Good morning. If you would, turn
your Bibles to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. It's good to be here this morning.
It must have been five, six years since I came over to preach.
I was here about... When was it you had those two
men over to preach for you? Was that four years? Four years
ago. It's good to be back. It really
is. I called Brother Bruce. It's been about a month or two
ago. I've been able to preach for
my father-in-law, Jessica's dad. He preaches over at Providence
Baptist Church where we go. He came down with esophageal
cancer about a year ago. About a year ago. I was able
to preach while he was having his chemotherapy. At the first
of the year, he had his surgery, and the Lord was merciful and
gracious, and they were able to get all the cancer, so he's
cancer-free now, and he's back to preaching again. But I was
able to preach there for three or four months straight, and
I came to love it. I really did. I told Bruce, I
said, I don't know if I can't do it. I don't know. But I appreciate you having me
over this morning. Isaiah 55, verse 1, says, Ho,
everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that
hath no money, come, yea, buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and
milk without money and without price. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear and gracious Lord, Lord,
we pray that you would meet with us here this morning to bless
us with your presence, Lord. Lord, have mercy upon us, Lord,
and guide our way here this morning. Lord, just fill us with listening
ears and tentative hearts, Lord. Give me words to speak, I pray,
Lord, that I The words that are heard here would not just be
my words, Lord, for they're worthless, Lord. But if you speak through
me, then the people will get something from the words, Lord.
I just pray that this would be. Lord, we just thank you for your
love and your grace and your mercy that's brought us to this
hour. Thank you for allowing my father to be here this morning. Thank you for that. We pray for
the church down in Montana. We pray that you'd bless there,
that you would lift up a man to preach there for him, Lord,
we pray. And we pray for the church there in Plainfield, Providence
Baptist. We pray that you'd bless there
and strengthen the pastor there and give him liberty to speak
this morning. We pray that you'd just bless your churches, wherever
they are around this land this very day, that you would uplift
and that you would save your people, Lord. And we pray. Thank you again for all things,
and it is in your dear and precious Son's name we ask peace. Amen. The first word here is hope.
Hope. Now, if any of you, you've probably
watched Westerns before, like TV Westerns. We watch them all
the time. I know Steve, he's got a bunch
of them on DVR and stuff. If you ever watch the Western,
you remember you see a wagon train at the first, and they
have a stagecoach. There's a stagecoach, and there's
people in this stagecoach, usually the hero of the show, whether
it be Cheyenne or Adam Cartwright or whoever's in the stagecoach. There's a young lady in there,
and normally you'll have a villain of some sort. You'll have a rich
guy, and he's always got a trunk of money up on the top of the
stagecoach. And sure enough, here in just a little bit, you'll
hear some shooting. There's some shooting going on, and all of
a sudden there goes the wagon train, or the stagecoach. And it's veering off the trail,
and it's going off and bumping along, you know. And the hero
comes crawling out of the stagecoach. He's getting up on top of that
stagecoach. And he gets up there, and he usually has to push the
stagecoach driver off because he got shot. Couldn't pay me
enough to be a stagecoach driver back then. Every one of them
gets shot. He pushes him off the side, he grabs ahold of them
reins, and they'll pan off in the distance over here, and they're
heading right for a cliff. They're heading right for some
ravine or something. And that guy, whoever it is, the hero,
he grabs them reins, and he pulls back on them reins. He's saying,
Ho! Ho! Stop! Stop! You're heading for
a cliff. That's where you're heading.
Listen you fool horses listen to me when I'm saying stop stop. That's what this means. It's
not hello That's not what he's saying. He's saying stop you
listen Listen, you're heading somewhere. You don't want to
be hit. That's where you're heading. That's what he's saying here
Isaiah he's jumped up on that wagon. He's got a whole limb.
He's got a whole limb range. He's pulling back. He's in hope
Hope you're under legalism this morning If you're under bondage
this morning to the legalism and you've been pulling that
wagon, you've been under, it's been fine so far, it has, and
you've got that taskmaster up there and he's got them reins.
But then you hear the gunshots of the law behind you. Hear them. Do this and live. Bang. Don't
do this and live. Hear them. And he's pushing you
now and you take off and you're running now. You're scared. You're
scared. You are. And this is what Isaiah
is doing here. He's saying, just stop. Listen to what I've got
to say. Quit your working. Quit your running. Quit your
doing. Quit it. And just listen to what he's
got to say here. It says, Ho, everyone that thirsteth. Everyone
that thirsteth. This is a call right here to
the spiritually thirsting. I see this as a call too. You
remember that Samaritan woman at the well? Remember her? Let
me show you. Turn over to John 4. John 4, verse 6. I love this section of Scripture
here. This shows you about this living water. You want to know
what this water is? This will show you right here. John 4, verse 6 says, Now Jacob's
well was there, and Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey.
Now, Jesus was a man, wasn't he? He is God. He was a man,
bone in my bone, flesh in my flesh. He was a man, always tempted
as we are. He was. And he wearied. He wearied. I preached a message a couple
of weeks ago. The Declaration of Intercession. 1 Timothy 1.15. It is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into this world.
He came into this world. What did he come to do? To save
sinners. Save sinners of whom I am chief.
Of whom I am chief. That's what he came to do. And
he wearied because he came in this world. Came in this world. And he sat thus on the well.
You know, we prepare a message and sometimes we come to church
and we look, you know, prepare a Bible study or something and
the people, there's just not very many people there and we
get discouraged. You know, this was the king of preachers right
here. This was the best preacher that
ever lived. Best preacher. Spurgeon was the
prince of preachers. He wasn't. This is the king of
preachers right here. The king. And where was he? He's
sitting on a rock on a well in Samaria. That's where he's sitting.
And look here. Look here. Verse 7. Here comes
this congregation. Here she comes. Says, There cometh
a woman of Samaria to draw water, to draw water. Let me show you
somebody else who was drawing something. Turn over here to
John 6, 44. Keep your finger right there. John 6, 44. This
woman from Samaria was coming to draw water. But let me show
you somebody else who was drawing, who was doing the real drawing.
Verse 44, Jesus says, No man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me draws. Draws this Samaritan woman. She's
being drawn. You know, the world would look
at that and say, what a coincidence. Here's Jesus sitting at the well.
And here comes this woman from Samaria with her bucket. She's
coming to draw water. What a coincidence. Ain't no
coincidence there. No coincidence at all. No man
can come to me except the father of just him. He draws him and
I'll raise him up again at the last day. And I'll raise him
up again. All right. What did she say?
She said, give me the drink. Jesus said, give me the drink,
for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. And
then this Samaritan woman, she says unto him, how is it that
thou, being a Jew, ask this drink of me, which I'm a woman of Samaritan? I'm just a Samaritan dog to you.
Why are you asking me for a drink? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. And then Jesus, here's his message.
Here he is. Jesus answered and said unto
her, if thou knewest the gift of God, And who it is that saith
to thee, give me to drink, thou would have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water. Living water, that's what
we're talking about. That's what Isaiah is talking
about. Living water. Living water. A verse we just
read here this morning, in Matthew. Come unto me. Come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come
unto me. You know, we hear it say, look
unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye safe. For I am God,
and there is none else. Look unto me. Told that Philippian
jailer, remember? He said, what must I do to be
saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. That's what we're talking about,
this living water. This water is only to be found in a vital
union, in a vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. You've
got to be united to Christ to have this living water. And therefore,
we can say, we can say this, he that hath no money, He that
hath no merit, he that hath no works, that song says nothing
in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. We can say
that. We can say it. Anyone. I'm talking about anyone. I just said the chief of sinners.
Anyone can come and can buy without money and without prices. They
can. Why does it say buy here? You ever wondered that? It says
he that hath no money, come ye, buy. Why do you think it says
that? Well, when you believe this possession,
this possession of the saving grace of God, it becomes yours,
just like you buy it. Just like you buy it, it's yours.
We just sang that song. When I can read my tile clear
to mansions in the sky, I'll bid farewell to every fear and
wipe my weary eyes, wipe my weeping eyes. That's what I'm talking
about. We purchased a vehicle about
four years ago or whatever, and we finally got it paid off. Paid
the last payment on it. And they sent me a letter, said,
thank you for doing business with us. We'll send you a title
in 10 days. Well, I didn't get the title. It was 20 days later
and 30 days later. I didn't get the title. So I
called them up, said, where's the title to the vehicle? They
said, well, they started looking through the paperwork and said,
there was a payment in 08 that you were a couple days later.
And you owe us fifty-some dollars. Until you send that, you're not
getting your title. Isn't that wonderful that when we believe
on the saving grace of God, that when we come before His judgment
seat, before His judgment throne, He's not going to be looking
up past debts that we owe? Now, when I can read my title
clear. The only way we're going to read
it clear is if we're in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we're in Him. So come. Come. You that have
no money, come. Come buy and eat. to buy wine
and milk without money, without price. Three things are mentioned
here. These are spiritual blessings, these three things. It's water,
wine, and milk. Ephesians 1, verse 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In Christ. There's the key. In
Christ. Three things. Water, number one.
There's no life without water. There's no physical life. There's
no spiritual life. Without water, there's no life.
The best example we can give this is Ezekiel out there in
the middle of those dry bones. Remember that? He's standing
out there in the middle of those dry bones. And he's looking around. He said, they're dry. They're
very, very dry. And God says to him, he says,
Ezekiel, can these bones live? Can these bones live? And I look
at some of these TV preachers. If they were put in that position,
they'd go, Boy, that's going to have to be one humdinger of
a sermon now. It's going to have to be. Now,
what does Ezekiel say? He said, thou knowest. Thou knowest. Because you're the one who gives
living water. You're the one that produces
life. And only you know. Only you know. And if you do
it, I don't care how dry the bones are, they're going to live.
They're going to live. They will. Water. Wine. Wine, this symbolizes the
joy and the peace and the comfort that's found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The psalmist said, he said, he
makes glad the hearts of men. Makes glad the hearts of men.
This is this wine we're talking about. Dad, he preached the message,
rejoice in the Lord. I've listened to that five, six,
seven times. I don't know how many times.
Rejoice in the Lord always. We'll be sitting around the dinner
table, I'll ask the kids, I'll say, why do we rejoice? We rejoice
because we have money or we have this or we have that because
tomorrow we might not have anything. We might not. We rejoice because
we have health. No, we shouldn't because tomorrow
we might not have it. We might not. We rejoice because
we're in the Lord. We're in the Lord. Tomorrow we're
going to have it. The next day we're going to be in the Lord.
The next day we're going to be in the Lord. That's why we rejoice.
We rejoice because we're in the Lord. That's that wine we're
talking about. And milk. Milk. Everything that
man needs to live is found in milk. Everything. And that's
what we find in the scriptures. And therefore, it represents
the satisfying qualities of the gospel. It is. It's satisfying. It is. And if we're going to
grow in grace, it's because of this milk. This milk. Well, how
do we come about owning and possessing these great things? How do we? You know, you sit back and you
look at it and you say, well, Boy, there must be a price on
that. There's got to be a price tag on that. Unbelievable. No,
you come without money and without price. It's a gift. Without money,
without price. It has to be that way. It has
to be that way. It does. Why? Because all men
outside of Christ are spiritually dead, bankrupt sinners. That's
what you are. That's what I was. Before I came
to know the Lord, spiritually dead, bankrupt sinners. Heart
of stone. Heart of stone. He that hath
no money, it applies to all. It does. It applies to all. Number
two, the possession is far, far too valuable to have a price. It's far too valuable to have
a price. It's priceless. Priceless. Number three, not
only does this method of coming and buying without money and
without price, Not only does it show the poverty of the buyer,
and not only does it show the exceeding value of the possession,
but it shows the great love and the graciousness of the giver.
That's what it shows. It's a wonderful thing. It's
the gospel. It's the gospel. All right, now keep your finger
there and turn over to Acts 5. Acts chapter 5. You know, the Bible is full of stories.
It's full of accounts of things that have happened. And each
of these stories, they were written in this book because the writer
of this certain passage of scripture, this certain chapter, he was
inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this. This is in here for
a reason. Everything that's written in
this book, we talked about how amazing it is, this book is here.
And when you think about it, it's not amazing when you think
about the power of God, but this book is here. This book is here
and there's truth in this. There is. He was inspired by
the Holy Spirit. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3, verse
16, all scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for instruction and approved for correction,
instruction and righteousness. So our job in studying the word
of God is to find truth. And this book is truth. It is
true, but there's a lot of people that interpret it wrong. There
is, if you don't come into this into this with an ability to
spiritually discern this book, you're going to find error. You're
going to find it. You are. And you're going to
preach it, too. But this book is truth. And what's our job?
Find truth. How do we do it? We find Christ.
Christ in all the scriptures. Some of the best things I've
ever read are those things that Henry Mahan wrote. Christ in the Old Testament.
Pictures of Christ in the Old Testament. I love those. I love
them. I'll sit and read them. They're
good. Very good. If you don't have a copy of them, get it.
They're very good. Now, there are many different ways to preach
on Acts 5, 1 through 6. There are. There's many ways
to preach on this text. But I'll tell you this, this is not a
message about tithing. No, it isn't. It's not a message
about tithing. This is not a message about what
this man had to give that he didn't give. That's not what
this is about. This message, this text, is a
picture of the judgment. That's what it is. To me, this
is what this is. It's a picture of the judgment.
It's a picture of a sinner coming before the judgment seat of Christ,
of God, with nothing but his possessions in his hands. That's
all he has, is what he has. Nothing, nothing. He isn't bringing
what Christ. He isn't bringing the righteousness
of Christ. No, he's not. He's bringing what he has. They
come, they're coming with money and with price. That's what they're
coming. And they have come to purchase
the pearl of great price with their filthy rags, with their
righteousness, with dung. That's what they're coming with.
That's what they're coming with. They have come to buy the grace
and the mercy and the justification of a thrice holy God with words. That's what this is a picture
of to me. Look at verse one. Let's go through
this real quick. Verse one says they sold a possession. They
sold a possession. This is showing us that what
they had, it came from them. They sold their own stuff. They
sold the possession. They own this possession, and
they sold it for a price. Outside of price, all of our
works are ours. We own them. They're ours. They're
ours. And if we do them as if in paying
a price for something with them, then the value of them still
belongs to us. They still are. Why? Because
this currency, this currency of works, this currency of things
that we do in order to receive something, that currency is unacceptable
in God's storehouse of grace. It is, it's unacceptable. Verse
two says, look at this, and it says, and kept back part of the
price. He kept back part of the price. It doesn't matter what
part. We got to understand this. It doesn't matter what part.
Nothing here is mentioned of percentages. It doesn't say anything
about percentages here. Listen, some people may feel
like they've kept 25% of the law in their life. They may have.
And some people might feel they kept 50% of the law. And some
people might feel like they kept a whopping 75% of the law. And
you might even be a solid Tarsus and say, is it as if touching
the law? I'm blameless. I'm blameless. Surely that's enough. Surely
it is. No, it isn't. No, it's not. For a part is a part. It is. And if you're guilty of breaking
one jot or tittle, of the Levitical law, you're guilty of breaking
the whole thing. The whole law is broken. I'm
talking about a punctuation mark. This jogger tail is a punctuation
mark or a little thing that says how accent mark. That's what
this is. If you're coming to buy with
money or with price, you better think again. You better think
again because this bill is a bill you're not going to want to see.
You're not going to want to see it. And it says in verse two,
watch this, it says, It says, and his wife also being private
to it. His wife also being private to it. There are religious systems
all over this world and religious people meeting this morning and
they're figuring out, they're figuring out, they're making
deals. That's what they're doing with God about what they can
or can't do. They're figuring out, the pastor's
private to it, the deacons are private to it, the members are
private to it. They're all private to it. What
percentage shall we bring? What percentage? What part is
good enough to inherit eternal life? We've got to get this right. We've got to get it right, because
if we only bring 80% and we get the glory and he wants 85%, we're
in trouble. We've got to get this right. That's what they're
saying. Now if man could just understand, just understand the
beauty in coming by without money and without price. Without money
and without price. And it says, Ananias came and
he brought this certain part and he laid it at the apostles'
feet. You remember over there in Revelation 4, verse 10. Let
me turn over there real quick. Revelation 4. Revelation 4, verse 10. Those
four and twenty elders. Verse 10 says, The four and twenty
elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship
him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things. Even these crowns were laying
at your feet. Why were these crowns acceptable in the sight
of God? He created them. He's the one that made them.
He forged them in His forgery. He placed the rubies and the
diamonds in. And then they took them off their
hands and laid them at His feet. And He was satisfied with them. He saw His work. He saw what
He had done. Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Oh my. He produced them. They were beautiful
in God's eyes. These crowns were beautiful.
They were precious in His sight. Precious. They were acceptable
in His sight because they had been created. They had been created
by Him. They weren't something that He
just made up. These people hadn't made these things. But here's
Ananias. Here he comes. He's waltzing
in with a prize. He's got a prize. And laying
it down at the apostles' feet. There are some people You listen
to him talk, you'd think they had Fort Knox buried out in their
backyard. You would. I mean, they got it
all wrapped up. They do. But when they come before the
judgment seat of God, when they stand before him and they say,
hey, look what we've done. Look what we've done. And they
start prying the lid off. It's like they're prying the lid off
their septic tank. It is filthiness, violence, wretchedness. It is. That's all he sees. If
he sees us, that's what he sees. Look at verse 3. Look at verse
3. Here's Ananias' real problem.
Here it is. But Peter said, Ananias, why
has Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Why has
Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? You see, Ananias
didn't need to bring more money. He didn't need to bring more
money. No, he didn't. He didn't need to scrounge up
a better price. No, he didn't. Ananias, he needed a new heart.
He needed a new heart. Look at Romans 10. Look over
here at Romans 10. Verses 6 through 10. Let me read
this. That's what I'm talking about. That's what Ananias needed.
It says in Romans 10, verse 6, it says, But the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart,
who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down
from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring
up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is
nigh, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of
faith which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." And Ananias needed a new heart. At the fall,
man's heart became stone, became dead to God spiritually. Dead
to God. And Ananias was coming before,
this is a picture of a man coming before Christ's holy God with
a heart of stone still. Still had a heart of stone. See,
if we have been saved by Christ, and we have received Christ into
our hearts, and we have been made repentant, by believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ and by a working of the Holy Spirit
in our lives. If we've been there, and if Christ,
by grace through faith, he tabernacles in here, if he dwells in here,
then can Satan rule there also? Can he? No. It's God before us
who can be against us. Right? The flesh is weak. I know,
flesh is weak. It's always weak. It is, but
by grace, by Christ dwelling, by Christ tabernacling in here,
In our hearts, we are made strong in the faith, strong in the faith.
We are made alive, how? In Christ. In Christ. We are made justified in Christ. It's all in Christ. We are sanctified
in Christ. We're glorified in Christ. We
are accepted in Christ, in the beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if we look to Christ and if we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, if we come to Christ without money, And without Christ,
all spiritual blessings are ours in Christ. They're ours. Water,
wine, milk, they're all yours freely in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're all yours. Look at verse four. Said while
I remained, was it not thine own? And after I was sold, was
it not in thine own possession? Was it not in thine own power?
Listen, outside of Christ, if Christ doesn't dwell in the heart,
then all outward works of righteousness are ours. And the power that
we do them by comes by our power. That's how we do. But God demands,
he demands Christ's righteousness. That's what he demands. He demands
works done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ through his
power, through his power. That's what he demands. It says
here, why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Why
hast thou conceived this thing? And I'll tell you why. It's because
every imagination of a thought of carnal man are only evil continually. That's why you imagine this thing
in your heart. That's why I did. Ananias, you conceived this thing
in your heart because you're a sinner. You're a sinner. And
I'll tell you this morning, if we stand before God justified,
if we stand before a thrice holy God justified, it's because we're
sinners. But it's we're sinners saved
by the grace of God. Saved by grace. And I'll tell
you what. You can sit in church all your
life. You can. And you can lie to yourself and
you can lie to the pastor and you can lie to your family and
you can lie to the members and you can lie to all these people.
You can. And we ain't going to say a thing.
We're not going to say a thing because we're ignorant. We're
ignorant. We are. But God knows the heart. He knows the heart. Now God,
Hagar said, sees me. Now God sees me. He knows. He knows. You can lie to men.
You can't. You can lie to men. But God sees
the heart. Verse five and six. Look at this.
And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost.
Great fear came on all of them that heard these things. And
the young men arose and wound him up and carried him out and
buried him. They wound him up, carried him
out and buried him. Do you remember that man in Matthew
22 who came into the wedding without a garment on? Remember
that? He came into the wedding without his garment. And the
King Mary, he asked him, he said, how'd you get in here without
a garment on? How'd you get in here? And he
was, he was speechless, wasn't he? Speechless. He looked down
at what he had on, and he said, you know, I got my nicest tux
on, and I got a bow tie, I got my frilly shirt, my nice shoes.
He looked around, and nobody else was wearing that. Nobody
else. Nah, he needed that robe of righteousness,
didn't he? That robe of righteousness, which
is Christ. That's what he needed. Oh, he's
speechless. Nothing to say. Nothing to say. If you come before God at the
Judgment Day with your works, with what you bring, you're going
to stand there and be speechless. Speechless. Oh, my. The king told his servants, remember
what he said? He said, bind him up. Bind him
up. And they wound him up. They took
him away. They cast him in outer darkness.
Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is never quenched. Ah,
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And here we see it.
What happened to old Ananias? Wound him up. They wound him
up and took him out. It's a picture of the judgment.
That's what this is. Well, so now we come back to
our original question with a little more earnestness, I hope. A little
more seeing that we've got to have something. We've got to
have something. So now how do we come by owning
and possessing these spiritual riches, these gifts? How do we
come by getting these things? How are we going to be born again,
made alive by living water? How's it going to happen? Where
do we find this living water? How do we obtain this living
water? How do we? Well, Isaiah says, come ye to
the waters. Come ye to the waters. Jesus said to the woman at the
well, if you had asked of me, I would have given, I would have
given you living water. If you just asked, I would have
given it to you. Isaiah said, he that hath no money says, come,
buy, eat, without money and without price. That's what he said. It
has to be this way, because in Acts 5, we just read, we just
saw, it has to be this way. Our works, they have no worth.
Our money, it has no value. It has no value. We're paupers. We are. Our works are nothing.
They mean nothing. So this is truly said of us.
He that hath no money. He that hath no money. That's
us. That's us. Come and buy without money and
without price. And number two, a confession is far too valuable
to have a price on. It's priceless. It's priceless.
Listen, can you put a price tag on the life of Christ? Can you
do that? To put a price tag on the condescending,
the coming down of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Can
we put a price tag on that? To humble himself and become
flesh for his people? When we slap a price tag on that,
we say it's worth this much and we'll do this much for it. Can
we estimate the value of the God of all creation bleeding
out his life on the cross? Can we do that? Can we make an
offer to God of anything of ours for the precious blood of his
son? No, I don't think so. Can we who are flesh and sin
and depravity, can we grasp the worth of righteousness? Can we
grasp the worth of perfection, holiness? I love to tell stories to the
kids. I love to. I've got a story I
want to tell. You kids listen for a minute.
There was a young man and he heard that in this museum there
was this diamond on display. this diamond that's the biggest
diamond ever found, and it was on display. He thought he'd go
take a look at it. Well, he got all dressed up,
got his finest suit, his nicest stuff, and he put his gold Timex
on, and he got himself all dressed up, and he went up to the museum.
And when he got there, he walked up to the guard and With all
arrogance, he said, I want to speak to the owner of this diamond. For I wish to purchase this diamond.
I wish to buy this diamond. And all around, people were looking
at him like, boy, what's this guy got? What's he got? Well,
the guard said, well, I'm going to have to call somebody. I'm
going to have to call somebody and get him over here. So he
called up the museum curator and the museum curator came over
and she said, well that diamond is owned by a king of a foreign
country and you'll have to go see him. Well, this young man,
he set up a meeting with this king of this foreign country
so he could buy this diamond. Well, he gets over there and
he flies in and he goes up to the palace. And he walks up the
walk to the palace. And all along the path up there,
there's statues, golden statues, and beauty, and all these things.
And he gets up to the top, and the guard, he escorts him down
this long hall. And all down this hall is jewels
and pearls and beautiful things, all down this hall. And he walks
him into the throne room, and he comes before the king. And
he stands before the king and the king looks at him and he
says, are you the one he wishes to purchase my diamond? And the young man, now that he
sees all of the wealth around him and all he thinks he might
have underestimated the value of this diamond a little bit.
And he says, yes, I'm here to purchase the diamond. And he
says, well, how do you wish to purchase my diamond? And he says,
well, he pulls out his wallet, and he pulls out a stack of bills
and starts counting them off. 100, 200, 300, 400. The king's
face was getting redder and redder and redder and redder. Getting
mad. Before he even gets to 1,000,
the king points to the guards and says, you wind that guy up
and get him out of here. You get him out of here. Made
the king mad. Made him mad. But as he was carrying
this young man out, There's another man coming up the island. He
was dressed in shabby clothes, didn't have much, just looked
like an orphan boy. He comes walking up there to
the palace, head down. And this man, as he passes, he
looks at this young man going up to the palace. He said, good
luck. Good luck for that king. He's not a seller. He's not a
seller. And he gets up to the guards,
and they take him down, and they escort him in to see the king.
And the king looks at him, and he says, are you here to purchase
my diamond also? And that young man, he's bowed
down before the king, and he says, no, no. He said, I'm here
to purchase everything you've got. Everything you've got. And he says, well, he says, how
are you going to do that? What are you going to pay for
all that with? And he said, well, a lot of times I'm walking up
through here, and these rich and noble men that come up here
to see you all the time, I'm not worthy to look at them in
the eye. So I walk with my head down. And I noticed etched on
one of the stones out front these words. It said, come and buy
without money and without price. And I don't have no money. I
have nothing to offer. Nothing to offer. But I believe
that these words are speaking of you. And the king took him. He took him. And he wrapped him
up in his arms. And he put a robe on his back.
He put shoes on his feet. He put a ring on his finger.
And he made him a sign. Joint heirs with the king. That's
what we're talking about. That's what we're talking about.
You come without money and without prize. I tell you, I believe that this shows us. It shows us, number one, this
coming without money and without price. It shows us the poverty
of the buyer. Oh, it does. We have no money.
We have nothing to offer. Nothing to offer. It shows the
exceeding value of the possession. My, we could work forever. You
could work forever. And you'd never even touch the
surface of what this is worth, the value of this possession.
It's worth everything. It shows the exceeding great
love and graciousness of the giver. It does. I mean, without an exceedingly
merciful king, we have no hope. We have no hope. And this love,
this shows me and this produces loving heirs. It does. Do you think this young man I
just told you about, you think he'd love his king? Do you think
he would? I think he owed him everything,
didn't he? Owed him everything. Nah, this
guy came with his money, pulled it out, was king and it took
that. What if the king and it took that? A thousand dollars.
My, what a mockery. What a mockery. There's no money
gonna buy that. There's no works gonna buy that.
It's not gonna buy it. When I was about 14 or 15, I
was reading a book called The History of the Baptist. A lot
of what you were saying was in it. And there was a poem in that
book, and I remember it to this day. I remember it to this day. It was an old Walvisian preacher,
and he was traveling around preaching, but he had to disguise himself.
He disguised himself as a traveling salesman. And so he wouldn't
get caught and put to death. And he was on his way to a church
meeting, and some young lady stopped him. And she asked him,
she said, what are you selling? What are you selling? This is
what he told her. He said, oh lady fair, I have yet a gem,
which pure luster flings, and the diamond flash of the jeweled
crown on the lofty brow of kings. a wonderful pearl of exceeding
Christ, whose virtues shall never decay, whose light shall be as
a spell to thee and a blessing on thy way. And the cloud went
off, and the pilgrims browsed a small meter above, and chased
with gold a gem of cost from his folding robe he took, and
said, Here, lady fair, tis the pearl of Christ. May it prove
as much to thee. He said, Nay, keep thy gold.
I ask it not, for the word of God is free. It's free. This is free. That's what we're
talking about. Free. If it isn't, then we don't have
any reason to be here. We have nothing to offer.