Well, I've got the PA system
about right now, Mike. Where is Mike? There, about right. Got the temperature about right.
Got the babies all in the nursery. Let's all cough at the same time. Get it over with. Now, if only the Lord will be
pleased to say something to us or through us. You know, I don't really know. Some of my friends have hope
of revival. I think Brother E.W. Johnson
has some visions of God in these last days doing something unusual,
moving among his people again, reviving his work. Some do not
believe that we will see that refreshing. Some believe that
we're just closing out the days now, closing the account, and
things will continue to grow colder and more arid. We'll be living the rest of our
days in a desert of despair as far as any visitation of God
is concerned, I really don't know. I don't know, I really
don't know. I say with the king of Nineveh,
you remember Jonah went down into Nineveh and he said, yet
40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. But the king of Nineveh
said this, he said, let man and beast be covered with sackcloth
and let us cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone
from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands.
Who can tell? Who can tell? Who can tell if
God will turn and repent And repentance is not used in reference
to God as it is to us, not at all. God says, I am the Lord,
I change not. But these are the words of men,
spoken in language at least we can understand. And turn away
from his fierce anger, that we perish not. And God saw their
works, that they turn from their way. And God repented of the
evil that he had said that he would do, and he did it not. You say, how does that fit in
with sovereignty? I don't know. Not my business
to explain God. All I know is what happened.
Some man said, let's turn to God. Who can tell? Who can tell? Sometimes I'm encouraged to believe
that God will work in our day. Other times I'm discouraged because
I see men and women resting a little more comfortably in their religious
professions. Instead of crying after God,
we're crying, peace, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Instead
of an inward yearning and desire to know Him, as Paul said, oh,
and this is a man who knew God, oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. Oh, that I may know him and the
power of his resurrection. Last Thursday night down in Cherokee,
North Carolina, my heart was lifted. I wish the whole church
could have been there. And this is one of the times
in which we're encouraged. But last Thursday night we had
the service. The auditorium was pretty well
filled. People were there from Louisiana and Tennessee and Kentucky
and North Carolina and Virginia and all around. The Indian people
were there. Fellowship was so precious. And
I preached Thursday night, I guess, with as much what we call liberty. Somebody says, what is liberty?
Well, it's a freedom. When we talk about liberty in
preaching, it's a freedom. It's a freedom from our self-consciousness. It's a freedom from our being
tied up in our own thoughts and our own ambitions and our own
desires and our own ways. It's just to be turned loose
of ourselves and enter into the liberty of God, the power of
God. And God's power was upon me.
I knew that it was. I told the people, I said, well,
I know what I'm preaching and I know what I'm not preaching.
I know as well as anyone. I know when I got a message,
and I know when I hadn't got a message. There are times when
I dread to come up here, and there are other times when I
can't wait to get up here. And there are times when I feel
both feelings at the same time. I don't want to go, but I do
want to go. Well, Thursday night I had a message, and God empowered
it with His Spirit. I preached on the Son of Man
has come to seek Him to save the lost. I told what I believe
a relationship with God is. And I finished the message, and
I said, well, there it is. There it is. Do with it what
you will. And I stepped down off the platform, and a pastor
stepped up over here. And the people stood. And back
there in the back, a man cried out, I've heard enough. I've heard enough. And I looked
back, and he began coming out of the place where he was standing.
I've heard enough, he said. I've played church long enough.
I've heard the gospel, and now I see it. Now I see it. A man
about 45 years old. I've known him a long time. He
said, now I see it. He came down that aisle and wrapped
his arms around me. He said, I see the gospel. I
see the gospel. And we rejoiced with him, and
then here come A lady, I suppose she's in her early 40s. First time I ever went down to
Cherokee to preach, three or four years ago, she sang. Beautiful
Indian lady, just beautiful, dark skin, gray and black hair,
you know, just a charming lady. And I looked around, and she
was coming down the aisle, and she embraced me and her pastor.
And this is what she said. She said, I'm bowing to Christ.
I've never bowed before. Just like a, you know, I guess
Indians like all of us, and they have a right, humanly speaking,
to have some pride. They're a great nation. They're
great people. They're an independent people.
But she was saying there with that Indian expression, you know,
I've never bowed. I've never bowed. Most of us
never have. Most of us never have. And she
said, I'm bowing tonight. Isn't that thrilling? Then another
lady came down the aisle, put her arms around the pastor, and
she said, I'm in trouble. Oh, I tell you, that's three
things I want to see in my day. I want to hear somebody saying,
I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I see crying. And I want to hear some folks
saying, I'm bowing. I'm bowing. I'm bowing voluntarily. Everybody's going to bow. Every
knee's going to bow. He said that. I know that day's
coming. I expect that. The proudest head's going to
bow. The proudest knee is going to bend. I guarantee you, the
most blasphemous tongues are going to one day praise Jesus
Christ. But I want to hear them now.
I want to hear them now. Because I don't want to hear
a man have to bow under the force, the coercion of God's power.
I'm bowing. And then, oh, to hear somebody
say, some young lady stand there, mother of children, stand there
and weep and say, I'm in trouble. Everybody God gets in trouble,
he's going to bring them to peace. Blessed are they that hunger,
they shall be filled. It said that. Blessed are they
that mourn, they shall be comforted. No question about it. But my
friends, this I know, back to our text in 1 Peter 1. I don't
know whether I'll see in my lifetime a movement of God's great Spirit.
And this is not something we do together. This is something
that God does individually. There may be many people, like
Thursday night, there may be two or three or four or five
at a time, that God will... And you know the amazing thing?
There was a young man there I was preaching to. especially the
young man visiting, and he never heard me. I never gave a thought
to Jack and to Peggy and to the other lady, never gave a thought,
but I was preaching to that young man. And when I got through preaching,
they moved, God moved, he never moved. Tear came down his cheek,
but he got in his car and left. And I'm saying that this is something
God does. I'm going to preach on it more
tonight, but this thing of This thing of, I hear, God gives ears
to hear. This thing of, I bow, Almighty
God enables us, but we bow, individually, personally. Your whole family
may go to hell, I don't know, but you're going to have to bow.
Your whole family may go to glory, but you're going to have to bow.
With thy mouth and with thy tongue, you're going to believe and confess
Christ. But this one thing I know, looking at 1 Peter chapter 1,
verse Verse 24, there's a twofold message of evangelism. Read that
verse there, 24. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word. And this
is the word. This is the message. which by
the gospels preached to you." There's a two-fold message of
evangelism. Do you see it? It's in the Old
Testament and the New Testament. There's a two-fold message to
be preached. He said, this is the word that
we preach to you. There's a two-fold message to
be heard. It has to do with us and God. All flesh, behold your God. It has to do with flesh, it has
to do with Christ. It has to do with our glory,
the glory of man, and the glory of God. It has to do with this
world and the world to come. It's recorded in the Old Testament.
Turn to Isaiah 40. Let me show it to you. Now, you
just heard me read it in 1 Peter, but turn over here to Isaiah
40 and listen to it. Isaiah chapter 40. I'm going
to be as plain and frank and candid as I can be because I
want you to hear me. I'm not just preaching, I'm telling
you the truth. In Isaiah chapter 40, let's look,
if you will, at verse 6. The voice said, Cry. This is
the twofold message of evangelism. The voice said, Cry. And he said,
Well, what shall I cry? Get up and preach. What shall
I preach? Well, number one, here it is. Here's the twofold message.
Do you see it? What shall I cry? Now, he's describing
here the ministry of John the Baptist. There was a man sent
from God whose name was John, and this was his ministry. And
this is my ministry in every place. You cry, number one, all
flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. Isn't that
what it said over there in 1 Peter 1? All flesh is grass. And all
the goodliness, that is the glory, the sweet tasting things of the
flesh, the things that appeal to our flesh, The things that
the flesh produces and all the goodliness thereof is as the
flower of the field. The grass withereth and the flower
fadeth. Flesh withereth and the glory
fadeth. What's he saying? Let me tell
you frankly. My friends, there's nothing as
plentiful as grass. There's nothing as plentiful
as grass. Nothing. It's everywhere. Grass is everywhere. There's nothing as plentiful
as grass, and there's nothing so worthless. Nothing so worthless
as grass. That's right. It has no value
at all. It has no permanent value. Now
watch this. Let me see if I can help us.
Grass serves its purpose for a short while. It serves its
purpose. It still has no value, but it
does serve a purpose. It serves a purpose, but it has
no value, but it serves a purpose for a while, and then it's burned.
And then it's burned. Turn to James. Now keep Isaiah
40 there, but just turn to the book of James and hold your finger
here on Isaiah while I read a passage in James about grass. In James
1.11, "...for the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat than
it withereth the grass." It withers the grass. Grass just withers,
and the flower thereof falling. You see that? The sun is no sooner
risen than it is. There's nothing so feeble. There's
nothing so feeble as grass. It just takes a bright sun and
not much rain, and it's gone. It's feeble. It has no strength
of its own. It's frail. There's nothing so
feeble and frail as grass. Now, preacher, what do you say?
I'm saying what the Bible says. Like the grass, all that pertains
to the flesh is worthless. There's nothing so plentiful
as flesh. Over there in China, what are
they, 800 million of them? Over here in America, 200 million
of them. Nothing so worthless, that's
what God is saying here, all flesh, all flesh and all that
pertains to the flesh is like grass. It's plentiful, but it's
worthless. And there's nothing so feeble
and frail as the flesh. The flesh has no value, listen
to me, no permanent eternal value beyond the purpose that it now
serves. There's nothing in the world
but a storehouse for my soul. That's all. It's a tabernacle
that is feeble, frail, and worthless. The flesh has no value. I picked up a University of Kentucky
basketball yearbook the other day and read through it, and
there's an article in there about Mr. Rupp. And you know how revered
Adolph Rupp is in Kentucky. I think somebody tells a story
one time about one of the presidents being down around the Lexington
area hunting. And a black man told him, said,
Boss, said, Captain, you can't hunt on this farm. And the President
said, I wonder if you know who I am. He said, no, sir. He said,
I don't know who you is, but even if you're Adolph Rupp, you
can't hunt on this land. But I read where Mr. Rupp said,
Mr. Rupp said that when he walked
through the pearly gates, he already had an assignment to
coach the basketball team. Well, let me tell you something.
This flesh ain't going to walk through the pearly gates. There's
nothing on this earth. Let me tell you, God says, he
said, all flesh is grace. Now, you better make that clear
to them. You better make that clear to them. He said there's
nothing here, there's nothing associated with, identified with
the flesh that's going to have any part in glory. Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. There was a famous preacher
down in Memphis, Tennessee, who was president of the Southern
Baptist Convention for years. I read it in the Louisville Courier-Journal
when I was down in Louisville preaching one time years ago.
He said, I'm looking forward to going to heaven. He said,
when I get to heaven, I'm going to say to fellas like Isaiah
and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, you fellas sit down now, I listened
to you while I was on the earth, I want you to listen to me. What
the man is talking about is he's a great preacher, great orator. heard all over the world, what
he's saying is he's going to take his natural abilities and
his oratorical powers and all these things, and he's going
to preach to me like, let me tell you something, I wish we
could see it. What am I saying? All flesh is grass. There's nothing
so plentiful as grass and nothing so worthless. Any of you saving
your grass for next year? Why, you cut your grass and you
use one of those One of those, either one of those bags that
catches the grass in the bag and you go dump it in the sewer
or dump it somewhere, it's not of any value, it's worthless.
Some of you just cut your grass and let it fly out to the wind,
rake it up and burn it. Why don't you save it? Well,
there's no value for it, that's what I'm saying. In the flesh
dwelleth no good thing, not one, not even a particle, not even
an atom, not even an iota of good. The flesh is grass. Will
we hear God? And not only that, but he said,
all the glory of men is as the flower of the field. Now, this
is soul-shaking. Turn back over there to 1 Peter,
and let me show you. So this is soul-shaking. This
shakes you to the bottom of your feet. Clear down to the soul. Clear down to the soul. Look
at the dandelions. The dandelions. Look at the bluebells
out in the field. They're everywhere. Everywhere.
And they serve their purpose. For fleeting moments, somebody
rides by and looks at the bluebells and the dandelions and whatever.
This is the flower of the field now. We're not even talking about
a good lily or rose. We're talking about the flower
of the field. The glory of man is as the flower of the field.
That's what he said over here in the book of Isaiah, the flower
of the field, just the wild flowers that grow up, the glory of man. There's nothing so frail and
feeble and useless as a dandelion or a bluebell blooming in a field.
We don't even take those to the graveyard. And he said, all our
glory, now what is our glory? Now you know what our glory is.
Our glory starts with our beauty. We spend time getting our, we
go to the right barber to get our hair cut just right, you
know, comb it just right, put the spray on it, you know, and
want to look good. We buy glasses, we don't just
buy any kind of glasses, we get those that fit our personalities.
You don't do this. And all you women are wearing
contacts. Why? You say you don't want these
things on your nose, but I know why you're wearing them, so you'd
be prettier. That's right. And we buy clothes and we dress
just right. I took special pains to put on
a blue tie with a blue shirt and a blue suit this morning.
We take pains to do these things now. Our glory and our beauty,
some of you are pretty and you know it. Some of you are strong
and you know it. You take pictures of one another,
you know. And somebody said one time, if
you don't believe your bane, get a group picture and see whose
picture you look for first. There might be 400 people in
that picture if you start looking for me. And then you bring your
old Navy picture out and show your little boy and say, find
Daddy on there. Daddy's the one that's got three bars up here
and two under here, you know. We had a picture made when I
was in the Navy. And we were in boot camp. Nobody's nothing
in boot camp. Nobody's nothing. But there were
a couple of fellas in boot camp that had a little ROTC training,
so they made them the drill, you know, in charge of the barracks
or something. And they gave them a little old
special insignia to wear on here that they were one step above
nothing. We were boots and nothing, and that guy was one step above
it. So we had the group picture made, and we was all supposed
to stand straight to have our picture made. He stood like this.
Got that insignia out there. I'm telling you. And then we
have our riches. We got all fine cars. You go to somebody's house and
they want to show you through their house and show you their oriental
rugs and special things, you know, and fine furniture and
all that stuff. And we got fame, you know. We
got our name in the paper, our picture in the paper, a little
bit of fame, a little bit of acclaim. Somebody gets elected
to an office, you know. I never will forget, one fellow
in our church, they made him an officer, and he wasn't even
the same man. He became something in Ashland
here, some kind of official, and you wouldn't have known he
was the same man. He just went to his head, a little bit of
authority, you know. And we get education. We get a B.A., and
that makes us a little better than the fellow that went to
high school. And we get an M.A., and that makes us a step above
the B.A. And then we get a doctor of some sort, and then we're
really something. We're really something. We're
smelly dandelion men, aren't we? All the glory of man. All the glory. You're making
fun of some precious thing. That's exactly what I'm doing.
And I'm going to wind up telling you there's nothing precious
about any of it. Nothing. We're proud of our children. Oh, I pray we got one that can
do this and one that can do that, and we make sure everybody knows
about it. I'm sure glad nobody in this church sends out those
sorry Christmas letters, you know, where you say, Johnny,
he made straight A's, and Betty, she got elected to something,
and somebody else got there. None of them ever says, you know,
like, well, the kid finally got potty trained as ten years old,
you know. We never tell the bad things.
We always tell them good things, you know. I just don't even read
them. I put them in file 13 as quick
as I get one of them. I'll tell you this. You turn
to Psalm 49. Let me show you something here.
Psalm 49. He says, "...all the glory of
man is as the flower of the field, it fadeth and withereth." Kiss
it goodbye. Look at Psalm 49. Let me show
you something here. Verse 6, They that trust in their
wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give
God a ransom for him. But the redemption of their soul
is precious, and it ceases forever. Look at verse 10, For he seeth
that wise men die, and likewise the fool and the brutish person
perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought
is that their houses shall continue for ever. You think that? And
they are dwelling places to all generations. They call their
lands after their own names. Did you ever see a fellow name
his property for himself? The name Bob Jones University
is one of them, Oral Roberts Hospital is another. They named
things for themselves. You say, that's religious. Same
thing. Personal glory. Personal glory. They named their lands after
their own name. Nevertheless, man being in honor
about it, not. The proud, honorable man. He
doesn't last. He's like the beast that perishes.
And this, their way, is their folly. This way of pride. Listen to me. This way of pride
and glory, self-glory, acclaim, position. You're somebody, aren't
you? You've got something, haven't you? You've got nothing and you're
nobody. And the problem is, it's your own folly. This thing's
our own folly. And not only that, yet their
posterity. Listen, their posterity. Who's
that? That's the people around them. They approve of their sayings. They brag on them. They run around
asking them for their autographs. They brag on it. These fellows
that are puffed up and lifted up and proud, and we feed their
vanity. We feed their vanity. They're
preachers feeding the vanity of their membership. Feeding
the vanity of this person and that person to keep them in.
Woe unto the man that's full of vanity and woe unto the man
that feeds his vanity for purpose. You get high and lifted up and
mighty, and some fellow come along and brag on you and use
it with deceit to get something from you, and you think he's
your friend. He's not. He's full of vanity just like
you, and he's adding to your vanity. How sad. That's what that's saying. Look
at verse there. This, their way, is their folly.
Their folly. And yet their posterity, the
people around them, feed that vanity, approve of their sayings. Now, Selah. You know what Selah
means? It means, pause and consider this. That's exactly what Selah
means. I don't usually read it when
I'm reading a psalm, because it's a musical term. And what
it's saying is, now that's important. You say that again. You sit on
that. You pause and consider that.
And this is what he's saying. Our way of vanity and our way
of ascribing so much to this flesh and to ourselves is vanity
and folly. And people around us are feeding
our vanity. They're bragging on us. They're
killing us instead of telling us the truth. Like sheep, look
at verse 14, like sheep they're laid in the grave. Death shall
feed on them. That's death shall be their shepherd.
And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. In
the morning, joy comes in the morning, Bob, remember? And their
beauty, their strength shall consume in the grave. But God
will redeem my soul from the pyre of the grave. He'll receive
me. Think about that. Be not thou therefore afraid
when one is made rich or has great honor, beauty, or all these
things, when the glory of his house is increased. Don't be
alarmed, for when he dies, he'll carry nothing away. N-O-T-H-I-N-G,
nothing, nothing. That's what I'm saying. Mr. Rupp,
you didn't take nothing with you. Nothing. Nothing. His glory shall not descend after
him, not even to hell after him. He won't even be somebody special
in hell. Though while he lived he blessed his soul, praised
himself, bragged on himself, and men praised him. When you
do well to yourself, they'll praise you. They'll praise you. But he shall go to the generation
of his fathers, they shall never see light. A man that is in honor. and doesn't understand God, what
does it say? He's like a beast that perishes.
He's like a dog that a truck ran over and somebody came and
kicked him off the road. Oh, I tell you, if we could just
learn. You know, back to the text over here, it says there's
a two-fold message. One is, all flesh is grass. I hope I have defined it. All
flesh. And all the glory of man, whatever
we take glory in, whatever we are proud of, whatever we are
lifted up, God says it's like the dandelions. It will fade
and wither. It has no use beyond what it's
being used for. It serves a purpose, but no permanent
value. Now then, I went up to Pennsylvania
one time and I ran into some people called the Amish And they
wear these homespun clothes and, I guess, homemade shoes and shirts
and hats. They live out on farms. They
can't own cars. A wife can't have a washing machine,
can't have electricity, can't have a washbasin, can't have
indoor plumbing. You can't use a tractor, you
have to use a plow and all this sort of thing. Back to the simple
way. Well, is that what you're advocating,
Pastor? See, that's flesh too. See, if I get into this, Charlie,
if I get into this thing of simplicity to the point I make a god out
of it, and that's worse flesh, that's self-righteousness. But
my friends, somewhere, I don't know where, but somewhere between
their ideas, somewhere between their way of life, somewhere
between their Efforts at simplicity that results in self-righteousness.
And somewhere between that and our over-emphasis, our over-emphasis
on this flesh, and on its comforts, and on its care, somewhere between that is the
truth. This ain't it, and that ain't it. You see what I'm saying?
Somewhere between that. Somewhere between. Somewhere
where a man can use what God gives him, like I use grass on
my lawn, and have no attachment to it. Somewhere between where
I can take and use the dandelion or the bluebell or whatever to
serve its purpose and yet feel no attachment. See, no value. You see what I'm saying? Put
no strong emphasis upon it. Because it's nothing. It's nothing. And I'm talking about even these
fleshy relationships. Mother, father, brother, sister.
They're going to be gone. God says all flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. All flesh
is grass. All the glory. Man's going to glow in something.
What's the second part of this message? We've got to go back
to Isaiah a minute. We've got to learn that first,
though, because you're not going to look to God until you look
away from this junk. We've got to learn this first.
But the second part is down here in verse 9. that bringeth good tidings, Isaiah
40, you got it? First part, all flesh is grass,
and the glory of man is the flower of the field, the grass witherth,
and the flower fadeth. But here in verse 9, O Zion,
that bringeth good tidings, get thee up to high mountain. O Jerusalem,
that bringeth good tidings, lift up your voice, lift it up, be
not afraid, say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. That's the second part of that
message. If men can become weaned from the flesh, If they can turn
loose, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying, for whatever it's
worth, labor not for the meat that perisheth. Don't give yourself
to this world. Use whatever God gives you in
such a way as to glorify his name. But behold your God. Behold your God. Now, he says,
the word of the Lord, over here in Peter, the word of the Lord
endureth forever. Who is the word of the Lord?
Well, I say Christ is the Word of the Lord. It says, "...in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God, and all things were made by him, and without
him was not anything made. And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The
Word is Christ. Now, here's what I'm saying.
Let's look to Christ. We'll only look to him when we
need him. We'll only look to him when we see that, now watch
this, you can't look with a divided heart. One of the shortest messages,
turn to Luke 17, one of the shortest messages our Lord ever preached
is in Luke 17. I want you to look at Luke 17,
Luke 17. Now listen to verse 32, one of
the shortest messages he ever preached. In verse 32 of Luke
17, he said, remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. Now what's
he saying in that part? With the next verse, whosoever
shall seek to save his life shall lose it. Preserve his life, preserve
his being, preserve his standing, preserve his position, his place
on this earth. Keep himself from any suffering,
keep himself from any sacrifice, keep himself from any persecution,
keep himself from any cost. for this thing called faith.
He's going to save his life, he's going to lose it. And whosoever
shall lose his life, lose it in Christ, shall preserve it. Lot's wife there was Sodom. Evidently
they had it pretty good down there. Evidently. Evidently they had it pretty
good. And when they came away, you know, we think sometimes
that we don't put much stock on these things of this earth.
You know when you'll find out? when God takes it away. You say,
I don't love my children too much. Wait and see what God takes
one of them, how you react. But I don't love my job the way
God takes it. But I don't love my riches the
way God takes them. And when Lot's wife left Sodom,
he left, the girls left, but she just couldn't leave. She
was leaving him body, but her mind, her heart, her affection
never left. And she turned and looked back.
She looked back with some kind of interest, some kind of longing.
God put her away. And this is what I'm saying.
If we're going to look to Christ, it can't be this way. It just
can't be. Not with a divided heart or a
divided eye. Behold your God. Behold your
God. Look to Him. Look to Him. Look
to Him. I can't look far yet. O John
the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. And I'll tell you, I just believe.
I don't know. I think there are many people
who have glanced in his direction. I believe there are some folks
that have glanced in his direction, and they've acknowledged that
he's a great teacher, a great reformer, a great leader, that
he's got some things to offer. But I don't think many people
have looked. I think they've glanced in his direction, but
I wonder how many have looked. Looked. And over here in 1 Peter,
I'll read you one more thing and quit. And I'm preaching for
a verdict from my own heart and from yours. He says over here
in 1 Peter 2, verse 7, "'Unto you therefore that believe, he
is precious. Unto you that believe, he is
precious.'" And I'm telling you this, nothing is precious but
Christ. All flesh is grass, all the glory
of man is the flower of the field. It withers and fades, feeble
and frail, but he's what? Precious. And he's the only thing
that is. Do you know everything the Bible
calls precious is associated with Christ? In 1 Peter 1.18,
he says we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
2 Peter 1.4 says we have these precious promises in Christ.
2 Peter 1.1 says we have obtained like precious faith in Christ. Psalm 116.15 says precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. And in 1
Peter 2.7 it says he is precious. It never calls anything on this
earth precious. Somebody said one time when he
read Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 6, says, his name shall be called
Wonderful. He said, I've never called anything
else Wonderful since then. You know, he says it's a wonderful
day, it's a wonderful car, it's a wonderful place to take a vacation.
He's Wonderful. He's precious. He's precious. And everything identified with
him is precious. This is it. I don't know whether
we'll get a hearing for it or not, but this is it, twofold. All flesh is grace. All of the
glory of man is the flower of the field. It withereth, it faded.
Behold your God in Christ, for he's precious. He's precious. Our Father, thankful for your
word. All that we might be able to
say as we have sung already this morning, he is so precious to
me. He is so precious to me and all
that's associated with him and all that's identified with him.
Lord, let us hold with a light hand the things of this world. Let us look upon them as being
things that serve their purpose for a time. But they're all temporary,
they're all fleeting, they're all feeble and frail like the
grass, as worthless as grass. And someday they'll be taken
away. And we shall be able, in looking to Christ, to bid them
adieu, to bid them goodbye, without destroying us. That our confidence
and hope is in him alone. Teach us to use and not abuse. Teach us to enjoy, and yet not
become taken up with the things of this world. Oh, to lightly
hold them. I pray for myself, and I pray
for my dear friends. Lord, teach us. Let us learn
Christ. Let us learn Christ. Give us
the Spirit of Christ. In his precious name we pray.
Amen.