That's what I'm preaching about
tonight, seven reasons for praising the Lord. If you'll turn back
to 1 Peter 1, let me read verses 3, 4, and 5 again. One of the
surest ways to drive away depression is to praise the Lord. One of
the surest ways to drive away despair and depression is to
praise the Lord. Find the many blessings, count
the many blessings, name the many blessings which he hath
given to us in his Son, and praise the Lord. One of the surest ways
to find real comfort, even in the darkest valley, even when
the clouds are heavy overhead, is to praise the Lord. That's
what Job did. When he had received all of the
bad news that they could possibly bring him, he praised the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
God has given, God has taken away, praise the Lord. One of
the surest ways to fulfill your calling is to praise the Lord. The chief end of man, the old
Presbyterian confession of faith declares, is to praise the Lord,
to glorify God. And one of the surest ways to
fulfill your calling as one of God's creatures is to praise
God. We're murmurers, we're complainers
by nature. The scripture says in Psalm 150,
the last verse, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Why don't you try it this week?
Why don't you try praising the Lord? Instead of finding fault
with God's providence, praise the Lord. Instead of complaining
about God's providence, praise the Lord. Instead of finding
fault with trials, rejoice in them. Praise God. I guarantee
it. I promise you. If you want to
be relieved from despair and depression, praise the Lord.
If you want to find real comfort of heart and soul, praise the
Lord. If you want to please God and
fulfill your calling, praise the Lord. And one of the surest
ways to assure yourself of God's presence and to enjoy God's presence
is to praise the Lord. If you'll go through the Book
of Psalms, you'll find over and over again, this is stated, the
Lord He is nigh unto them who praise his name. That's right.
He is nigh unto them. He is near them. He reveals himself
to them, praising the Lord. Now listen to 1 Peter 1, verse
3. This is Peter's New Testament
psalm. That's what it is. It's a New
Testament psalm. It's a song of praise. It's a
hymn of praise. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless
God, Peter said. Praise God. Praise God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he gives us seven reasons
to praise God. He said, which according to his
abundant mercy, his abundant mercy, hath begotten us, we are
born again, unto a living hope, what is life without hope, by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance,
heirs of God, joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. An inheritance
that's incorruptible, that's undefiled, that faded not away,
that's right now reserved in heaven for you, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready, ready to
be revealed in the last time. Most of the word of God is written
to believers, and this is certainly written to believers. It's written
to those who love him, who trust him, who believe on him. And
Peter calls them, first of all in verse 1, he calls these people
strangers, strangers. And we are strangers. We are
pilgrims. We are sojourners in an unfriendly
world. If you're looking for the friendship
of this world, look no longer. This world neither loves your
God nor you. This world neither understands
your God nor you. This world neither sympathizes
with his purposes and his glory nor with you, a world that does
not know God. We are strangers and pilgrims
and sojourners in a world that cried, give us Barabbas. We will
not have Jesus Christ to reign over us. Strangers. That's the
folks about which this is written. And then in verse 2 he calls
them the elect. God's chosen. He says they are
not only strangers, but they are elect. According to the foreknowledge
or the foreordination of God the Father. One sure result of
divine election. You know what it is? One sure
result. And that's the world's hatred. If you'll turn to John
15, verse 19, listen to our Lord here, talking to his disciples
in John 15, 19. What I'm saying is this, one
sure effect of God's elective grace is the hatred of this unfriendly
world, this world that does not know the Lord. He says in John
15, 19 to his disciples, if you were of the world, the world
would love The world would love his own, but because you're not
of this world, and because I have chosen you out of this world,
you're mine, you're my jewels, I've chosen you, therefore the
world hates you. He calls them strangers. This
is not our dwelling place, this is not our habitation, this is
not our home. There's nothing permanent for
us here at all. We are sojourners, we're pilgrims.
We are strangers passing through. And with God's elect, we have
the mark of his affection upon us. We have the mark of his love. And don't you expect to be received
by this world, or welcomed by this world, or loved by this
world. Our Lord said, My brethren, the world hated me before it
ever hated you. And it'll hate you because I've
chosen you out of the world. Then he calls them sanctified.
He says in verse 2, they are elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit. They've been set
apart. They've been set apart. They've been declared by the
righteousness of Christ to be holy and they are progressively
being sanctified. They are progressively being
made more like Christ. They are by the work of the Holy
Spirit growing in grace and showing the fruit of the blessed Holy
Spirit. And then he calls them redeemed,
redeemed. Down in verse 19 he said, For
as much as you know you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, such as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the
blood of Christ. We've been bought. We've been
bought. We've been purchased. Our Lord
Jesus Christ not only chose us, not only elected But he came
down here as our surety, as our representative. He came down
here as the second Adam. And he, in the flesh, as a man,
met God's law on our behalf and obeyed it perfectly. And by his
active obedience hath given to us a righteous standing before
the Father. And he took our sins in his body
and went to the cross, and there he paid for them, effectually
paid for them. He bought us, he redeemed us.
He went in there and paid the price. The old prophet said,
I found the ransom. I found the ransom. I've been
bought. You're not your own. You are
bought with a price. He chose us, he purchased us,
and his Holy Spirit called us. And then he said in verse 22,
they're not only strangers in an unfriendly world. They're
not only God's elect. They're not only God's elect.
And they're not only sanctified, set apart, called by the Holy
Spirit. And they're not only redeemed, but these people love
each other. They love each other. He says,
seeing, verse 22, you've purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the Spirit under unfamed. What is unfamed? It means it's
sincere. It's not insincere. It's not
hypocritical. It's genuine. Genuine. Genuine love for the brethren.
See that you love one another. with a pure heart fervently.
Those who have been born again, they love each other. Christ
said, that's the way men know you, my disciples, you love each
other. As I've loved you, love you one another. And as Peter
begins this letter to these people, these strangers, the elect of
God, those who are being sanctified, those who are called by the Holy
Spirit, those who are purchased by the blood of Christ, those
who love each other, As he begins this letter to them, he begins
it with a psalm of praise. He begins it with a psalm, a
seven-fold psalm. And I want to look at it tonight
in the time we've got together. First of all, in verse 3, he
says, Bless God. Bless God for his abundant mercy. For his abundant mercy. This
is where it all begins. When I hear a sermon, I listen
for this. I don't mean to hear it critically.
I don't want us to be sermon testers or tasters. I want us
to be blessed by messages God sends us from his men. But this,
I listen for this, I listen for this ringing of a certain bell,
a sounding of a certain note. This thing of our relationship
with God, eternal life, spiritual life, got to begin right here.
Mercy. Thank God, he says, bless God
for his abundant mercy. tears unavailing, no merit had
I, mercy, mercy hath saved me, or else I would die. No other
attribute could have helped me. God's love couldn't have helped
me without His mercy. God's righteousness couldn't
have helped me without His mercy. God's holiness could not help
me without His mercy. God's justice could not help
me without his mercy. I stand with the publican in
the temple who could not lift his eyes to heaven, but smote
upon his breast and cried, God have mercy. Have you ever stood
there? That's where it all starts. We
cry with Bartimaeus, Jesus, son of David, have mercy. We cry
with a Canaanite woman, Lord have mercy. The gospel of Jesus
Christ knows nothing of human merit, only mercy. The guilty
do not need pity, they need mercy. The guilty do not need pity,
sympathy, comfort, they just need plain old mercy. Isn't that
right? Call Paul forward. The Apostle
Paul, I guess one of the greatest men who ever lived on this earth.
I don't suppose in all of this Bible, from Genesis to Revelation,
there's a greater man of God than Paul. Paul, missionary,
missionary to the Gentiles, special chosen vessel of the Lord. Paul,
visitor to the third heaven, who went up there and came back
and said, I saw things it's not possible to tell you about. Paul,
writer of Scripture, wrote more of the Bible than any other man
other than Moses. Paul, organizer of churches,
Paul who called himself the blessed pattern of all believers. Step
forth, Paul, what's the story of your life? I obtained mercy. That's what
he said. He talked about his ministry,
he talked about his background, he talked about his accomplishments,
he talked about all these things, and he said, but I obtained mercy. That's where it stops. Whose
mercy? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his mercy. His mercy. The river of mercy
flows from the throne of God. The source of all mercy is God
Almighty. It originates right there. It's
God's mercy. Where is this mercy? It's in
Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Christ."
It's in Christ. That's where God's mercy is.
God's mercy is always special. His mercy in nature is beautiful. His mercy in providence. But
his mercy in Christ is best. God's mercy in Christ. And look
at this. He says it's abundant mercy.
God is plenteous in mercy. It's no compliment to the mercy
of God for you to talk about you're too great a sinner for
God to save. His mercy is abundant. It's unlimited. I heard a missionary tell a story
one time, it might have been here, I don't remember, but one
time he said there was an old lady raised in Ireland, in the
interior of Ireland. And she lived in one of those
grass thatched huts over there. And she lived in poverty, complete
poverty. She spent her whole life trying
to feed a family on nothing. She tried to clothe her household
on pennies. They didn't have anything. All
her life, she never had anything. And when she got old, one of
her grandsons took her on a holiday trip, paid all her expenses,
and took her to the ocean. And this old lady, for the first
time in her life, stood on the beach overlooking that vast Atlantic
Ocean. And you know what she said? She
exclaimed as she looked over that vast ocean, I'm glad to
finally see something there's plenty of. There's plenty of. I'm telling you this, there's
plenty of mercy with the Lord. He's plenteous in mercy. He's
merciful to the undeserving, plenteous grace, Charles Wesley
said, plenteous grace. With thee is found grace to cover
all my sins, and all your sins, and all the sins of all who believe,
and all who receive him, all my sins. Let the healing streams
abound, make me, keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain
art freely, let me take of thee, spring thou up within my heart
rise to all eternity. God's mercy is abundant. For
the chief of sinners, for the greatest sinner, God's mercy
is abundant. Thank God. Isn't that beautiful?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy, his abundant mercy. Who are you?
Are you God Almighty has plenty of grace. He can meet your every
need. He's able to save to the uttermost them that come to God
by him. I care not who you are. I care not what you've done.
I care not the condition of your heart. I care not the condition
of your past or your history, your background, the color of
your skin, your age, or anything else. Our Lord is plenteous in
mercy. He delights to show mercy. God
delights to show mercy. He said, I take no pleasure,
no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Unlike human beings,
our God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He delights
to show mercy. Why don't you sue for mercy?
Why don't you sue for grace? All you have to do is take it.
He said, Come and dine. The table is spread. All things
are ready. Sit down and eat. Partake of it. Don't just talk
about it and wish for it. Eat it. Take it. Take it. Here is abundant mercy. Look
at the second thing in this hymn of praise. Thank God for his
abundant mercy, according as he hath begotten us again. I've had two births. My first
birth gave me the image of my father Adam. My second birth
gave me the image of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I wear and bear the image of Adam still, to my dismay and
to my grief. But thank God I wear the image
of the second Adam, Christ Jesus. My first birth gave me the image
of the earthly. My second birth gave me the image
of the heavenly. My first birth gave me an old
nature. Paul called it a wretched nature. He called it a body of
sin. He longed for the day when he would be delivered from and
relieved of this body of sin. My second birth gave me a new
nature, a divine nature. My first birth was unto death.
I'm dying, slowly dying. My second birth is to life eternal. It will never die. It will never
die. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, He
that believeth on me, he that liveth and believeth on me shall
never die. This body will die, but my spiritual
nature will never die. To be born once is an eternal
curse. To be born again is an eternal
blessing. The people here tonight who have
only been born once have every right to curse the day they were
born into this world. The people here tonight who have
been born only one time have every right to curse the day
they were born, to curse the day their mother brought them
forth, to say, would God, I had died in deliberate. But to be
born again is to praise God forever. This new life comes not from
man, it comes from God. Turn to John 1. Let's look at
this. John chapter 1. This is a miracle of God. This
is a work of God. This is an act of God. Just like
he created the world by his power and by his word, he creates life. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. He hath begotten us. Bless God
for his abundance, his plenteous, his unlimited mercy, who hath
begotten us. Look at John 1, verse 12. As many as received him. That's
folks that believe on him. That's folks that trust him.
That's folks that embrace him with a heart of love. To them
gave he the right to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name, which were born not of blood. This is not a family thing. This
is not a fleshly inheritance. This is not something you get
from your mom and daddy. Nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God. Well, you say, Preacher, here
I am tonight without God, without Christ, without hope. What do
I do? Ask God for mercy. Ask God for mercy. Sue for mercy.
Ask God to give you life. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Call upon him while he's near. You have not because you
ask not. A person wants something badly enough, number one, he
goes to where he can get it. And he goes to the person who
can give it to him, and he asks for it. That's the way to get
what you want, ask for it. Ask God. Ask God to give you
life. Ask God to create hope within
you. Look at the third thing here. Bless God for his abundant
mercy. Bless God that he hath begotten
us unto a living hope. Can a man survive without hope?
Where there's no hope, there's no joy. Where there's no hope,
there's no peace. But there's no hope, there's
no reason to continue. You know, I went down years ago,
I was holding a meeting up in Martin, Kentucky, and a man in
the church was a superintendent of one of the mines up at Left
Beaver, up there somewhere, Left Beaver, I believe it was, Lynch,
Kentucky, somewhere up there. And one night at church we were
talking, and he said, you ever been down to Coal Mine? I said,
no, sir. Would you like to go? I said, yes, I would. So he said,
well, in the morning, why don't you drive up to the mine? He
said, I'll take you down about two or three miles. And so the
next morning, I went up to the mine. He gave me a hard hat and
put me on one of those little scooters. And we went through
that mine. We, you know how you've met me
and ever been in a mine, you know those wind doors and all,
you know, that open up? Mine wasn't over that high, you
know, about 40 inches or 48 inches. And I scooted down in that shuttle
car flying. I thought flying. We were doing
12 miles an hour, but I thought we was flying. And we was going
through that mine, and it kept getting further back, and finally
we got back there where they were, where they were mining
coal, and he said, this far as you can go. And I said, how far
is it back out there to the light? He said, it's over two miles.
Two miles. And you know, I thought about
every mine cave-in I'd ever heard about, ever read about. Now,
I'm telling you, a miner earns every dime he makes, let me tell
you. I thought, when I get back out
there in the sunshine, It'll take a lot of horses to get me
back down here again. But I thought about men who've
been in those mines that far back, and it caves in. It all
caves in, two and a half miles. And they're sitting there, and
they've eaten the last bite of bread, they've drunk the last
water, and they've got a candle, and that candle's beginning to
flicker because the oxygen's just about all gone. And they
sit there and hear not a sound, and hear nothing. But looking
at the flickering of that candle as it begins to go out, having
no oxygen, that's no hope, isn't it? No hope. And my friends,
I tell you, that's my condition in the darkness of sin if Christ
did not come by his grace and rescued me. I didn't tunnel out. I didn't find a way of escape.
He came where I was, without God, without hope, without strength. without help at my wit's end."
All of that is scriptural language, you look it up. Without hope,
without help, without God, without Christ, without strength, at
my wit's end, he came where I was and he rescued me. He hath begotten
me to a living hope. Why is it a living hope? It's
a living hope because it's from a living Christ. Our hope is
not based on our dead works, so it wouldn't be living. Our
hope is not based on our dead profession. It's not based upon
our dead ceremonialism. It's based upon a living Christ,
the work of a living Christ. It's a living hope because he
ever lives. He ever liveth to make intercession.
It's a living hope because it will never end. Everything you've
got on this earth like the flowers will fade. your charming wife sitting next
to you right now, one of these days is going to be gone, one
of you is going to be gone. That marriage will be dissolved.
The job you have right now, the business you have, get ready,
it's going to be gone in a short time. It's going to be gone.
There's not a thing you own that God Almighty is not going to
burn. It's going to fade like the flowers, the hope of the
strong will fade. You're going to be weak someday.
You're going to be so weak that somebody will have to put his
arm under you and lift you up to take a drink of water. Some
of you people are beautiful. God's blessed you with beauty,
but you're not going to always be beautiful. Someday you'll
look in the mirror. That's right. You take pride
there in your beauty, but one of these days you'll look in
the mirror and it'll all be gone. Your riches, your education,
Someday, as much as you think you know right now, you won't
be able to remember your name. But I'll tell you one thing,
I have a living hope that will never fade. My Lord Jesus Christ. And then what's the fourth thing?
He says, Bless God for his abundant mercy, his abundant mercy. He
hath begotten us to a living hope, a living hope that will
never fade. by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Praise God for a risen Savior. We don't worship a crucifix. Why don't I have a crucifix in
here with Christ hanging over it on that crucifix with thorns
in his brow and blood running down because he's not dead. He's
not on a cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ did die.
He died for my sins. He was wounded for my transgressions.
He did die. He didn't swoon or sleep. He
died. They took his dead body down
from that cross. He died because the soul that
sinneth it shall die. God's justice and wrath demanded
death. He was me. I was in him and he
died. God's justice and God's wrath
was poured out upon him and Christ died on that cross. It was taken
down and buried in a tomb. He was buried, but at the appointed
time he arose. And he met his disciples sometime
one by one and two by two and then several of them, and then
he appeared to hundreds of people. It's a proven fact that Jesus
Christ arose from the dead and ascended to the Father, and there
he is seated, the man Christ Jesus is seated on the right
hand of the Father, and since I'm one with Christ, I'm one
with Christ, That's right, I'm loved in Him, chosen in Him,
accepted in Him, and therefore I'm seated in Him. And His death
was my death, all that happened to Him happened to me. I lived
in Him, I died in Him, I rose in Him, and right now in glory,
every believer is seated with Christ, already seated. That's
right, turn to Romans 8. Let me show you something here.
Romans chapter 8, we're already enthroned. We are already in
the purpose of God glorified, already seated. Look at Romans
8.29, verse 4, "...whom he did foreknow," Romans 8.29, "...he
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
his Son might be the firstborn among many brethren." He is going
to have a family in heaven that likes the same things he likes.
That's right. just like him. He is firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
and him he called, and whom he called he justified, and whom
he justified he what? Glorified. He glorified. Every one of those words of past
tense. As in Adam, all die who were
in Adam. So in Christ all shall be made
alive who are in Christ. The two Adams head up their dispensations. And what happened to the first
Adam? Happened to all who were in him. And that's you and me.
We were in his loins when he fell. And what happens to the
second Adam? Happens to all those whom he
represents. Jacob's sons. You know, Israel
was a small family. Jacob. I don't know how many
there were. Some of these fellows would know how many if I asked
them. They were a small family, Jacob and his sons and his family,
and they lived down there in a certain place. But Egypt, Egypt
was a powerful country. Egypt was a mighty nation. Egypt
was a fearful nation. Egypt was a pagan nation. And
old Jacob, Jacob would have never moved to Egypt until he got word
that Joseph was king there. That's right. His sons came back
and said, Father, do you know who is king of Egypt? Do you
know who reigns on the throne of Egypt? Do you know who is
in authority in Egypt? No, son, who? Your boy Joseph. He is. Well, pack up and let's
go. And I'll tell you this, I'm not afraid Heaven's a great country,
it's a holy country, it's a perfect country, it's a mighty country,
it's a majestic country. But do you know who's up there
reigning? My Lord. The one who loved me. The one
who came down here to save me. The one who came down here and
died for me. He's up there on the throne. And just because
of that, I'm not afraid to go. I'm not afraid to sue the Heavenly
Father for his mercy. I'm not afraid to approach the
throne of the Heavenly Father's majesty, because Christ is that. That's right. He thanked God
for a risen Savior. A risen Savior. I wouldn't come
any other way if I was you, I tell you that. I don't care whether
you're a preacher or a church member or what you are, I just
wouldn't do business with God without Christ. Just like if
Jacob wouldn't do business with Pharaoh without Joseph, he wouldn't
have done business with Pharaoh without Joseph. I'll tell you
this, when he did send some boys up there, when he's starving,
send some boys to Pharaoh, you know what Pharaoh told him? See
Joseph. Joseph's in charge. And that's what the Father would
tell you tonight if you came to him for mercy. He'd say, see
my son. That's his business. He built
the storehouses and he filled them. and he's going to issue
what's in them. Look at the fifth thing, verse
4, "...to an inheritance incorruptible." I was sitting there at the desk
Friday evening, going through that old hymn book, Brother Jeff,
that we liked so well. And you know, I came up on this
one, My Soul, My Soul, come meditate the day,
and think how near it stands when you must leave this house
of clay and fly to an unknown land. And you, my eyes, look
down and view the hollow, gaping tomb. That gloomy prison waits
for you whenever the summons come." Do you think about that? I do. I think about it. But when I read verses like this,
I'm cheered about it. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to this abundant mercy
hath begotten us to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead to an inheritance, to an inheritance that's incorruptible. All I have here is aging and
decaying, but that inheritance, moth and rust and thieves, do
not break through and steal nor corrupt. It's incorruptible.
It's as pure and beautiful As it was the day God made it, Christ
said, I go to heaven to prepare a place for you. And it's incorruptible. And it's undefiled. Defilement
and sin has touched everything that we are and everything that
we have. There's nothing that I have and
nothing that I am and nothing I possess that has not been stained
and marred by sin. But up yonder, everything I have,
the inheritance, is undefiled, untouched by sin. And down here
it fadeth away. Try as you may, you cannot hold
to anything. Try as you may, you cannot cling. Eventually everything is going
to slip away. That's what drives people mad.
They try to hold to these perishing idols of clay, these soap bubbles.
We try to hang on to them and they're snatched away and we
just lose our equilibrium. But I tell you, if you hold loosely
to everything God puts in your hand, it won't tear you up when
he takes it out. It won't destroy you when he
says, now you've had that long enough, I want it back. You've
enjoyed that long enough, now I want it back. But my inheritance
that I have there, my family, my Lord, my home, it faded not
away. It's incorruptible, it's undefiled,
it fadeth not away, and listen to this, it's reserved for you. You know, I'm a peculiar person,
you knew that already, you are too. But anyway, I like sports,
I like baseball. But you know what I hate? I hate
to fight for a seat. I just tell you, if I got a ticket,
And it's out there somewhere, you know, and I gotta fight for
a seat. There's 100,000 people want 999,000
seats. I don't want any at all. But
what I like to have, I like to have a reserved seat, don't you? It's row 4, seat 9, section E. I can stop and get me a Coke.
My seat's not going anywhere, and nobody's gonna sit in it.
I can stop and get me a hot dog, you know, and just take my time
getting there. I can stop there and have a bag
of peanuts, you know, and say, come on, let's get our seats.
Nobody's going to get in my seat. I got row 4, seat 9, section
8, right here, reserved for me. It's mine, and nobody's going
to sit there. And I'll just nonchalantly and
politely in my own good time, when I get good and ready, go
up there and sit down. And that's what he says here.
He says, bless God, I got an inheritance. That's incorruptible,
undefiled, it paid it not away, and it's reserved for you! For
you. It's reserved for you. Old Brother
Barnard said he dreamed that he died and he went to Glover. And he said when he got to Glover,
they let him in the gates. And he said he heard the most
beautiful singing he'd ever heard. most beautiful thing, not a blue
note. It was heavenly singing. It was
beautiful singing. And he said he got to walk in
and he saw that heavenly choir, that huge heavenly choir. And
they were engaged in praising the Lord. They were praising
God. They were fellowshipping and singing together. And he
thought within himself, man, would I like to sing with them.
Would I like to join that choir. And he said as he got closer
to that choir, he noticed up there on one of the upper rows
there was a vacant seat. There it was, right there. And
he thought, now I just believe I'll make my way up there and
be seated right in the midst of that glorious, glorified choir
and just sit down and sing with them. And he said he climbed
those stairs and he excused himself as he walked through the people
there seated and he walked over there and finally came to that
vacant seat. And you know what was written on the back of it?
Ralph Barnard is his seed, reserved for him. And he said, I sat down and I
started singing, and he said, never miss a note, because I've
been singing that song all these years. Unto him who loved us
and washed us from our sins. Unto him who made us kings and
priests unto God. unto him be glory both now and
forever. Amen. We've got an inheritance
reserved. It's got your name on it. Christ
bought it. He bought it. And he gave it to you, free of
charge. Look at the 6th thing that he
praises God. He says, To this inheritance
reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God. Now, let's be honest. It ain't
no use being any other way. When you come to this thing of
knowing the Lord. My main concern, I'm not worried
about the kingdom of God. It's there. I'm not worried and
concerned about our Lord having a people. He's going to have
them. I'm not worried or concerned about our Lord Jesus Christ throughout
eternity having trophies of his I'm not concerned about that.
I'm not concerned about the way of redemption. I know it's not
in works, it's by grace, it's not in deeds, it's in Christ.
But I'll tell you what I'm concerned about, and I believe every one
of us ought to be. I'm concerned about my part in
it. I used to hear old Brother B.B. Caldwell, and he'd say so
often, I don't want, I don't want. To hear him say at the
judgment, Depart from me, I never knew you. I don't want to hear
that. And my only hope is in his mercy and in the fact that
he will keep me by his power. And he will. Turn to Jude. Let's
turn to the book of Jude. Listen to this. In Jude, verse
24, he says this. Now unto him, now unto him that
is able to keep you. But let me tell you this, my
friend, let me tell myself and you this, don't lean for one
moment upon anything but Christ. Don't trust for one moment in
anything but Christ. Don't put your confidence in
anyone but Christ. Believe me, he keeps us, he preserves
us, he presents us, he makes us acceptable. We are not one
whit better by nature than the day God met us in the pit of
sin. That's right. We're not one whit
more deserving of God's mercy now than we were the day he found
us out yonder in the pig pen. Our acceptance then was Christ,
and our acceptance now is Christ. Our hope then was Christ, our
hope now is Christ. I once was lost, but now I'm
found, and by God's grace I'm heaven-bound. But my only hope,
my only plea, it was then, it is now. When Christ died, he
died for me. May God keep you by his power.
And then in closing, praise God for future glory. He says we
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
unto salvation, ready to be revealed. in the
last time. Now listen to me. We are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. I know, I know, the Bible talks
about we are saved, it says to those who are being saved, it
talks about believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, now shout to save,
but don't fall into the into the pit, into the dangerous place
of trying to trace your salvation to a time or a place or an experience. We're redeemed by a person. And
I'm not interested so much in when you met the Lord as much
as have you met the Lord. I'm not so much interested in
you going back to a time and place when God saved you. But
I'm interested in knowing this, myself and you too. Is he now
your Lord? Is he now your Redeemer? I think
this is very dangerous. I think it's very dangerous for
people to try to say, well, I know I'm saved because this happened
and that happened and I did this and I did that and I knew this
and I knew that. No, sir. No, sir. We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. We're being saved. I know there's
a time when A man hears the gospel at a time when he believes Christ,
at a time when he receives Christ. But I'm telling you this, the
more you learn of Christ and the more you learn of yourself,
you look back to that day when you made that profession and
you wonder if you really did love him then. You wonder if
you really did trust him. Aren't you trusting him more?
Aren't you looking to him more? So please, forget the place and
think of the person. Forget the time and think of
Christ himself. Forget the feeling. And focus
your attention upon Him. And you're trusting. And if you
haven't loved Him before, love Him now. If you haven't received
Him before, receive Him now. If you haven't trusted Him before,
trust Him now. Trust Him now. Unto salvation. Unto salvation. And that's alright. If other churches and ministers
want to get folks to come down and fix them up now, and get
them all straightened out and get them to make their professions.
That's all right, but this is what I'm looking for some folks
who are seeking the Lord in an earnest, diligent, sincere seeking
of the Lord to be found in Him. Folks who counted the cost, folks
who are not just emotionally upset and disturbed and trying
to base their hope for heaven on something they did, but who
are panting after the Savior. They want to know Him and be
found in Him. And when that takes place, you confess Him. You want
folks to know it, and they'll know it. It'll leak out on you,
believe me it will. When Christ becomes your life and your Lord,
your King, it'll leak out on you. You'll want to confess Him
in baptism. You'll want to pray and witness
and fellowship with God's people and be identified. Our Father,
we are grateful for your presence. You have been merciful to us,
I believe. We have reason to believe that
you have visited with us in this hour. and blessed our hearts
and spoken to us from thy word, and we are grateful. We thank
thee with praise thy name. Make it effectual. Do what we
can't do. We can be these clay vessels
and earthen vessels in which you've placed the gospel and
to whom you've entrusted it, but we can't make it effectual
to the heart. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
Our Father, use it for thy glory. We praise thy name for every
blessing in Christ. In his name and for his glory
we pray. Amen.