anything to offer.
You don't have anything. You understand that you're totally
depraved in light of His holiness and His beauty and His majesty. And once we see a glimpse of
that, and then we see ourselves in all the sin, the cravity,
the wickedness. You don't see that if you don't
see God. Isaiah didn't see it. Not until he saw the Lord high
and lifted up. Not until he saw that did he understand what he
was and where he was dwelling. I'm in the midst, I'm a man of
unclean lips, and I'm dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. You know, Job didn't see it. So I've heard it all my life
at the hearing of the ears. Just like this morning, I was
telling you, I knew the gospel, I knew it. I had heard it over
and over and over again. Like I said, I was a young Pharisee.
That's all I was. I knew it though. I knew it.
But it wasn't until the Lord opened my eyes. It wasn't until
He showed me I was a sinner that this whole thing made sense.
It just makes sense. Just like that, it makes sense.
The fact that when we understand those two things, His holiness
and our depravity, then we can understand the justice of God. We can understand that what God
demands is that He demands His holiness. And that we have to
have a Savior. We have to. There's no way around
it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. My dad always used to say.
Yeah, I tell you. It just makes sense. You have to have a Savior. You
have to. It's because of these three things
in our lives. This understanding of who God
is. And our understanding of what we are. in our understanding
that we have to have a Savior. It's because of those three things
that we understand that God had to become man. He had to come
down here, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, and He had to suffer
sin for me. He had to do it. As a man, He
had to do it. He had to do it. He was born in this world of
sin and depravity. He was born in this world. He
was. He had to be born in this world. He lived a perfect life. Perfect. And he took the sins
of his people to the cross, where he suffered. Suffered the wrath
of God, the justice of God, for me, for sinners. How it makes
sense. It does. Went to the cross and
did it. He was placed in the tomb three days. And after three
days, he rose up out of the grave victorious over sin. Victorious
over death. You see what Paul meant? He said,
we're buried with Christ. We die with Christ. We're buried
with Christ. We're risen again up out of the
grave with Christ and a newness of life. It makes sense. It makes
sense. Because if it wasn't for that,
we would never have newness of life. You've got to be in Christ
to have newness of life. Now he sits up there in heaven,
right hand of God, you read about it, making intercession for his
people. Making intercession for his people. Not everyone. Now
what kind of sense does that make? It doesn't make sense in
the light of the scripture. It doesn't make sense in the
light of his holiness, that he came and he died for everybody.
He died for his people. He's a perfect God. It goes right
back to that, doesn't it? He is perfect in everything that
he does. He didn't make a mistake. If there's anybody in hell that
God died for, then he made a mistake, right? Doesn't that make sense?
No, he's perfect. Perfect. My these people are
chosen by God before the foundation of the world They were given
to him given to the son in this covenant this covenant of grace
We talked about in the first message And it's these people
these chosen people that the power of God comes to you by
this irresistible grace of the gospel It comes to those people
and it saves those people It hits it gets them this irresistible
grace and grabs them up and and drags them to Him. No man come
unto Me, except the Father who sent Me draws them. No man. No
man. Oh my. And it's through the foolishness
of what we're doing up here. Oh my. How foolish does this
look to the outside world? It does. It's just foolishness.
But it's this foolishness. It's through this preaching of
the Gospel. Not through the words that I'm speaking, but the words
that the Holy Spirit brings to your heart. He brings these words
to your heart. He speaks to you. He speaks to
you and he saves people from that. He does. He's chosen that. There's a lot of religious people
out here, a lot of religious groups of people that say that
diminishes the power of God. You don't have to have preaching
of the gospel to save sinners. I've talked to people. There's
lots of people out here that do. They're not missionary Baptists. They don't believe you have to
send missionaries because they believe they'll just be saved. Doesn't
it show this simplicity I'm talking about here tonight? Doesn't it
show the greatness and the power of God to say that He chooses
a sinner? Not only that, but yet He chooses
a guy over here, some ignorant guy like myself, to come stand
before a group of people, and He gives me a message to preach
to those people that I couldn't come up with if I had to, but
He's given me something to say, and He brings these sinners to
sit in a congregation. Now listen, now think about this.
Does this not show sovereignty? Brings the sinner. It's like
Philip when he spoke at Ethiopian Union. Remember that? Remember
how he was going down, it talks about he just went down to the
desert. The Lord sent him down to the
desert. What was Philip thinking? He's thinking, man, I must have
been a lousy preacher. He sent me down to the desert
to preach to the cactuses or something, you know. There's
nobody down there in the desert. But then he draws this Ethiopian
eunuch up. He's coming at the same time.
Oh, man, just look at that. That's just coincidence. It's
like Terence reading the same exact scripture out of the Bible.
I don't know how many chapters are in this Bible, but that's
not a coincidence. It's not. And he drew that Ethiopian
eunuch up, and he brought Philip down, put him right in the same
spot at the same exact time, and he gave Philip a message.
And you see, you remember what the Ethiopian eunuch was reading?
He prepared him. He'd given him the text. Philip
just jumped in that carriage with him and started right where
the Spirit had started, right there. He didn't have to do anything. He said, oh yeah, man, you're
in the right spot. That's perfect. Isaiah 53. Couldn't pick a better
spot. No, I tell you, there's power
in this. There is, there's power in this.
We don't see it in this day as much as we, you know, you look
back at the reformers, you look back at, you know, we were talking
about George Whitefield and stuff after the sermon. You don't see
it like you did then, but there's power. There's power. Oh, for
a revival again. For a revival to happen. But
it's going to take the power of God. It is. It's going to
take it. And it's because of this all-powerful
God. It's because of him that gives us life. And we believe
that this is an all-powerful God that gave us this life. It's
not some decision we made. It's not some little... It's
not some walking down the aisle. It's not some getting down here
saying some prayer that I've made up for you to say. It's
not doing that. No, it's the power of God that
saves people. And it's because of that, that
we understand that, is that we have assurance. We have assurance
that we're going to stand before His throne one day faultless.
That He is able to present us faultless before the presence
of this Lord with exceeding joy. Exceeding joy. That's where we'll
stand. We have peace in that. And it comes from the simplicity
that's in this Gospel. That even I can understand that. It's only by the grace of God,
though. It is. And we look at people sometimes,
we look at them and say, why don't you understand? Why can't
you understand you're a sinner? A hobbit, you know? Why couldn't
we? Why couldn't we? Same reason.
The Holy Spirit's going to have to give. It's going to have to
give. Well, if you would, look here at 2 Kings 18, verse 4. I'll just read 1 through 4. I've
got a crazy title for this message. It's called the grinder of the
gospel. The grinder of the gospel. This is the way I see this. This
is the way I see it. I'm not sure anybody else would
have been knucklehead enough to come up with that. But that's
what I come up with. Chapter 18, verse 1 says, Now
it came to pass in the third year of Hosea, son of Elah, king
of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began
to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when it began to rain,
and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's
name also was Abbi, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that
which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all
that David his father did. Listen to what he did. He removed
the high places, and Terence read all the stuff that he did
this morning already. But verse four says, he removed
the high places. and break the images, and cut
down the groves, and break in pieces the brazen serpent that
Moses had made. For unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nahushkin."
Nahushkin. He says he'd break in pieces
this brazen serpent that Moses had made. You guys remember that?
Yeah, of course you did. That brazen serpent lifted up in the
wilderness. Turn over here to Numbers. Numbers 21, in case
you kids don't remember this, let me read you the story. Numbers
21, let me read verses 1 through 9. This is this brazen serpent
that these guys had kept all this time. I don't know, on a
shelf somewhere or whatever, but they were getting it down
every once in a while, pulling it out, and they were worshiping
it. They were burning incense to it and they were worshiping
this brazen serpent. Well, this is where this serpent came from.
Chapter 21 of Numbers. says, And when King Arad the
Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel
came by the way of the spies, then he fought against Israel
and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed a vow unto the
Lord, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into
my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the
Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the
Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities,
and he called the name of the place Hormat. And they journeyed
from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the
land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged
because of the way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Wherefore, have ye brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and
they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore,
the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we
have spoken against the Lord, and against thee. Pray unto the
Lord, that he may take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed
for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole. And it shall
come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon
it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and put it upon a pole. And it came to pass, that if
a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of
brass, He lived. He lived. You know, we look back
on this and we say, surely, you know, surely there must have
been some power in this praising snake. Surely there was. Surely. Surely if, you know, we say the
same thing, surely if someone hangs a cross around their neck,
you know, and they walk around with a cross hanging around their
neck, it's going to bring them good luck, right? It's going
to make them more religious. It is. Really? Surely if one
carries some dirt in their pocket from the Holy Land, surely they're
going to have better health. You'd think they would, don't
you? Why do men find it so easy, so
easy to worship the Creator and not the Creator? Why is that?
Have you ever stopped and thought about that for a little bit?
Why is it so easy to worship the Creator and not the Creator? Why do men find it so easy to
pay homage to the Holy Land, but yet forget the Holy One that
walked there. Why is it so easy for people
to trust so in a piece of wood, than to forget that One who bled
His life out on it? Why is it? Why, it is. It's easy
for people to do that. It is. And why do these people,
why did they worship this serpent? You know, that had been a long
time since this had happened. And they kept it up in their
closet a long time. They did, and they would bring
it down and worship it. Why did they find it so easy
to do that? Why were they doing that? Why? This worthless piece
of brass, that's exactly what he called it. He said, this is
the Hashim. It's just a piece of brass. That's all it is. It's
worthless. Well, the Jews said Hezekiah got this piece of brass,
this worthless piece of brass, he took it, and it says here
he broke it in pieces, but the Jewish people said he ground
it to powder. Grounded to power and laid at
their feet. That's what he did. Oh my, I tell you. Self-worship. Will-worship. That's what we're
going to deal with. Why is it so much more prevalent
this day and age than true God-worship? Why is it? Well, I think the
answer lies in the fact that men want to worship one that
can be molded to fit their needs. That's what they want to do.
They want to worship a God that they can make up. Because they
can please that God. They can. They can please Him.
If they make Him up, if He's a God of their own imagination,
they can please Him. They can. Oh, they can love that
God. They can manipulate that God
to do whatever they want Him to do. Oh, we're not doing this
right, so let's change God to where He can accept that. That's
what we do in the minds of these people. In our minds too, really. A lot of times. It's shameful
to say, but we do. Why is that the case? They make a god that is likened
to themselves. It's because their god is themselves. That's what it is. They're gods
themselves. Why did God have Moses fashion this brazen serpent? Why did he do that? Why did he
use a serpent? Why didn't God take and tell
Moses, why don't you just make a big golden sphere? Something
beautiful. Something beautiful to behold.
Wouldn't that have made more sense? You know, God told Moses,
you make a brazen snake and hang it on a pole. These people hated
these snakes. They did. They couldn't stand
these snakes. These snakes were biting them and they couldn't
stand it. Why didn't he have them create
some beautiful sphere to look at? Wouldn't it have been a lot
more easy to understand why people would actually look at this?
You know, wouldn't it have drawn a lot more people to look at
it? I tell you, he doesn't do it that way because people can
just look at something that's beautiful because they want to
look at something that's beautiful. It's just pleasing to their eyes.
They don't have to look at it, they just want to look at it.
It's like when we went to Glacier National Park, when we went to
Montana this last time. Oh, it's beautiful, beautiful.
People drive for miles and states away and countries away just
to view the beauty in Glacier National Park. And it's the same
way with Yellowstone Park and all these other places that are
so beautiful to see. Well, you don't go to the dump
because it's beautiful to look at, do you? If you get up and
you go to the dump on Saturday morning, it's because you've
got a truckload of trash. You've got to go to the dump. You see
what I mean? That's what I'm talking about.
The brazen snake was made and lifted up on a pole because it
represented that one who would hang up on a pole. It represented,
in the mind and purpose of God, it represented the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's who it represented. Was the Lord Jesus Christ some
beautiful creature to behold? Not according to Isaiah. He said
he hath no form or comeliness that we'd want to look at him.
That's not the reason why people looked on the Lord Jesus Christ.
No, it's not. When he hung upon that pole,
he became sin. He became sin. He became like
that snake on the pole, didn't he? He became the very thing
that polluted and killed the people. That's what this snake
on the pole represented. And that's what it was. That
Christ became sin. He bore our transgressions. He
took our filth and our violence and our wickedness upon himself.
And he hung there. He hung there between two thieves.
naked and he hung up there, oh my, you can just picture the
blood coming down his face and all of the things, you can just
see it in him. Oh my, it's terrible. Terrible,
but that's our sin. We're looking at the very thing
that, oh the markers that stood next to the cross. Oh my, does
this not look like the very punishment that we deserve? Doesn't it?
That's us, that should have been us up there. It should have been. The ones like us have been corrupted
and polluted by the venom of the fall. We have. Why? Who would look on this dying,
bleeding piece of flesh for salvation? Who would look upon him? Only
those who the Lord Holy Spirit put in their hearts to believe.
To believe that that very one who hung on that cross was able
to save them from their sins. That One who hung on that cross
was the very King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Savior of
His people. It took faith to look on Christ. That's what I take. It wasn't
because we wanted to, it was because we had to. That's the
difference. We're not making up some God
here, some beautiful thing for you to look at, just so you'll
want to look at. No, we're showing you, you have
to look to Christ. You have to look to Him. And
that's what these people, had the snake lifted up on the pole.
Oh my, they hated these snakes. These snakes were coming down
out of the sky on them, and they were biting their children, and
their children were dying, and their families were dying all
around. They hated them. With a passion
they hated them. And then here's Moses, he's lifting
up this brazen snake in the middle of the thing, and he's telling
us we've got to look at this thing to be able to live. We've
got to look at the very thing that's killing us. Ah, they didn't look upon that
brazen snake because they wanted to. They looked on it because
they had to. They had to. They were dying
people. They were sick people. They were sick. They were hopeless
people. They were needy people. They were people in need. And
these are the ones that looked. The people that were dead and
dying, those are the ones that looked. They are. Jesus Christ
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's
what he came to this world to do. Jesus came for the lost,
didn't he? He came for the dying. He came
for the outcast, the downtrod. He did the lame, the broken hearted.
That's who he came for. The whole of Jesus. Isn't he
not a physician? They don't need one. No, they don't. So what
is my responsibility this afternoon? What is my responsibility? Is
the gospel message that I preach supposed to puff you up? Is it? Is the message I bring supposed
to make you feel better about yourself? I see all these books
that are selling so good in the stores about how every day is
Friday and everything's great. It's great. Is that the message
that we're supposed to preach? Is it? Do I preach that you must
live better? That you've got to act better?
That you've got to be better? Do I do that? Do I tell you that
if you do these things that you're going to have health and wealth
and prosperity? Tell that to the Apostle Paul.
Tell it to him. Tell it to the Apostles. Nah,
they tell you different. No, you're not going to have
health, wealth, and prosperity if you follow the Lord. No, you're
not. Not necessarily. Do I preach
that all you have to do is accept the one who is knocking at your
heart's door? That's wanting to get in? Do
I tell you that? Do I tell you to just accept it? Whether you
need Him or not, just accept it. Just do it. That's all you
got to do. I feel the gospel message is
not a first aid kit to help you and make you better so that you
can stand before God, in the presence of God, justified because
you've got some good and the gospel message was a band-aid
to help you make, give you a little bit something extra so you can
stand in His presence justified. No, that is not the message of
the gospel. No, it's not. The gospel message, the true
gospel message, it is a grinder. It is. It's a grinder. It is. It's a message that takes everything
that we think we are, all of our goodness, all of our righteousness,
all of our giving, all of our efforts, all of our self-worship,
all of these brazen servants that we hold so dear, that we
worship. It takes them all, and it grinds
them to powder, and it leaves them at our feet. And it says,
nah, I shouldn't tell them. They're worthless. They're worthless,
they're worthless trinkets. The true gospel message when
applied by the Holy Spirit to the heart, the chosen child of
God, it strips this one down. Strips them down to the point
where they have nothing. Nothing to bring. That song that
says, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.
The guy that wrote that song, he went through this grinder.
Went through it. He had nothing left. All I got is the cross
of Christ. All I've got is Christ and Him
crucified. That's all I've got. It's everything.
Oh, as Paul said, he said, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the
chief of sinners. Oh, as Peter said, he said, depart
from me. He said, I'm a sinful man. Depart
from me. As Isaiah said, woe is me. I'm
undone. We talked about that earlier.
And Job, what did he say? He said, oh, I'm wicked. I'm
wicked. I abhor myself. Oh my. As David said, behold, I was
shaped in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive
me. What did that Philippian jailer do? He was about ready
to plunge himself on his sword, wasn't he? They said, no, wait
a minute. Wait a minute. He said, what
must I do to be saved? I got to do something. I've got
to do something to be saved. I have to have something other
than myself. Oh, it's like Blond Bartimaeus sitting there on the
wayside. Remember that? He was sitting there and he heard
Jesus was coming by. He heard he was coming by and
he knew what he was. He was a beggar. And he wanted
to hear this name. He said, Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth
is coming by here. He said, Jesus, the son of David,
have mercy upon me. Have mercy upon me. Oh, my. That's the thief on the cross.
I looked down at the guy's railing. Jesus said, don't say that. Why are you saying that? I said,
don't you fear God? Seeing that thou art in the same
condemnation as he is and we and be just like him? We're up
here justly. He's not. He didn't do anything
wrong. Don't you fear him? For we receive
the due rewards of our deeds. But this man has done nothing
amiss. He's done nothing. Oh, and then what'd he do? He
looked over at that middleman. He looked over at that one that
was hanging on the pole. That very one that that snake
represented. He looked over to him and he
said, Lord, remember me. Remember me when I come into
thy kingdom. Oh, remember me. These men all
had something in common. Every single one of us had been
through the grinder of the gospel. They'd been through it. All of
their pretense, all of their self-assurance, all of their
outward morality, all of their pride, everything that they had,
everything had been stripped away from them and had been ground
to powder and laid at their feet. That's what they had. That's
all they had left was Christ. That's all they had. Nothing
but His goodness. Nothing but His righteousness.
All of theirs had been stripped away. Round away. Now all he
had was his. Oh, that's all we need. That's
all we need. All he has is his Mary. Oh, to
have his Mary, we have to have it. Oh, the gospel message is,
you have no Mary. He's got it all. He's got it
all. You have no fullness. He's got all the fullness. He's
got it. Look to Christ. Look to Christ.
Oh, he took that snake, and he ground it to powder, and he called
it nudged. And he threw it at their feet. It's worthless. It's
worthless. The world says, we've done so much good. We do so much
good out here in the world. The gospel message says, nah,
hush. Nah, hush, it's worthless. It's worthless. The world says
we need to all dress alike. Ah, we need to dress like the
world so that when people come in, they can fit in with us.
The gospel message says, nah, hush. Nah, hush, that's foolishness. That's foolishness. Ah, the world
is full of gimmicks. It's full of ideas. It is. It's full of watered-down theology.
It's full of loving gods. It's full of weak Jesuses. It
is. It's full of crosses hung around
people's necks and easy-read Bibles and all these different
things. It's full of conditional election.
And it's full of unlimited atonement. It's full of take it or leave
it grace. It's full of I think I can perseverance and preservation.
It is. It's full of it. It's what the
world's full of. It's full of brazen stakes with
no power is what it's full of. And the Gospel message It takes
all these things, takes all these things, and it grinds them to
powder. And it proclaims with every turn
of that wheel, every turn of that wheel, Christ is all. Christ
is all. Christ is all. Is that not the
message? Is it? That's the gospel message. Christ
is all. But the only way we're going
to understand that is to understand we're nothing. We're nothing. Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nothing. Nothing. Boyle looks at that
message and they say, that's not good news. There's no good
news. And that also means good news.
It does. I beg to differ. I do. I beg
to differ with you because maybe if you're whole and you don't
need it, maybe there's nothing good in it for you. Maybe if
you're not sick and you're a good person, maybe it's insulting
to your morality. Maybe it is. Maybe it's insulting
to your goodness. I don't know. But it's sure good
news to me. It was. It's good news to me. And maybe
like the rich young ruler, it's just a little bit much for you
to take. Maybe it is. I don't know. But the Lord has
a people. Thank the Lord he's got a people.
He does have a people. John 10 verse 14 says, I'm a
good shepherd and know my sheep and have no one of mine. Oh,
I love that verse. I love it. And the Lord, through
the working of the Holy Spirit, Through this thing that the world
looks like it's foolishness, he takes this spirit. The spirit
takes the gospel message, this message of truth, truth about
him, who he is, holiness, sovereignty, power, might, truth about us,
wickedness, depravity, filth. You know what I'm saying? The truth hurts. It's true. It
does. It hurts. The message of the
gospel, the message of truth is used by the Holy Spirit as
a grinder. To grind everything that we hold
so dear down, and it cuts down, it cuts down, until it gets truth
from the inward parts of man. That's what it does. Everything
we thought was good. Everything we thought would make
us acceptable. Everything we thought was something
we needed to do for Christ. for God to save us. We've got to do something. We've
got to do something now. That's not how it should be.
Look to Christ. That's the message of the Gospel.
That's the message. And we cry to the Lord. When
we find out we're lost, when we find out we're undone, when
we find out we're sinners, when the Lord reveals that to us,
then we look to Christ, don't we? We cry to Him. We cry to
Him because we need Him. We have to have Him. We have
to. There's no way around it. Where
is he? Like blind Bartimaeus, right?
Jesus, our Son of God, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. Oh my,
that we could say that in our hearts. And the great shepherd
of the sheep, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the maker
of the heavens and the earth, when one of his lost sheep, he
cries out, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. And he cries
it out, our great shepherd. He hears and he says, wait a
minute. Wait a minute. My sheep know my voice, right?
I know my sheep. I know. And one of them just
called. We read a book to the kids. It was a lamplighter book. I think it was called Joel, Child
of Galilee or something. It was about this young Jewish
boy who was crippled and the Lord healed him. And this young
Jewish boy went and he went out with these shepherds and what
these shepherds would do is there was 10 or 15 shepherds I know
they each had a flock sheep of their own and these shepherds
at night they bring the sheep into this sheep fold it's a big
old round pen and inside this pen the shepherds and sheep and
they're asleep in the house and but they bring all the sheep
through the sheep door and they get them all in so they'd be
safe at night One night, this Joel was with this bunch of shepherds,
and this shepherd went to the fence, and he said, open the
door, open the gate. There was a big storm coming, great storm. And he said, open the gate. And
the guys looked at him like, what? And he said, I hear one
of my sheep. I hear he was out there somewhere, I hear him.
And so they let him out, and he went out there. They stayed
up that night waiting for him, but he never showed up, didn't
show up. And the next morning, he comes up to the, they hear
this knocking on the sheep door. And they walked up and they opened
up the door and here's this shepherd. He's all got cuts all over him
and he's bruised up and stuff. He'd been out all night looking
for the sheep. He's got the sheep in his arms. And he walks into
that sheep door. That's our shepherd. That's our
great shepherd. Picture him. He's going to go
out and he's going to get his sheep. When you cry to him, he's
going to come. He's going to come get you. He
gets the ones that are needy. If you're needy, he's just, he's
going to come get you. He's going to come get you. Oh,
just cry to him. Cry to him. Verse 28 of John
10 says, I give unto you eternal life, and you shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck you out of my hands. The words come
unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly, and you will find rest in your souls." That comes
to us. That comes to us after we know the Lord, He is so good.
He is so merciful to us. This is good news. Isn't that
good news? It is. The fact that you have
to be truly lost to be found. I know if a person is not lost,
that's not good news. But if you're lost, and you hear
that He's going to find you, that's good news. That's good
news, but you've got to be lost first. You've got to be lost.
You have to be made blind before you can be given sight. You do. But you've still got your sight,
and this isn't that great a message for you. It isn't, but if you're
blind, if you've ever been blind, and you hear this message of
one who can give you sight, that's good news. That is good news. You have to be broke, spiritually
broke, before you can be given all spiritual riches. You do,
you have to. You have to be sick before you
can be made whole. You have to be shown you're dead
before you can be made alive. That has to happen. It does. You have to be shown the bad
news about yourself before you can ever see the good news found
in the Savior, right? You do. Listen, this God, the
God of the Bible, He's a jealous God. He is. After what Oprah
Winfrey says or anybody else, He's a jealous God. He is. He will in no wise allow glory
to be taken from his son. He won't. He won't. And what
he did, he is everything to the Father. Everything to him. Anything
added to what the Son accomplished for his people on the cross,
it will be crushed. It will be. It will be ground
to powder. It's going to be. One way or the other, it will
be. All the glory is going to go to Christ. It will. Now, it's
in the popular message. It's not. You're not going to
fill stadiums with this message, not in this day and age. You're
not. The message of the gospel is not a unifying message. It
isn't. I saw these people on television,
these bunch of preachers sitting around talking. They're talking
about unity. Unity. The only reason why they
were able to come to unity is because none of them knew anything. That's it. I mean, truthfully,
I mean, that's, that is it. That's the only way it's going
to be. No, the gospel message, it has one purpose. One purpose,
and that's to deal with the hearts of sinners. And it goes into
that heart, and it tears away, and it grinds, and it does working
in the heart until everything that we thought was good, everything
that we thought was righteous and holy in us is gone. And He
is everything. And He is everything. It will
not accept some falsehood to accomplish some good. Not one. Most error in churches, we were
talking about it, most error in churches comes from somebody
somewhere thinking they can do something better than what this
gospel message can do. And they come up with some grand
scheme. We make the gospel message easier to understand and we just,
you know what they're doing? They're taking teeth out of the
grinder. That's what they're doing. And it ain't going to work anymore.
It's not. No, it isn't. It will accomplish
all good with truth. Oh, may we remember these words
as we leave this place, buy the truth and sell it not. Sell it
not. Oh, we might sit here with just
a few people and we might not be able to see the great growth
that's going on across the street or down the road from us or something. We see all these cars in the
parking lot. We see all these people going
in. We might not see that growth, but we have the truth. We have
the truth and those people that come and they have to hear this
truth and they come in and they and they have to have a Savior. That's what we're looking for.
We're not looking for a bunch of people who don't really need
it. No, that's not what we need. We need people who have to have
the Savior. People that have gone through
the grinder of this gospel and they understand the simplicity
of it. The fact that he is holy and we're nothing. That we could
all come to that point. that we could all come to there.
The truth, the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is
the truth and the light and the way. He and he alone can set
you free. He can. You know, we were talking
there again. I had a good conversation after
the meeting there. And after the first message,
there is an invitation to be made. There is. People have watered
it down so much, and they've made such light of it. We reach
these big congregations and Billy Graham crusades and all these
things. Make such light of it. Just come on down and accept
the Lord. But the message is still the
same. It is, believe. Believe. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ with all your heart and you shall be saved. It's
simple. It's simple. Just believe. All
that the Holy Spirit would do in the world. And He would. That
this grinder of the gospel could just cut you to the heart. And
that people would truly be saved. Well, he's tore our thing up
again up here. We got this just for David.