Good morning, everyone. Let's
open this morning's service with hymn number one, O Worship the
King. Let's all stand together. Hymn number one. O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, Pavillioned in splendor and girded with praise,
O tell of His might, O sing of His grace, Whose robe is the
light, Whose canopy space His chariots of wrath The deep thunderclouds
form, And dark is His path On the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue
can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines
in the light. It streams through the hills,
it descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the dew and
the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, ♪ Our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend
♪ Please be seated. For our call to worship this
morning, turn with me to 1 John chapter three. 1 John chapter three. I just want to read the first
three verses. Behold. What manner of love? The father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world
knoweth us not because it knew him not. Beloved now. Are we the sons of God? and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Let's pray. Father, we have gathered in this
place once again with one desire, to see you, to see your face,
to see your glory. Lord, we know that Moses asked
to see your glory once, and we know that you had to put him
in the cleft of the rock. And Lord, that's what we're asking
for you to do for us, is put us in the same cleft that we
may see your goodness and mercy, Lord, your hinder parts, your
finished work, what you've accomplished. We pray for these men who are
about to break the bread of life. We pray that you would bless
the word to our hearts. Lord, our minds are so prone
to wonder that song said that we're feeble were frail and it's
so true. We want to focus. We want to
worship. Please send your spirit and power. Bless your word and
truth, we pray. Knit our hearts together unto
Christ in love. Be with those who are sick and
afflicted. Father, our brother Marvin Stoniker, be with him
and others, Lord, who are dealing with different trials and afflictions
that you saw fit. We pray your mercy, your grace,
according to your will. Lord, as many of us will be departing
today and tomorrow to travel back to wherever our earthly
home is, we pray for traveling mercies. We pray that you would
cause these words that's been spoken to ring in our ears that
we would remember what such a glorious meeting it's been where you were
declared. We pray that you'll be declared
today in spirit and in truth in Christ's name. Amen. Let's turn to number 199, Christ
receiveth sinful men. You can remain seated. sinners Jesus will receive. Sound the word of grace to all
who the heavenly pathway lead. All who linger, all who fall,
sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ, receive a sinful man. Make the message clear and plain. Christ, receive a sinful man. Amen. He will give you rest. Trust him for his word is plain. He will take the sinful rest. Christ, receive us, sinful men. Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ, receive us, sinful men. Make the message clear and plain. Christ, receive us, sinful men. Now my heart condemns me not,
pure before the law I stand. He who cleansed me from all spot,
satisfied its last demand. Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ, receive a sinful man. Make the message clear and plain. Christ, receive a sinful man. Christ, receive a sinful man. Even me, with all my sin, purge
from every spot and stain. Heaven with Him I enter in Sing
it o'er and o'er again Christ receive us sinful men Make the
message clear and plain Christ receive us sinful men Our first
speaker is Brother Donnie Bell. Brother, you come preach the
gospel to us. Luke 23. And let me thank you
all. I'm so thankful that I've been
here. Oh, one of the best weekends
I've had in a long time. And I appreciate Gabe and Caleb. Gabe, I think Caleb and Bonnie. Bobby! I've got you. Boy, you have to forgive me.
I'm bad for stuff like that. But Caleb and Bobby, you've been
so good, and your kids. And Rob and Lisa, oh my goodness. If you need a place to vacation,
go to their house. I'm telling you, we've enjoyed
it. Thank you all for opening your home to us. And thank you
for this incredible gift. Thank you so much. I mean, you
all have made us feel like we're somebody. And I really appreciate
it. I really, really, truly do. But I'm going to read here in
verse 33 down to verse 37. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him in the
malefactors, one on the right hand and the
other on the left. Then said, Jesus, Father, forgive
them. for they know not what they do.
And they parted his raiment and cast slots, and the people stood
beholding, and the rulers also with them derided him, saying,
he saved others, let him save himself if he be Christ, a chosen
of God. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering vinegar, and saying, if thou
be the king of the Jews, save thyself. I want to get my subject
there in verse 34. Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. Father, forgive them. Our Lord
had seven sayings on the cross. And this is the first one. Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. The
last one, of course, is it is finished. But without this one
here, as he prays, Our Lord had been apprehended. He was in the
Garden of Gethsemane, sent over 500 people to get one man. They must have thought he must
have been some kind of a real criminal to take that many people.
But our Lord Jesus Christ, they come and got him, and they led
him out of that garden. They didn't take him, they led
him. But he said this, if you get me, you gotta let these go. If you have me, you can't have
them. And so they had apprehended our Lord, and they brought him
to the high priest, and they put on a mock trial there. They
slapped him there. They mistreated him there. Then
they took him to Herod. Herod put him on trial. Herod
and his people put a purple robe on him, and they put a crown
of thorns on his head. And they bowed to him and said,
hail, king of the Jews, mocking him. And then they took him to
Pilate. And Pilate said, oh, listen,
I find no fault in this man. There's nothing this man has
ever done that he should be even be here. Said, I'll scourge him
and let him go. And oh my, that's, and Pilate
willing to please the people, took him. And here he is, they've
took him outside Jerusalem on a hill. And they nailed him there
to a cross and two men on either side of him. And there was a
howling, screaming mob had been after him, screaming at him,
hollering at him, mocking him, derided him. And here he is hanging
between two common thieves, one of them even a murderer. And
they spat on him, ridiculed him. And I tell you this much, I know
human nature, that there were lots of people there enjoying
watching him suffer. Could you imagine enjoying watching
somebody suffer like that? But I also know this, if I'd
have been there, I would have been one of those mobs that's
cried at, you know, cried crucify him. I would have been one of
those there that would have spat at him. I heard somebody say
one time, if I'd have been there, I'd have stopped it. Oh, no,
you wouldn't. Uh-uh. No, no. No, but I know
if I'd have been there, I would have been one of those screaming
mobs. I'd have been one of those deriding him, mocking him. And
I would have been one of theirs. And there was people there really,
really enjoying to see our Lord suffer. And after being seated
so cruelly by the high priest by Herod, by Pilate, by the Jews,
you would think when our Lord did open his mouth, he would
have pronounced a curse upon them, a curse upon them. Now
I want you, now here, you gotta understand, when our Lord's hanging
there, you see these pictures, they don't, our Lord was bloody
from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. The scripture
says that his bones were showing in his back. I mean, blood was
coming down his forehead into his eyes. I mean, he was beaten
bloody. Our Lord Jesus Christ, you know,
and here's the thing, it's not how much blood that was shed
on the cross, but it was whose blood that was shed on the cross.
It's not how much suffering he did, it's who did the suffering. And that's the thing. But he's
hanging there, he's bloody, he's nailed, blood's running down
his arms, running down his legs, you know, and he's bloody. And
you'd think as he hung there that, you know, he would, after
the way they treated him, I'm gonna curse him. I'm gonna cause
the earth to open up and swallow him like they did Korah and Dathan. But oh no, when he speaks, Is
he going to cry out for pity? No. You know what he says? Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. And
look what's going on at the foot of the cross. When he said, Jesus
said, Father, forgive them in verse 34, they know not what
they do. And the fellows at the foot of
the cross, they're gambling, throwing dice or whatever they
did for his garments. And he said, Father, they didn't
pay. And our Lord Jesus Christ here is praying for his enemies,
praying for his enemies. The first saying of our Savior
from the cross is a prayer. And when our Lord opened His
public ministry, He opened His public ministry with a prayer.
Being baptized, after all many were baptized, Jesus was baptized
praying. He opened His public ministry
with a prayer. And He closes it with a prayer. Father, forgive
them, they know not what they do. And in praying for His enemies,
let's not forget this, that no one, absolutely no one is beyond
the reach of prayer. Nobody is. Not a child, not a
friend, not a neighbor, not an enemy, nobody is beyond the reach
of prayer. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
and his prayer, I'll tell you something else about our Lord's
prayer when he prayed. His prayer was effectual. It
was effectual. And it was effectual that day,
right then and there, there was a thief. that was saved that
day on that cross. And then, on the day of Pentecost,
there was 3,000 saved, and many of them had been at this crucifixion. And then there was the centurion
that said, truly, truly, this was the Son of God. And I'll
tell you, Paul, when Peter preached, he said, I know that through
ignorance, what, through ignorance, you justified, you crucified
the just one. And I'll tell you what, and our
Lord prayed, this is the last prayer, and our Lord prayed in
John 17, he said, I pray not for the world, but he said, you
know who I pray for? I pray for them that God thou
hast given me out of the world. And I pray, Father, I pray for
even them, them that's gonna believe through the Word. He
prayed for us before we ever believed. He prayed for us. And let me give you just a few
things about this Father forgive them, they know not what to do.
This first saying, Father forgive them, is a fulfillment of prophecy,
of prophecy. Now you keep this and look with
me in Isaiah 53. Look in Isaiah 53. If somebody asked me what my
creed is, I would say Isaiah 53. I'd say that'd be my creed. This is what I believe, this
would be my creed. But look what he says down here in verse 12.
This is a fulfillment of a prophecy. Verse 12, therefore will I divide
him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the small
with the strong. And this is what I want you to
look at, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. He was
numbered with the transgressors. And there he is, he's numbered
with these two transgressors. Numbered with us, we were transgressors.
And then it also says that he bared the sin of many. But this
is what he did here. He was numbered with the transgressors.
And here he's... Here's the thing, he made intercession
for transgressors, and that's what he's doing here. Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. And
that's what he's doing. He's intercessing for who? Transgressors. Transgressors. If you're a transgressor,
he prayed for you. This very Psalm of Isaiah 53
said he was despised and rejected. A man of sorrows acquainted with
grief, that he was to be wounded. He was to be bruised. He was
to be chastened. He was to be led as a lamb to
the slaughter. He did it without resistance.
He poured out his soul unto death. He was buried in a rich man's
tomb. And the last word as this, and
he made intercession. Now all that was in Isaiah 53,
the last words where he made intercession for the transgressions. And here's the fulfillment of
it. Father, Father, my Father, the Father who loved
me, the Father who sent me, the Father who made my soul an offering
for sin, My father who called me to be the Lamb of God, my
father. Forgive them, forgive them. They know not what to do. And
he thought of his murderers. And that's what these people
were. They were murdering the Son of God. And he pleaded for
those who crucified him. Father, forgive them. They know
not what to do. He's praying for his enemies,
praying for his enemies. And I tell you here, we also
see Christ identified with his people, with his elect, for his
people, the people for whom he died. Father, forgive them. Forgive
them. You know, they said there, and
look what it says there in verse 35. It said in Luke 24, 33, 35,
he saved others. He saved others. Let him save himself, if he be
the Christ. And oh my, he forgave others,
why can't he save himself? You mentioned it the other day,
you know those, that man that was paralyzed and they, Tore
the roof off of the house to get him to Christ and let him
down in the midst of him. And Christ looked at him. And
I mean, there's a whole crowd of people in that house. And
Christ looked at him as he's laying there right in front of
him, held down with ropes. Christ looked at him and said,
son, be of good cheer. What have I
got to be happy about? They had to let you down through
ropes to get you here. They had to tear a roof off a
house to get you here. What in the world ought not to
be a good cheer about? Your sins are forgiven you. That's what our Lord said here
about that. Oh, Simon, Simon the Pharisee invited the Lord
Jesus to dinner one night, to supper. That's what it is, people
say dinner, but down at home, I've always called it supper,
but I've got to where I ain't call it dinner. They've changed
me. But anyway, he invited her to
dinner, and then this woman came in, Mary was her name. She had real long hair, and she
came in, and she got down beside the Lord Jesus Christ, and she
began to cry. And oh, tears came so profusely
that they fell all over our Lord's feet. And Simon thought within
himself, if this man were a prophet, he'd know what kind of person
this is, that this woman is a sinner. And he dried them with her feet,
with her hair. And he said, Simon, And oh, which
is greater, if a man owed 500 pence or 50, 500 or 50? He said,
oh, he that owed 50s. He said, but neither one of them
had any way to pay. He said, they both frankly forgave
them both. He said, this woman, this woman
right here, her sins are many, many, but they're forgiven. Many, oh my. And I tell you,
he's, oh, and then forgiveness of sins. And let me tell you
this, it's God's prerogative to forgive sins. When he said,
when our Lord forgave that man down in that room, in that front
room that day, he said, who can forgive sins but God only? I
tell you something, God's the only one. He's got the prerogative
whether to forgive you of your sin or not. He don't have to
forgive you of your sin. Would you forgive a man that
walked up and beat your wife to a pup or beat your son or
daughter to a pup and just beat them and mangled them and stomped
on them and beat them to where they was in the interior of their
life? Would you forgive them? That's what our Lord said. Oh, that's what our Lord said,
oh my. Who can forgive sins but God
only? It's up to God to forgive sins. And I remember, I don't
wanna take too long this morning, but I remember, I remember when
I was really, really, really got lost. I mean, I was lost. I was the awfulest man that ever
drew a breath. And I remember praying. And I
said, and I mentioned, this is exactly how I said it. I said,
Lord, I'm such a sorry, sorry dog. I lived in Ohio. I said, I'm such a, I was in
agony. I said, Lord, I'm such a dog
that you don't even have to do anything for me. You don't owe
me nothing the way I've lived. But if you would, if you would,
would you please, please have mercy on me That's all I asked. He didn't owe me nothing. And
I knew it, and I knew it then. And I tell you right now, that
anything I've ever got in this world, God himself gave it to
me. Oh my. And I tell you what, I
thank God, oh I thank God every day. Thank God that he crossed
my path with the gospel. And I tell you, if God ever crossed
your path with the gospel, you ought to bless God every day
for him. And I tell you, when he went to the cross, he went
there as a man, he went there as the Lord's lamb, he went there
as a sacrifice for sin, and there he is as a sacrifice for sin. He was lifted up from the earth
on the cross, and oh my, he's standing there, and the first
thing out of his mouth, Father! What do you want, son? They know not what they do. Forgive
them. And I tell you what, here he
identified with his people. Everybody who he prayed for that,
listen, I'm telling you, everybody he prayed for forgiveness for
got it. Oh, and I tell you here, we also
see when our Lord's on this cross, when this, he said, Father, forgive
them. We see God's estimate of sin and his guilt. Oh, we see
God's estimate of sin and his guilt and what it cost to pay
for it. Under the law, there was required
an atonement even made for sins of ignorance. And that's what
our Lord forgive them, they know not what they do. But over in
Leviticus, I think it is in chapter five, he says, if a man sins
and he's ignorant of his sin, he has still have to have an
atonement. Still has to have blood. Then David said, cleanse me from
secret faults. Now, I wonder how many sins we
commit that we're absolutely utterly ignorant of, that we're
not even conscious we did it. And Christ took care of that.
Father, forgive them. They're ignorant. Father, forgive them. They don't
know what they're doing. Oh, my. The sins we're conscious of bad
enough, but how many we got that we're not even conscious of?
But I tell you, beloved, sin is always sin, and God cites
whether we're conscious of it or not. And some of our men,
they pray, and they say, Lord, forgive me of what I am, not
only what I've done, but forgive me of what I am. And I, you know,
I'll have to be forgiven over this message today. I'll need
the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive me over how sorry that a human
being is to get up here and take the things of God and try to
deal with them. Sins of ignorance need atonement
just like conscious sins. Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do. We're ignorant of many things. and they're all,
but the false hires, and I blame his hires. God's got a great,
great high standard, and our need is great, but his blood,
his blood cleanses all sins. Sins we don't know about, sins
we do know about. Sins that we did commit, sins
we are committing, and sins we shall commit. When our Lord Jesus
Christ died, he took care of past, present, and future. And
you know all my sins were future when Christ died. So when Christ saved me, all
my sins were already gone. That's what the gospel tells
us. That's what the gospel's about, telling you something's
already been done. Father, forgive them. They know
not what to do. And something else we see here
when our Lord's on this cross, We see the blindness, the blindness
of the human heart. Our Lord says, they know not
what to do. They know not what to do. They
weren't ignorant of the fact of his crucifixion. They're standing
there looking at it. They're not ignorant of that
fact. They was the ones that cried out, crucify him, crucify
him. Pilate willingly, willingly,
gave Him up to the people. They see Him nailed to the cross.
They see Him nailed to the tree. They were eyewitnesses of it.
So what did our Lord mean when He says they know not what they
do? Well, they didn't know the enormity
of what they did. This is the Son of God on this
tree. This is the Lamb of God on this tree. They did not know
the enormity of what they did. They were ignorant of who He
really was. They were ignorant of His power,
ignorant of His grace, ignorant of how compassionate He was.
And in fact, they said that if they would have knew that it
was the Lord of glory, they wouldn't have crucified Him. But they
did not know that He was the Lord of glory. They should have
known, they should have known who he was. They should not have
been ignorant of that. They should have known by what
his words, I mean his words, all of the words of his life
as he preached. And they should have known by
the deeds that he done, by the healings and by the miracles
that he performed. They should have known by the
works that he did while he's on this earth. But they said,
we'll not have this man to reign over us. And he himself asked
them, what you think ye of Christ? And I, Lord, example of his own
teaching. Look in Matthew chapter five. We find this so hard to deal
with. I don't know about you, but I do. I do. Matthew 5, 43. You know, our
Lord, he practiced what he preached.
He really did. And you know everybody who says,
boy, our preacher practiced what he preaches. You know, it'd be
awful to preach the sovereignty of God and then whine around
and complain all the time, wouldn't it? It'd be awful to do that. Yeah. I'll tell you, you know,
I've I've seen people die and watched people get their death
sentence pronounced on them. And I'm so thankful for my wife,
Shirley. She come with me, able to go with me. God blessed me
with her. Oh, she's a beautiful woman,
a believing woman, a compassionate woman, a patient woman, a loving
woman. But my wife, when she was diagnosed
with cancer to die, You know what she said? She said, this
is God's work, God's will, and we're going to kiss the hands
of God's providence and take it as God gives it to us. That's
exactly what she said publicly. Never. Only God can give you that kind
of grace. And I tell you what, and I, Lord, Prayed for his enemies. Look what he said here in verse
43. You have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thine enemy. And that's pretty much the way
we are. But look what else he said. But I say unto you, love
your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do
good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. And our Lord was going through
every bit of that right then and there. And what did he say?
Father, forgive them. And he did us that way. We were
his enemies. He makes his enemies to be at
peace with him. He made me to be at peace with
him. His enemies to be at peace with him. And all grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. He taught truth. He was truth. And oh my, we offend. Oh my goodness. We offend in our word. We offend
with our tongue. We, but I'll tell you something. Love. You want to know when somebody
does something to you, remember this. Love covers a multitude
of sin. It covers a multitude. When you
love somebody, when you really love somebody, it covers a multitude
of sin. It really does. It really does. And our love of our Lord Jesus,
He covered a multitude that no man could number of sin. And here when our Lord Jesus
Christ prayed, Father forgive them. We see here man's greatest,
greatest needs. We're sinners. We need forgiveness. Oh, how we need forgiveness.
Men may have noble ideals. They may make good resolutions. They can set rules for other
to live by. I remember one time I was down
in Goodlandville preaching at this church. And the preacher's
name was Bobby Flatt, I never will forget it. And he had big
things on the wall in his building. All these dress codes, how you
had to dress if you come to there. And he also had all the covenants
that you had to keep and all these things that he had up there.
And we got to talking, he said, you know, said, we've had 1500
church members here. And there was about half, less
than half of what's here at that place. I said, where they all
at? He said, they backslid. I'd backslide too if I had to
do that. But you know, when you start
setting rules for people, The only rule we have, the rule
that our Lord gave us is to love one another. This is the commandment
I give unto you, that you love one another, even as I've loved
you. And man's greatest need is to be forgiveness. And I tell
you, if you set rules for somebody to live by, every bit of it's
vain. That one question has to be settled,
and that's the question of sin. That's gotta be settled. Men
make heaven and hell to be the issue. Well, they'll come and
say, you don't wanna go to hell, do you? No, no, who in the world's
gonna jump up and say, yes, I'm glad, I'm going to hell, yeah,
I don't care. But no, when they start witnessing,
do you wanna go to heaven, you wanna go to hell? Naturally say,
yes, I wanna go to heaven. Well, I tell you, this is how
you get there. They start telling you how to get there. But oh
my, the issue that has to be, not heaven and hell, it's Christ
and sin. That's the issue that's got to
be dealt with, Christ and sin. And I tell you what, what good
are shoes if you're paralyzed? What good are glasses if you're
blind? What good are canes if you ain't
able to walk? And it doesn't matter who you
are, doesn't matter where you are, doesn't matter who you know,
And I'll tell you, sin is our nature, sin is our name, and
our sin is before an infinitely holy God. And we need to find
out where forgiveness is and how you get it, and there's only
one place and one man that can do that, and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul said this, he says, be it
known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this
man, This man is the forgiveness of sins and you can be justified
from all things which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. When he said justified of all
things, that means everything that you ever was. Oh, my father,
forgive them. And our greatest need was forgiveness.
Forgiveness. Have you ever, I know where I'm
taking it. 10, 20, 30. I've been 30 minutes,
so I'm going to take about four or five more if you all don't
care. You know, if you ever had to go to your
own children and say, forgive me. I shouldn't have treated you
that way. I didn't mean to embarrass you that way. I'm sorry that
I treated you that way. I'm sorry that I was angry at
you over that. But I tell you what, when you've
been forgiven, if your sins is as great as you say it is, if
you've been forgiven of your sin, then you will have no problem
forgiving anybody else. I don't believe you would. And
then, oh, look at the victory of this redeeming love. And then
verse 33 says this, and when they were come to the place which
is called Calvary. There they crucified him and
the malefactors on the right hand and on the left. And then,
then, after he was crucified, then, when those people were
beside him, then said Jesus, Father, forgive them. Then, when
the vileness of the human heart was on display, Then when man
had done his very worst, then when wicked hands had crucified
the Lord of glory, he could have destroyed them, poured his wrath
on them, caused the earth to open and swallow them. He was
subjected to the unspeakable shame of suffering, excruciating
pain, despised, rejected, And nevertheless, he says, Father,
forgive them. You know what one? Redeeming
love. Redeeming love. Redeeming love
has been my thing and shall forever be. There is a fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath
that flood lose all their guilty stains. Our Lord's redeeming
love, and that's what it was, forgives all our sins completely,
perfectly, full forgiveness, past, present, and future. Blessed
is the man, Father, forgive him. Blessed is the man to whom the
sin is forgiven and the Lord infuse not iniquity. Colossians
2.13 says in this, having forgiven you all trespasses, all of them. Well, what about tomorrow? Done. Oh, Father, Father, Father's
Day is coming up. People are going to honor their
dad. You should, you should, if you've got a good father that loves you and cares for
you and been good to you and you ought to be good to him.
But I, Lord Jesus Christ, Father, oh, when I, Lord Jesus Christ,
praise to his Father, his prayer is effectual. And I'm going to quit. When I,
Lord, as their intercessor, You know what? He doesn't never,
he don't mention us at all. We say he makes intercession
for us and he did there on the cross. But you know who he mentions? He mentions himself. Huh? He don't take you and say, well,
Caleb. He'd say, well, Father Caleb done an awful thing today.
Thought an awful thought. That's not the way he does it.
Satan comes and accuses you and our Lord goes up there and says,
Father, look here. I done took care of everything
that ever happened to him. Father, I done took care of that. Satan, you can't accuse him anymore.
I done took care of that. He always presents himself. That's who our intercession is. He presents himself. I'm thankful for that, ain't
you? Thank you all. Oh, thank the Lord for you. Thank
the Lord for you. I'm so glad to see so many of
you and meet some of the new ones. Appreciate you. Thank you
very much. You didn't bother. On that note that Donnie was
just saying, in the book of Esther, you remember the man Naaman,
When the king found out that Mordecai had saved his life,
the king called Naaman and said, there's a man that's done, what
would you do to the man that saved my life and done all these
great things? Well, Naaman thought it was going
to be him. And he said, you ought to put him on your best horse
and give him your best robe and put your ring on his finger and
parade him around the town with your best man. He said, yeah,
yeah, Naaman, go do that for Mordecai. You know, whenever
our adversary accuses the brethren in glory, that's exactly what
he does, is he just parades the Lord's glory. We're robed in
his righteousness. We have the Lord's ring on our
finger. Every time he accuses us, there is no sin. There's
no sin anymore. He says, no, you're a token of
my grace. Aren't you thankful? Let's turn
to number 212. We'll sing a couple of songs.
If you need to use the facilities, now's the time to do that. Number
212. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see. nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Naught of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow that makes
me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Please be seated. We're going
to sing the hymnal that's on the back of the bulletin. I just
have to go grab one real quick. Lord, we come before Thee now. At Thy feet we humbly bow. O do not our soot disdain. Shall we seek Thee, Lord, in
vain? Lord, on Thee our souls depend. In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with thy rich
grace. Tune our lips to sing thy praise. In thine own appointed way, now
we sing Lord, we know not how to go till
the blessing thou bestow. Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. On a hill far away stood an old
rugged cross. On the cross hung the substitute
Lamb. It was on this old cross that
the chosen of God were forever redeemed by His hand. Turn my mind to repent and believe. calls my heart to rest only in
Thee. May Christ, my only plea, have
mercy on the sinner me. God's purpose stand sure, knowing
whom that are His, fulfilled in the person of Christ. Yet His finish was His cry As
He lifted up His eyes Redeeming all for those whom He died Turn
my mind to repent and believe Cause my heart to rest only in
Thee May Christ, my only plea, have
mercy on the sinner me. As ordained before time, the
Lamb that was slain, arose over death, hell, and the grave. As my surety He stands, salvation
complete All my sin is forever forgave Turn my mind to repent
and believe Cause my heart to rest only in Thee May Christ, my only plea, have
mercy on the sinner me. Our last speaker is Brother Greg
Elmquist. So thankful for you, man. Come preach the gospel to
us now. That was a blessing, Caleb. Thank
you. It's an encouragement to us to
be able to go home and give our folks such a glowing report of
what the Lord's doing here, and we look forward to that. It's
been a blessing to be with you. Thank you all so much. Donnie,
thank you for that message. Reminded me of a statement I
heard a brother say years and years ago. He said, the thing
that bothers me most about my sin is how little it bothers
me. And I know that's true for me.
Our sin's a whole lot worse than we think it is. But our substitute, he understood. And he felt the full sorrow and
shame and experienced the full separation from his heavenly
father as a result of the sins that he bore in his body upon
that tree. And I'm thankful that I have
one. We can't sorrow enough. The Spirit
of God convicts you of your sin, you know that everything about
you is sinful. It's expedient for you that I
go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come.
But when he comes, he's gonna convict the world of sin because
they believed not on me." There's the real root cause of all our
sin. Turn to me, if you will, to 1
Samuel 22. 1 Samuel 22. There's only two things that's
gonna get out of this world alive. Two things, Christ and His church. Everything else is gonna be destroyed,
burned up, judged, condemned. And everything
in this book is about Christ and His church. And Ephesians
chapter five, the Lord tells us that it's a great mystery.
And by that, it's something that has to be revealed. The Bible speaks of a mystery,
it's not speaking about something that's strange or it's talking
about something that's hidden. It's hidden. And only God can
uncover it and reveal the truth of it to our hearts. And every
time we come together and open his word, The mystery of Christ
and his church is there. And our hope and prayer is that
the Lord will open the eyes of our understanding and reveal
to us. Because I want to get out of
this world live. And and only in being a part
of his church and being found in him. Will that be possible? We know that in the volume of
the book, it is written of him. And these stories that are given
to us, particularly these Old Testament stories, all the stories
of the Bible, have a spiritual meaning to them. And it always
has to do with the Lord Jesus and his work of redemption. It's what everything's about,
what everything's about. I mentioned yesterday a friend
that we met from India who had an arranged marriage. And there
was a couple here that, yesterday morning, that were Indian by
descent. And they told me, they said,
we have an arranged marriage. And I thought, well, you know,
that's what the whole world is all about. It's about an arranged
marriage. God the Father gave to his son
a bride in the covenant of grace before time ever came, before
time ever was, the Lord Jesus came into the world to redeem
his bride. The Holy Spirit is calling those
for whom Christ died to faith in him. And Revelation chapter
19 says when it's all wrapped up and done, There's going to
be a great wedding feast where the bridegroom is going to welcome
his bride and parade her before all of creation as the trophy
of his grace. Well, you're talking about a
trophy wife. There she is, right there. There she is. And it's the reason for everything. Nothing else really matters.
Steve and I were talking about this yesterday at the park. You know, nothing else matters
for anything, does it, Steve? You know? So let us read these two verses
together in 1 Samuel chapter 22 and ask the Lord to open the
mystery of the gospel and reveal to us Christ and his church. There's that three simple points
to this message. The title of the message is David's Impoverished
Army. David's Impoverished Army. The
army of David is a clear picture of the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And David surely is a type of Christ himself. So here's
the three simple questions from these first two verses in 1 Samuel
22. Who is their captain? Who is their captain? Where is
he to be found? And who is his brethren? Who's the captain of the army?
Where is this captain to be found? And who are the members of his
army? David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brethren and all
his family's house, there's the church, heard it, they went down
thither to him. And everyone that was in distress,
And everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented
gathered themselves unto him and he became a captain over
them. And there were with him about 400
men. Who's the captain of this army?
Where is he to be found? And who are the members of his
army? Well, David clearly, David's
name translated means beloved. Oh, the father's love for his
son. This is my beloved son. In him,
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. The scripture says
that our only hope of acceptance before God is in the beloved,
to be found in him, not having our own righteousness, which
is by the law, but that righteousness, which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ, his faithfulness to his father and the love that his
father had for him. There's the captain of the army. And the scripture says, as he
is, so are we. Listen, this verse has always
just, you know, David said in Psalm 139, these things are too
wonderful for me. I cannot, I cannot, cannot begin
to understand them. John chapter 17, verse 23. The
Lord Jesus is praying for his bride. And he says, I pray not
for the world, but I pray for them which thou has given me
out of the world for thine they were and thou has given them
unto me. And he's interceding as our high priest before his
heavenly father on behalf of his bride. And then in verse
23, he says this, I in them and them in me that the world may
know that thou, now he's praying to his father, that thou hast
loved them as thou hast loved me. When a sinner is found in Christ,
you see, God's love is perfect love. We talk about loving. you know, our pets and loving
our strawberries and loving, you know, our, our, our, our
wives. And, you know, we use that word
so loosely, don't we? We just, we just talk about loving
every, God's love is perfect love and it's a holy love. And
he only loves one way. He only loves one way. He doesn't,
he doesn't have degrees of love like you and I do. So he loves his children. Oh, and it's the love of Christ
that constraineth us. It's the goodness of God that
leads us to repentance. It's his love that brings us
to bow before him. And we love him in such a small
way because he first loved us. David, the beloved, And the Lord
Jesus is called the son of David. And the Jews understood very
clearly that that title was in reference to the Christ. When blind Bartimaeus said, thou
son of David have mercy upon me, he was confessing his belief
that Jesus of Nazareth was none other than the Christ, the son
of the living God. And he knew that he was able
to save him and give him sight. because of him being the son
of David. And the Lord Jesus, in dealing
with the unbelieving Pharisees, said to them, what think ye of
Christ? Whose son is he? And they said,
well, he's the son of David. And the Lord Jesus looked at
them and said, well, if he be the son of David, why then did
David Call him Lord. When David said, the Lord, speaking
of the Father, said unto my Lord, sit thou here at my right hand,
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. The Lord Jesus is in the heavens. We come into this world by nature
at enmity with God. And what does he do? He brings
us one by one, like Mary, to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be at his footstool and to look to him and listen
to him and believe on him. And I love the response that
the scripture gives us to these Pharisees who could not answer
that question. You see, what the Lord Jesus
will say to those Pharisees is, Yes, the Lord Jesus, the Christ
is the son of David according to the flesh. And he is the son
of David in according to fulfilling the types that David represented
in the Old Testament. But he's Lord. And the problem
that you have with me is that you will not bow to me as Lord.
That's always the problem with unbelief. It's always the problem
of unbelief. You know, the scripture says
some believed and some believe not. And I looked up those two
words in the dictionary and in the original language and found
out that the first word believed is in the passive tense. And
the second word believed not is in the active tense. It just simply means that when
God brings one to believe upon him, they are passive in their
faith. God gives them faith and they're
brought, but those that believe not are active in their unbelief. They are participating in their
unbelief. They are saying, and let a man
come up with whatever excuse he wants for not believing the
gospel, here's the only reason why he doesn't believe it. I
will not have that man reign over me. Period. That's the only
reason why a person won't believe the gospel. No other reason. And the only reason that a person
will believe the gospel is because God made them to. What am I saying? I'm saying
if you're a believer, it's all God's fault, and if you're an
unbeliever, it's all your fault. That's what the Bible teaches. No, they would not bow to the
Lord Jesus. They said, well, he's the son
of David. Why did David call him Lord? Your problem is you're not bowing
to me as Lord. That's the problem. Now people
in religion talk about making Jesus Lord too late. God's already
done it. He made him Lord over the living
and the dead. We don't make Jesus Lord of our life. He reigns sovereign
over you whether you're a believer or an unbeliever. Whether you
want him to or not, he will do with you and with the armies
of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth whatsoever he wills
and no man can stay his hand and no man can say unto him,
what doest thou? He is God and he reigns and what faith does
is willingly and lovingly bows to that. And what unbelief does
is rebels against that. It's just that simple. Son of David. Here's David. Here's Christ. And David's called in the Bible
the man of war. And the Lord Jesus Christ defeated
an enemy that you and I can't defeat. He defeated Satan. He
defeated sin. He defeated death. He defeated
hell. And we are no match to any of
those things. We need a man of war. We need
a captain. And what's the clearest picture
of that in the Bible, as far as an Old Testament type? Well,
it's when David went up against Goliath. You remember, Goliath
came before Saul and the army and said, you send out one representative,
one man, And I'll fight against him. And whichever wins, wins
for the whole other army. You know, no sense in all of
us going to battle against each other and dying. Let's just let
one man die, and that man will win for the entire nation. That's
what that battle is about. The Lord Jesus going up against
Goliath and killing him, and then cutting his head off with
his own sword. Oh, what a picture of Christ. And he got the victory. He got
the victory. And he won it for all Israel,
and the Philistines were routed, and Israel got the victory because
of their one captain, the man of war. The Lord Jesus, David
as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a shepherd. and the Lord Jesus
is our. David said, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. And I don't think we're adding
anything to the scriptures by saying the Lord is my shepherd
and I shall not be in want of anything. He will provide everything
that I need in order to stand in the presence of a holy God.
The Lord Jesus is my shepherd. I shall not be in want of anything. He will provide it all. All my
righteousness, all my justification, all of my holiness, all of my
sanctification, everything that I need, he will provide. And when David, before he went
up against Goliath, remember Saul wanted to put his armor
on him and David said, a lion came into the sheepfold And God gave me the strength
to kill that lion and to deliver that sheep from the very jaws
of the lion. Now, Satan is a roaring lion
and he seeketh whom he may devour. And the Lord Jesus says the good
shepherd delivers his children right from the jaws of the lion.
Oh, what a shepherd we have. Here's Here's the answer to the
first question, who is the captain of this army? It is none other
than the Lord Jesus himself. And sheep are dirty, sheep are
dumb, sheep are dependent, sheep are vulnerable. We need a shepherd, don't we?
David's called a man after God's own heart. And the Bible said
that our hearts are deceitful above all things, desperately
wicked, who can know them? We can't know our own hearts. The Proverbs says a man follows
his own heart, he's a fool. You hear people say, you know,
well, just do what's in your heart. Oh, be careful. God hasn't put that in your heart,
don't do it. We need a new heart, don't we? We don't need heart surgery. People have heart surgeries.
We've got a man in our church that's in need of a valve replacement. I know another brother here in
Pennsylvania that's about to have some stents put in his heart.
Because their hearts are weak and their hearts need a little
help. We need a heart transplant. We need God to take out our heart
of stone, that heart that is dead, that heart that's cold,
that heart that's hard, that heart that cannot believe, and
put in a beating, warm, living heart of flesh. And only then, only then, Can
we be called a man after God's own heart? The Lord Jesus Christ,
he's got to give us his heart. That's what it is to have the
mind of Christ. That new nature that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that nature that cannot sin, that perfect nature. It's Christ in us who is our
hope of glory. Left to ourselves, we're nothing
but sin. And in Christ, we have no sin. Scripture has asked this probing
question when it comes to the King of glory, who shall stand
in his presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart and has not lifted up his soul to vanity, he can
stand in the presence of God. Now our hands are a picture of
our works, and everything that we do is defiled. That's why
God said, don't put your hand to the altar. When Uzzah touched
the Ark of the Covenant to try to steady it to keep from falling
off the Ark, God killed him right there on the spot. Why? Because
he put his dirty hand to that which was holy. There's only
one who's holy, undefiled, separate from sinners, and higher than
the heavens, and his hands are clean. and we must be found in
him. And he's the only one that has
a pure heart. He's the only one who's never lifted up his soul.
That means every single one of us in this room have lifted up
our, maybe we haven't done anything with our hands yet today, or
at least in this time that we've been sitting here. But I guarantee you, I speak
for myself. Lifted up my soul under vanity.
Had a vain thought since we've been here. Is that you? Ah. Most of my thoughts are vain
thoughts and God just gives me those moments when I can have
a holy thought and listening to his word and listening to
the gospel and the spirit of God. But the majority of the
thoughts that go through our mind are not lifted up his soul
to vanity. That's the Lord Jesus. He's the
one who's holy and harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners.
And every thought that he ever had, Every imagination of his
heart was only holy and that continually. A man after God's own heart. He's the captain of the army.
He's the one that the family and friends came to. Go back with me to our text.
David, the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore departed thence and
escaped to the cave of a dulem. Turn with me to Psalm 57, Psalm
57. And you understand that in the Psalms,
the small print in your Bible, before verse 1 is actually part
of the text. That's part of the inspired text.
It's not just a title for that psalm. It's actually part of
the Word of God. And so let's read that small
print at the beginning of Psalm 57. To the chief musician, Altasketh,
and Mishtam of David when he fled from Saul to the cave."
That's the cave of Duluth. That's where David's at when
he writes this psalm. He's writing this psalm in that cave. Be merciful
unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee,
yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these
calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high
and unto God that performeth all things for me. David's family and friends came
down to where he was, in the cave of the Dulem. Caves are significant in the
Bible. I'll only mention two in addition to this one. And
one of them, somebody, one of you men mentioned it already
this morning. The cleft in the rock that Moses
had to be placed in. at the Mount Sinai. That was a cave. It was a cave. And God said to Moses, there
is a place near unto me. And I'll put you in that cave,
in that rock, and I'll cover, and I'll cause my backside. I think Caleb, you mentioned
this. to pass by. I'm going to show you my glory
in light of what I've done. It's David. Moses had to be put
in Christ. That's the, that's the cave.
That's the cave here. And, and of course the cave that's,
that's most significant in all of scripture and all of time
is the tomb in which the Lord Jesus was, was placed. That was
a cave. And so Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again
on the third day. And when he died, I died. And when he was placed in the
tomb, I was placed in the tomb. And when he rose from the dead,
I rose from the dead. Buried with Christ in baptism
and raised to walk a new life in Christ Jesus. Where do we
go to find David? We go to a cave. We go to this
place where God's mercy is found. David's praying in Psalm 57 for
the Lord to have mercy upon him. The Lord shows mercy to Moses
by putting him in the cleft of the rock and God's mercy is satisfied
through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find our David
through a cave. And the significance of this
cave is its name, Adullam. And that word translated means
justice. Justice. The justice of God was
satisfied through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the
day in which you sin, you shall surely die. Death is the penalty
for sin. Our God is a God of mercy, and
He's a God of grace, but He will in no wise clear the guilty. He will not sacrifice His justice. Sin must be paid for. And the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only blood that will cover
our sins. No amount of sacrifice. I hear
sometimes people say that someone who's had a very difficult life
or has made great, you know, great sacrifices in their lives
for things and for other people and been very sacrificial. And
someone will say after their death, and you know something
about this person, you know, they're in false religion. And now, you know, they're so
much better off now. No more sacrifices, they paid
their debt, no. No, things are much worse now
than they ever were when they were here in this world. No, there's only one sacrifice
that will meet the justice of God, and that's the sacrifice
that the Lord Jesus made. That's why Moses had to be put
in the cleft of the rock. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ
had to die, because the wages of sin was death. And God's not
satisfied with any sacrifice that you and I make. He's satisfied
with the sacrifice that his son made. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. And God saw the travail of his
soul, Isaiah 53. And God said, I'm satisfied.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that bore sorrow for
sin sufficient to satisfy God's justice. He's the only one that
experienced the separation from his father and the full weight
of justice to satisfy the demands of his father. Where do we find
the Lord Jesus Christ? In the cave of a dulem. through
his death and by his resurrection. And that cave is not just a picture
of the death of Christ, it's a reminder of the success that
he had in his death, because that's what the resurrection's
all about. A wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign,
God will give it no sign, except for the sign of Jonah. That's
the resurrection. God raised his son from the dead
as the testimony of God's satisfaction that justice has been met. And
so when the women went to the cave, why seek ye the living
among the dead? He's not here. He's not here. He's raised from the dead. Where do we find our David? Where do we find our captain
of the army? We find him in the cave of Adullam
where justice was satisfied. Salvation was accomplished. God
is giving proof, positive testimony of it by the resurrection of
his son. The Lord Jesus met all the demands
of the law. In word, in deed, in heart, in
mind, he dotted every I, he crossed every T. He said, I did not come to destroy
the law, I came to fulfill it. I came to satisfy everything
that God requires of the law. And David tells us in the Psalms,
mercy and truth. Yes, mercy. We need the mercy
of God, but we need truth. Righteousness and peace. Mercy and truth have met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Where did
that happen? It happened at the cross. God is able to be just and justify
sinners at the same time through the sacrifice that our David
made on Calvary's cross. The cave of a dulem. Turn with me to Romans chapter
three, verse 19. Now we know, and we
know it only if the Lord teaches it to us. We know it only if
the Lord opens the eyes of our understanding and makes the mystery,
unveils the mystery to us. And if he does, this is what
we'll know. And we know that what things soever the law saith
that saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God.
That's all the law can do. All the law can do is condemn.
All the law can do is make guilty. All the law can do is, Make a man, well, utterly sinful,
as the scripture goes on to say. Look, therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. We may justify one another. Somebody
accuses us falsely, we stand up for ourselves. I'm not guilty
of that. I didn't do that. God accuses us of something,
there's no justifying ourselves. Guilty, Lord. Guilty as charged. I've never been able to keep
one of your laws one time. Not once. And people say, well,
you know, I ask people, are you keeping God's law? I'm doing
the best I can. That's not good enough. Not good enough. You say, well, I've never murdered
anybody. I'm sorry. The Lord said, you have heard it said.
that if you commit murder, if you kill a man, you're guilty
of murder. But I say unto you, if you have
ought in your heart towards your brother without a cause, you've
committed, what is that? How many times we've gotten angry
at somebody because they offended us? How many times we've just
had If you've had ought in your, not if you've harbored bitterness
for a long time against someone and unwilling to forgive them.
No, God says if you have ought, a momentary thought of anger
or disappointment or resentment towards somebody because of something
that you perceive that they did. In the sight of God, you've already
murdered them. You see, man looks at the outward appearance. God's
looking at the heart. You and I have never been able
to keep one of God's laws one time. Love the Lord your God
with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul?
All the time? Love your neighbor as yourself? Oh, never. The Lord Jesus did. He kept the law. He satisfied
justice. No flesh should be justified
in God's sight, for by, look at the end of verse 20, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, but now, the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. That's what this story in 1 Samuel
20, 22, and every other story is about. It's a witness of Christ. having fulfilled the demands
of the law, and having accomplished the salvation of his people.
Our David in the cave of Adullam, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, verse 22, even the righteousness of God, and
I hope you have a King James Bible, because every other translation
I've ever looked at changes this verse. changes this, there's about five
or six of these verses where it talks about the faith of Christ. And in every other translation
of the Bible, it says your faith in Christ, big difference, big
difference. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. For there's no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I ask
you again, my brethren, my friends, what in your life falls short
of the glory of God? Because God says, that's your
sin. You see our sins, Donnie you're
talking about the sins of ignorance. Father forgive them for they
know not what they do. You and I don't have a clue what
we've done. We don't have a clue. The sin
that you've experienced the worst pains of guilt over. The most
shameful thing that you've lost sleep over, the thing that you
feared someone else finding out about it, you don't know what
you did. You have no idea how bad, it
was a whole lot, people say to me, oh preacher, my sin's a lot
worse than you think it is, or my sin's too bad, and I say back
to them, it's a whole lot worse than you think it is. However bad you have felt bad
about your sin, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they've
done. They don't know what they've done. They have no idea how bad
their sin is. I'm the only one that's ever
experienced sin. That's why the scripture says
he was tried in all ways that we are yet without sin, but he's
able, he's able to sympathize with us. Why? Because though he did not commit
sin, what is there about sin that bothers you? Is it not the
shame of sin? Is it not the sorrow of sin?
Is it not the separation that you experience from those that
you've sinned against and most importantly from God? The Lord
Jesus knew that to its infinite degree. He knew sorrow, he knew
shame, he knew separation like you and I have never known because
of the sins of his people that he bore. And he knew it about every sin. Sometimes we allow the guilt
and the shame of a sin to do for us what it did for Adam and
we run and hide and try to cover our nakedness and don't do that. You know what the Lord Jesus
is saying? Child, I know that sin. When I was on the cross,
I experienced that sin. I know what you're feeling and
I felt it and experienced it infinitely more than you could
possibly know that sin. You know, oftentimes we just
think about this great massive sin that the Lord bore, but our
Lord as God, He knew every single sin that you and I, that you
and I experience. And so we have a Savior that's
saying to us, child, I know that sin. Come, come. All you that labor and are heavy
laden, come. A lot of people laboring, laboring
with the law, laboring with their sin, but they're not heavy laden. They're not overwhelmed with
it. They're not crushed by it. They've
not been brought to the point to where, Lord, I can't do anything
about this. I can't fix this problem. Lord,
I've got a sin problem that only you can deal with. All you that
labor and are heavy laden, come unto me. Come unto me. I'll give you rest. My burden
is light. My yoke is easy. I bore the burden
already. That's what I did on Calvary's
cross so that now my burden is light. The weight of sin has
been put away. Sin's been separated from you
as far as the east is from the west. I remember it no more.
I bear it in the depths of the sea. It's gone. It's gone. Come, learn of me. Yes, we must be taught of God,
but when, you know, he's not only the teacher, but he's the
subject. They shall all be taught of God.
Yeah. And learn of me. He does the
teaching and he teaches us who he is and what he's done. He's
our David. our commander, our shepherd,
our man of war, the man after God's own heart, who went to
the cave of Adullam, satisfied the demands of God's justice.
For who? For who? Well, look at the description,
and I would just simply ask you, do you fit this description?
Because this is who he did it for. This is who he did it for,
and everyone that was in distress. Now in the South, we call that
being put between a rock and a hard place. To be in distress
means that you're trapped. You've got no place to turn.
You see, coming to the Lord Jesus Christ is not a choice. It's
not a decision. You have a choice between Christ
and something else, you will always choose something else.
Always. The only way you'll come to Christ
is if you have no choice. You say, Preacher, you say man
doesn't have free will? Yes, he does, and he doesn't. You
and I make choices every day. When we have two or more options,
we choose one over the other. And we always choose the one
for which we have the greatest inclination. You say, well, that person made
me do something against my will. And I speak from personal testimony
on this. You have a barrel of a gun placed
right there between your eyes. And a man says, give me your
money. I promise you from my personal experience, he didn't
take my money from me. I was happy to give it to him.
There was nothing I wanted to do more in that moment than for
him to have my money and move that gun. You see, I had a choice. I had a choice. I had a choice to give him my
money or die. And I chose that which I had
a greater inclination for, and I freely chose it. I was happy
to do it. Take whatever I got. You can
have it all. God doesn't put a gun to our
head. He shuts us up to Christ so that you don't have a choice. You've
taken away all my choices. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. It is not by choice. You did
not choose me, I chose you. And when the Lord reveals to
us our sinfulness before God, he puts us in distress. He puts
us in a place where we've got no place else to go. The Lord
asked the disciples one time, will you lead me also? They made
a choice. I just fed 5,000 and I told them
they just wanted their bellies full. They all turned around
and went home. When I told them that they had to take up their
cross, deny themselves and follow me. They didn't want any part
of it. And the Lord invited his disciples to go with him. Aren't
you going to lead me too? What did Peter say? Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou alone has the words of eternal
life, and we know and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. You have shut us up to Yourself.
We've got no place, we don't have a choice about this, and
we don't want a choice. You've made us willing. You've
taken away, that's why free will is such a It's such a, you see, it puts
the power of salvation in that. Well, I have a choice. Just decide
for, choose Jesus, invite Jesus to come into your heart. Let
him become Lord of your life. You know, he's given you a choice.
You'll never be saved that way. Because if you have a choice,
you will always choose something else. You'll only come to Christ
if Christ is all you've got. He's all you've got. And everyone
that was in distress, Are you in distress? And everyone that
was in debt. Oh, we have a debt we can't pay.
I cringe to think about hell and
I cringe to have to talk about it. But hell's eternal. It's forever. Why? because an
eternal punishment in a lake of fire will not satisfy the
debt that you and I owe to God. We'll always be owing Him. The debt has to be paid, and
it has to be paid in full. And that word, that word, it
is finished that the Lord Jesus cried from the cross before He
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. It is a
word in the original language that they would have used to
stamp on a paid bill. If you went to the bank and you
paid off your bill, what do you get? Paid in full. That's what
that word means. Paid in full. The full debt's
been paid. Nothing else. You go back to
the bank, try to pay something on that debt. If they're a reputable
bank, they say, I'm sorry, I can't take any more money. It's already
paid. I heard about a man who worked
all his life sending deposits into the bank, looking forward
to his retirement. And one day, after many years
of making deposits in the bank, he showed up at the bank. He
said, I've retired from my job. I've been putting all this money
away, and I want to draw it all out. And they asked his name. And the teller said, excuse me,
sir, just a moment. She went to the bank president.
Bank president came, looked at his ID, looked at his name. Bank
president turned to the guard in the bank and said, lock the
door and call the Secret Service. This is the man. This is the
man that's been sending us counterfeit money for the last 40 years. Men spend their whole lives thinking
that they're making deposits in God's bank for their ultimate
retirement, only to find out that God's gonna say, Judge of
the Earth, lock him up. He's been sending counterfeit
money all his life in hopes of being saved by something that
he did. There's only one legal tender
before God, and that's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
went to the cave of a dueling and he redeemed his people. And those that are in distress
and those that are in debt. You and I have a debt that we
cannot pay. He's the only one that paid it.
And those that notice, do these words describe you? Are these
accurate descriptions? Because this is who he came to
say. And those that were discontented.
Now, I hate it when I'm discontent. I do. And I get that way a good
bit. Complain, murmur, like children
of Israel. And the Lord convicts me of,
you know, you talk, Dottie, I was convicted when you said stand
up and preach of God's sovereignty. I've gotten you in complaint
about your circumstances and about his providence. I do that.
I do that. Lord, make me content. Make me
to believe that you're working all things together for good,
for them that love thee and those that are called according to
your purpose. Lord, forgive me for my discontentment. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. And here's the mystery of godliness,
that Christ was manifested in the flesh. If I have Christ,
I'm godly and I'm content with him. And though we oftentimes
are discontent when it comes to our circumstances, and even
when it comes to God's good providence, faith is not discontent with
Christ. We're content with that which
God's content with, as far as Christ being my righteousness. We have brought nothing into
the world And it is certain that we should take nothing out. Having
food and raiment, let us therewith be content. What a blessing it
is when God makes you content. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have. I want
to be content. But I can't find any contentment
before God outside of my David. I can't find contentment with
my works, with my wisdom, with my knowledge, with anything. I can't find contentment. I must
have Christ. And only when I come to the cave
of Adullam and meet my captain and sit with him can I say, I'm
satisfied. And I'm satisfied with him as
all my righteousness before God. But look at what David said,
I will behold when I die, I will behold thy face in righteousness,
and then I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. You see, there's a part of me
that's still discontent when it comes to Christ. You say,
what are you talking about, preacher? Well, here's what I'm talking
about. I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, I press towards the mark for
the prize of the high calling. Oh, that I might know him and
the fellowship of his suffering. I just want to know Him more,
and I'm not satisfied with how much I know of Him. If you know
Christ, and if you've tasted of His grace, you want more of
Him. You want more of Him. You want
to see more of His glory, more of His grace, more of His forgiveness.
And in that sense, you're discontent and you're gonna remain discontent
in this world until you behold His face in glory and then you'll
be satisfied when you're made like Him and you have no more
sin. As long as you're struggling
in this world with your old man, you won't be discontent. Discontent
with yourself, discontent with how much you know about Him. Go back with me to our text. Verse one, David, the son of
David, the captain of our salvation, the man after God's own heart,
the sweet psalmist of Israel, therefore departed and thence
our savior has departed. He's ascended into glory. He's
seated at the right hand of God. And he escaped to the cave of
Adullam, a place where God's justice is satisfied. And when his brethren, they're
the only ones that are gonna go, his brethren, and all his father's house, They're
the ones that are gonna follow Him. They went down thither to
Him, and everyone that was in distress, they had no place else
to go. Everyone that was in debt, they
had a debt they couldn't pay. And everyone that was discontented
with their righteousness as the hope of their salvation, And
with all that they could possibly know in this world of him, they went down. And they gathered themselves
unto him. And he became a captain over
them. And there were about 400 men. Brother Caleb, thank you all.
It's been a blessing to be here with you. My ledger says that that discontented
also means bitterness of soul, bitterness of soul. And is it
not true? It's oh, Richard, man, that I
am not that I was. Thank God for our David. Thank
the Lord for our David. This has been wonderful. Been
so good to see everyone and worship. I feel the Lord met with us.
I know he did. Bless me very thankful, very
thankful. I hate that these. Conferences
come and go so quickly. Somebody somebody talked about
how. Good they are and it's closest thing we have to heaven on this
side of eternity really. One of these days will we awaken
his likeness will get to see that his feet for eternity and
we'll never have to. There'll be no goodbyes in heaven,
will there? There won't be any goodbyes. I'm looking forward
to that day, longing for that day. I want to dismiss the ladies
to go, the ones that are working on the food, and let's sing a
couple of songs while they prepare, and then those of us who are
not helping in the kitchen remain here, or you can make your way
outside, but leave the kitchen area open if you would, please.
Let's all stand together and turn to Number 125, Jesus paid
it all. 125. I hear the Savior say, thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. it white as snow. Lord now indeed
I find thy power and thine alone can change the leper's spots
and melt the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all All to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I Whereby
thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood
of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Number 351. On the chorus, we're changing
the words to in the Christ of the cross be my glory ever. Jesus, keep me near the cross. There a precious fountain. Free to all a healing stream. flows from Calvary's mountain. In the Christ of the cross be
my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river. Near the cross a trembling soul,
love and mercy found me. There the bright and morning
star Sheds his beams around me In the Christ of the cross Be
my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the
river. Near the cross, O Lamb of God,
bring its sins before me, Help me walk from day to day with
His shadow o'er me. In the Christ of the cross be
my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river. Near the cross I'll watch and
wait, hoping, trusting ever. Till I've reached the golden
strand Just beyond the river In the cries of the cross Be
my glory ever Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the
river. I want to ask everyone if they
can grab some chairs and take them out to the tents that we
have out there. But before you do that, Brother
Al Yerkes, will you ask the blessing over the food and dismiss us? We're thankful, Father, that
you have warmed our hearts by hearing the Gospel of Christ
be said. We pray, Father, that you would
keep us by your grace and your mercy. We pray that you might
bless the food for our fathers, Lord, and make us free of all
our hearts for what you do for us. Dismissed.