Matthew 18, 20. Last Monday afternoon, I was preparing a message to
preach to a church in LeCount, Louisiana. The pastor had put
Darcy and I in a very comfortable bedroom with a desk, a place
to study. I was sitting in there studying
while the others were about their business and so forth, and I
just pushed my books aside and my papers and laid down my pen
and began to take personal inventory. I began to examine my motives
and my desires. Once again, I think we ought
to do this frequently. Examine yourself, whether you
be in the faith. Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. If you do these things, you shall
not fail." And these thoughts went through my mind. The pastor
had invited me to come all the way from Kentucky down to Louisiana
and over 900 miles to preach to the congregation. People came
from all around. People visited from other churches.
In fact, one church dismissed their Sunday night services.
And along with the pastor and all the people, came over to
these services. What a responsibility. What an
awesome, fearful responsibility. And we met together on Sunday
evening. We were going to meet together
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to sing, as I said, to pray,
to read the Bible, and to preach. And as I prepared for another
service and another message, I began to ask myself some questions,
to examine my motives and my desire. Why? Why are you doing
this? Why? Why are you preparing this
message? Why are you going in that pulpit
tonight? Why are these people coming together
from everywhere? Why sit there and look at a man
standing up in front of them reading the Bible and talking
or preaching or teaching or whatever he does? Why are you doing that?
And this verse of Scripture kept ringing in my ears. Verse 20
of Matthew 18, for where two or three for where two or three,
doesn't matter, the place isn't important. The place isn't important. He said where, where, that's
the first thing I know, where. Place is not important. No city,
no country, no temple, no surroundings, no building is important. He just said where, where, where
two or three. And another thing, the number
has nothing to do with it. where two or three, just two
or three, it's not even. And I thought about this on Tuesday
night when I felt I looked out at the congregation and the man
who was leading the singing for the meeting and one of the officers
in the church doesn't like the doctrine of election. He doesn't
like anything connected with sovereignty. The pastor told
me that, said, he liked my message Sunday night, he liked my message
Monday night, but Tuesday night, he's sitting back where you are,
David. And I started reading Ephesians 1, verses 3 through
18. He closed his Bible and laid
it down. He reached in his pocket, got
out his pocket knife, started cleaning his nails. And he'd
look at them and he'd file them a little bit, you know. He was
so angry, so upset. But I thought about this, too,
even when he was doing that. You don't even have to have the
unity of all present. Did you know that? He says here,
where? It doesn't matter. The place
isn't important. The place isn't important. Where? That's all
he says. Where? Where? My people are gathered. And the
number has nothing to do with it. He said where two or three,
if they're just two or three. Two or three. The essential ingredients
is right here. He says, for where two or three
are gathered together in my name. In my name. If two or three people
here today, two or three or five or six or ten or twelve, have
actually, if this preacher and Ron Trabant and Becky and Brian
Clarence, if just a few, And I could name many more. If you
just hear, he said in my name, I'll be with you. I will be with
you. Look at that promise. I will
be in their midst. I am. The same one who spoke
to Moses at the burning bush and said, I am, has sent thee. I am. I'll be in their midst."
That's what he's saying. There am I in the midst of them.
Christ himself will grace our assembly with his divine presence. What does this mean? Turn to
Genesis 28. I thought about this. Genesis
28. If you'll turn over there a minute. Jacob. Jacob lay down
in a place that he later called Bethel. And the Lord spoke to
Jacob, and the Lord gave him this essential promise in Genesis
28, verse 15. Look at it. And God said, Behold,
I am with thee. I am with thee. I will keep thee
in all places where thou goest. I'm with you. Where two or three
are gathered together in my name, I am in their midst. I'm with
them. God is with them. He said, Jacob, I'm with you,
I'm with you, I will keep you wherever you go, I'll bring you
again to this place, I will not leave you, I will not leave you
until I've done that which I've spoken to thee of. And Jacob
awaked out of his sleep and he said, Surely this, the Lord is
in this, the Lord is in this place, the Lord is in this place.
I know we're here. I know we have our doctrines
here, I know we have our music, I know we have all the ingredients
for worship, but is he in this place?" Jacob said, the Lord
is in this place. Oh, he awaked out of his sleep
and said, the Lord is in this place, and he was afraid. And
he said, how dreadful is this place, this is none other but
the house of God, this is This is not the house of God unless
he's here. Now you can call it that, you
can call it a church, you can call it the house of God, you
can call it a temple or a tabernacle, call it what you will, but Jacob
said if he's here, this is the house of God. You know where
he was? He wasn't in a building, he was laying out in the field
with his head on some rocks. When two or three are gathered
in my name, I'll be with them. This is the house of God. This
is none other than the gate of heaven. His presence. You know what his presence will
do? His presence will awaken dead sinners. Lazareth lay in
the tomb. His sisters could do nothing
about it. The wailing friends could do nothing about it. He
could do nothing about it. But when the Lord Jesus came
before that tomb in his presence, He said, Lazarus, come forth.
And the dead came forth. I believe we can get our religious
decisions, and I believe we can persuade men to accept our doctrine. I believe we can even persuade
men to go the direction we're going in religion, but only Christ's
presence can awaken the dead. His presence forgives the guilty.
Only Christ can say, thy sins be forgiven thee. Only Christ's
presence can comfort the troubled heart. He said to his disciples,
he'd already told them he was going away, and they were wringing
their hands, and they were in such a troubled state, and he
said to them, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for
you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. I'm with you.
His presence comforts troubled hearts, and His presence brings
peace. When our Lord walked in the upper
room, He said to His disciples, Peace be unto you. Now a man
can stand up and hold up two fingers and say, Peace, peace,
peace, peace, but only, Charlie, His presence can give peace.
Only His presence. And his presence can bring assurance.
He said, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, so
that I can boldly say, the Lord is my helper. Where two or three,
where two or three are met together in my name. Now there's the key.
And that's what I, I looked at that and I thought, well, what
does it mean to meet in his name? I want his presence. Oh, what
a lonely place this is without his presence. What an impotent place this is
without his presence. He said, without me, you can
do nothing. I tell you what we can do without him, we mess it
up. Just mess it up. Just mess up everything. Mess
up religion and our lives and our homes and everything. Without
his presence, we can mess up. We can do that. But without him,
we can do nothing spiritual. Nothing honoring to God and nothing
for the glory of God and nothing for the good of man What does
it mean to gather in his name? That's what I want to find out
He said where doesn't matter where lying on a rock with your
head on a rock You might be in the grandest Cathedral in the
world, but where? under a bush arbor a tent where
In a home or a Bible class where? two or three are met together, gathered together
in my name. Now I know this, I know this. His presence, his presence cannot
be commanded by physical force. I know that. By anything physical. Those who would build a tower
to heaven were confounded in their efforts. Now we may build
our monuments and we may build our towers. And we may build
our impressive buildings, we may build our impressive institutions,
but it's not by physical force that we command the presence
of God. It's not that way. the Apollard Baptist Church and
was having a vote to vacate the pulpit, wanted to get rid of
the pastor. One man stood up, he'd been there
all those years, and I understand this, he'd worked hard to build
that building, he'd given his savings, his wife had sewn and
made quilts and all these things, and he stood and looked around,
he objected to the message of grace, he objected to the sovereignty
of God, he objected to the Lordship of Christ, and he wanted to get
rid of the pastor, and he stood and looked around and he said,
Folks, I love these walls. We'd better be weaned from these
walls. We'd better be weaned from anything
these hands can touch or these eyes can see. Physical exertion
and physical force cannot command the presence of God. There's
nothing impressive on this earth to God. He said the cattle on
a thousand hills. Don't we have a lovely cathedral?
Don't we have a a beautiful building. It's nothing in the sight of
God but timber to be burned, that's all, to be burned. And
I'll tell you, I know this, I know that. Secondly, I know this,
his presence cannot be commanded by mental exertion. Now, I can
go to school and graduate and seminary and graduate and get
all the credentials and have all of the experience and all
of these things, but mental exertion and mental accomplishments and
mental credentials do not command the presence of God. Let me show
you that from the book of Job. God Almighty does not grant his
presence because men are mental giants. or their ecclesiastical
leaders and authorities. It says in Job 11, listen, can
you, by searching, find God? I mean searching the, let's go
to all the old writers, let's go to all, let's blow the dust
off the old books and brush off the cobwebs and see what Calvin
and Luther and Zwingli and Huss and all these fellas did. It
won't command the presence of God. Can you, by searching, find
God? Can you find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It's as high as heaven. What
can you do? It's deeper than hell. Deeper
than hell. What can you know? If any man
thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing, is he all? We
get our fundamentals and our facts and our doctrines and our
orthodoxy laid out in a systematic way, and Almighty God just rejects
it and goes on over here and works according to His will.
The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader."
I know that. I know God's presence is not commanded by physical,
impressive force. I know it's not commanded by
mental exertion and credentials. And thirdly, I know it's not
by merit or morality. It's not by merit. No man deserves
the presence of God. Jacob, least of all. Jacob, the
chief. Jacob, the supplanter. And yet
it's to Jacob that God appeared. It's to Jacob that God gave his
promise. It's to Jacob God said, I'll
be with you. I'll never leave you. I'll never
leave you till I fulfill everything that I promised you. And one
night Jacob wrestled with God, and before the night was over,
God touched him and said to him, Thou art a prince with God."
A prince. Your name shall no longer be
called Jacob, but Israel. So it's not the man of great
merit and morality who expects the presence of God, it's the
man who can meet in his name, whatever that means, in his name.
If merit and morality could command the presence of Christ, then
he would have been in the temple with the Pharisees and not down
at the house with the sinners. See what I'm saying? The Pharisees
stood in the temple and said, I've done this, that, and the
other. And the Lord's blessings and mercies was upon the man
who had done nothing but cry, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.
And then turn to Matthew 6. I know this. I'm still looking
into this question. What does it mean to meet in
His name? What does it mean to gather in
His name? How can we command? How can we expect the presence
of the Lord? The presence of the Lord. Not
by physical force, not by mental exertion, not by merit or morality,
not by words and prayers. Matthew 6, verse 7. Listen. When
you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. They think
that they shall be heard. Now the heathen here is not talking
about the hot and tight in Africa, because he doesn't pray. This
is talking about a man who prays. This is talking about a religious
man whom God called a heathen. This is a man who prays, and
he knows the phraseology, he knows the words to say. And in
nothing but vain repetitions, and he thinks that he can command
the presence of God and the ear of God by his what? By his much
speaking. And then I'll tell you this,
the presence of God is not ours by heritage. If that was so,
the Jews would have had the presence of God all the time. They said,
we'd be Abraham, see? We have Moses and the prophets.
So I've laid that aside. The presence of God is not ours
by physical force. God is not impressed. It's not
ours by mental credentials. God's not impressed. It's not
ours by merit or morality. He looks on the heart. It's not
ours by repetitious words and phrases and saying the right
things. Anybody can do that. A talker of religion is the easiest
thing in the world to find. Brother Groover said to me one
time, he said, I'll tell you why I don't encourage people
in the states to support native pastors in the Yucatan. Because
he said, here they are working in the fields, the Hennequin
fields, making five, six, seven, eight dollars a week. If we start
paying them fifteen or twenty dollars a week to be preachers,
he said preachers would be running out of our ears. Because any
man who can speak Spanish and speak it fluently can be a preacher.
All you got to do is teach him to say the right words. But the
right words does not command the presence of God in our heritage
and our names." Well, all right, get to your point, preacher.
What do you believe? It means when the Lord said,
where two or three are gathered together in my name. In my name. There I'll be in
their midst. Now, I'm not preaching Baptist
doctrine here. I'm preaching what I believe.
I'm preaching what I believe God revealed to me, because I
was going into the pulpit that night and I wanted his presence.
And I'm in the pulpit this morning and I want his presence. And
you're out here, there's no reason for us to be here if we don't
have his presence. We're wasting everybody's time. We're wasting everybody's money.
There's a tremendous investment here, financially and of time
and of lives and everything else. We've got to find out what it
means to meet in His name. I'm going to give you four things.
I am persuaded, I went over it again this week, I'll go over
it again this morning, that I believe it means to meet in God's presence.
You can put this down in the back of your Bible somewhere
if you want to. And if you've got anything to add to it, I
welcome it. But here are four things. I'll give you what I
believe it is to gather in his name. I care not for your merit
or morality. I care not for your influence
and power. I care not... Incidentally, this
fellow cleaned his nails while I was preaching. His daddy was
a preacher. His daddy was a freewill Baptist
preacher. His daddy hated grace, too. And
he's going to hate it along with his dead daddy. I don't care
what our heritage is. I want to meet, if we never have
before, this morning in his name. Maybe we'll get one more blessing.
Here's what it is. Four things. Number one, if I
meet in His name, it is, number one, to seek His glory. I don't have this. Nobody here
can contest that. If you want His presence, you're
going to have to seek His glory. That's just so I'm confident,
I am persuaded beyond a shadow of a doubt, without any question,
I'm confident this is where all true prayer, all true praise,
all true worship, all spiritual exercise begins if we can do
it solely, completely, totally for His glory. Now let's show you some scriptures.
Jeremiah chapter 9. Turn over there with me. Jeremiah
chapter 9. If I can possibly do what I'm
doing, say what I'm saying, give what I'm giving, think what I'm
thinking, for His glory. Can we? Reckon we could. It's
not easy. Only the Spirit of God can give
that kind of grace. I'll tell you this, I realize
we're creatures of the flesh and we bear too much the image
of the earthy, but if we covet the presence of Christ, If I
covet, you covet the presence of Christ. And maybe two or three
of us do, I don't know. But we'd better do what we're
doing for His glory. For His glory. I don't care what
it is, whether it's teaching or preaching, whether it's prayer
or praise, whether it's giving or living, whether it's singing
or witnessing, whether it's sitting or talking, whether it's thinking
or what, whether it's promoting, whether it's good works or alms
or fasting. are His glory. Jeremiah 9, verse
23, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom. And don't you just give that
to the so-called wise men of this world. You give that to
the theologian, too. Neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Oh, what a strong, influential
person he is. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. But let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, I am the Lord. I exercise lovingkindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth in these things." Lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness. I delight, and I do it all. I do it all. Let's turn to 1
Corinthians 10, verse 31. 1 Corinthians 10.31. Listen to
this. If we're going to meet in His
name, we've got to do it for His glory, for He said in 1 Corinthians
10.21, 1 Corinthians 10.31, 31. Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you
do, do it to the glory of God. Do it to
the glory of God. How about 1 Peter 4? Would you
look at this with me? 1 Peter 4, verse 11. If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things
may be glorified through Jesus Christ." This, my friends, this
is the purpose of creation. If you go back to the time that
God said, let there be light, from the first word, first day,
first act of creation. all the way till God completed
it and rested on the seventh day and said it's good, He did
it all for His glory. I'll show you one verse, Revelation
chapter 4, Revelation the fourth chapter, I say that He did it
for His glory. He didn't just make man a place
in which to abide, a dwelling place, He did it for His glory.
In Revelation 4, verse 11, he says, Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honor and power. For Thou hast created
all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Now
what I've got to do is get in harmony with God. I've got to
get in tune. I ask these fellows, we go sometime and a bunch of
these fellows will have their instruments. One will have a
guitar and one will have a banjo and one will have a steel or
something else. And we ask them to play. And sometimes folks
get a little aggravated because they sit there and they have
a cockineer over here and they're boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, keep on, you know, hitting those notes, tuning up. When
y'all start playing, you can't play together unless you tune
together. And God said two can't walk together
except they be agreed. And if I want his presence, he's
not going to tune to my guitar. I'm going to tune to his. I'm
going to tune to him. I remember a story years ago,
I heard it old, old preachers, back when I was a boy. I haven't
thought of this since that day. But he said, back years ago,
years ago, Grand Ole Opry, in its first and early days, they
came on on Saturday night and people all over the nation listened
to WSM and the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night. And there
was an old country fella in Tennessee that had an instrument, I don't
know what it was, but he played along with them. It was a fiddle.
And his fiddle got out of tune. And he wrote up there at WSM,
this long ago, I don't know whether he had a crystal set or a radio,
but he wrote them. And he told them, if somebody
would, sometime during the program, to give him an A, I believe that
was the chord, to sound me an A, sung to him a fiddle. And
you know, they read that letter and stopped that whole shebang. And they went over the air. Sounded
that a again and again and again so that old man could play and
be in tune And I'm telling you you get in tune with God you're
here in his name You're here for his glory because God created
everything for his glow And I'll tell you this turn to Romans
9 in the covenant of grace Romans chapter 9 listen to this in the
covenant of grace in the ninth chapter of Romans verse 20 listen
to this I I'm going to read three or four verses here in Romans
9, verse 20. Nay, but, O man, who are you
to reply against God? I don't like it that way. Now,
wait a minute. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed
it, Why did you make me thus? If what had he just been talking
about, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll be gracious
to whom I'll be gracious. So it's not of him that will
it, nor of him that run it. God showeth mercy. The children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, at the
purpose of God according to election. Verse 20, O man, who are you
to reply against God? Verse 21, Does not the potter
have power over the clay of the same lump, of the same lump,
of the same family, of the same family tree, of the same household, to make one vessel to honor and
another to dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known, what? The riches of his glory. On the vessels of mercy. What's
these vessels of mercy for? His glory. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying, you want to get in
tune? You want God to honor our assembly? You can meet. Religious folks have been meeting
forever. And they'll go on meeting till Christ comes. And they'll
stand and say, we did these things in your name. Say, I never knew
you. But I don't want that. I want to meet in his name. And
I know, first, I know it's to seek his glory. Because that's
what creation's all about. That's what the covenant of grace
is all about. That he might show his glory
upon these vessels of mercy designed by his power through his son. This is the reason for redemption.
Turn to Ephesians 1. I'm not going to read this whole
thing. I'm going to let you read it later. Ephesians 1. That's
the reason our messages get so long. We just say the same things
over and over. But here in Ephesians 1, verse
3 through 14. You have the work of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit in redemption. Now in verse 6,
talking about the work of the Father, He did it to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Verse 12, when it talks about
the work of Christ, that we should be to the praise of His glory.
Verse 14, the last line, when it refers to the Holy Spirit's
work, unto the praise of His glory. Now one other verse, over
in Revelation 5, will you turn over there? Revelation 5, and this is where
the main work needs to be done. These other three fit in, but
this is where it starts. This is where all true worship,
true prayer, spiritual exercise begins for His glory. God, He
stops right there, unless we meet for His glory. Revelation
5, verse 9, and they sung a new song. This is a song of heaven
saying, Thou art worthy. Thou art worthy. Down here in
verse 12, they said with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb. that
were slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength,
and honor, and glory, and blessing, and every creature in heaven,
and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea. And
all that in them heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory,
and power unto him that sitteth on the throne." That's where
it is. That's where it is. All right, secondly, I'll move
quickly. What does it mean to gather in His name? That's the
main thing. We could stop right there, because these others will
flow from that. Secondly, it's to seek His mercy,
His mercy. Not justice, not reward, not
recognition, His mercy. Turn, if you will, to the book
of Hebrews, chapter 4. We had this in our Sunday school
lesson recently, and it made its application to me as I prepared
this message. more firmly than ever before.
Hebrews 4, verse 14. Now watch this. Seeing we have
a great high priest that is passed into the heaven, Jesus the Son
of God, let us hold fast our profession. We have not a high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all things tempted as we are yet without sin. Let
us therefore come boldly unto his presence, the throne of grace.
For what purpose? that we may obtain mercy. Are
you here seeking mercy? Are you here seeking mercy? Moses
said, Lord, three questions. He said, Lord, show me your way. Will you show me your way? Secondly,
he said, Lord, if you go not with me, don't let me go. Don't
let me go. And thirdly, he said, Lord, will
you show me your glory? Your glory. And you know what
God said? You want to see it? Exodus 33,
let's look at it. You know what the Lord said to
him? He said, Lord, show me your glory. And the Lord said unto
him, this is a direct reply to that request, show me your glory.
And he said, verse 19, I will make all my goodness, my glory
is my goodness, pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. I will be gracious. to whom I
will be gracious, and I will show mercy." All who came into
his presence while he was here on this earth came into his presence
seeking mercy. Mercy. Check the word and see
if that's not true. Take your concordance as I did
yesterday and check the word mercy, mercy, mercy. And all
who came into his presence, I found dozens and dozens and dozens
of references. Here are just a few. The woman
of Canaan came to him and she said, Have mercy upon me, O Lord. And our Lord healed her daughter. Two blind men came to him and
said, Thy son of David, have mercy upon us. The publicans
stood in the temple and cried, Lord, be merciful, be merciful. Brian Bartimaeus cried out from
the wayside, Jesus, our son of David, have mercy, have mercy. In Matthew chapter 9, will you
look over there, I want you to look at this, Matthew chapter
9. If we're not careful, careful, careful, we'll get will get all
tied up in our procedures and our orthodoxy and our merit and
our credentials and our accomplishments and all these things and forget
that we're empty sinners who need to be filled, that we're
naked sinners who need to be clothed. That we're blind people
who need to receive sight. That we're deaf folks who need
to receive our hearing. That we're lame folks who need
to be made well. That we're needy, needy Christians.
In my hand, no price I bring. Is that just for the unconverted?
What you got to bring? I'm 56 years old and I realize
more and more, Mike, I don't have anything to bring. I never
did have anything. I'm looking for mercy as much
today as I was 20 years ago. Are you? Mercy? Everybody who
sought mercy found it. Everybody. Everybody. Look here at Matthew 9. And it
came to pass, verse 10. Matthew 9, 10. As Jesus sat at
meat in the house, many publicans and sinners came and sat down
with him. Seeking what? And when the Pharisees
saw it, the religious people, they said to his disciples, why
does he eat with these people? And when Jesus heard that, he
said, people that are whole don't need a doctor, people that are
sick. You go learn what that means. I will have mercy and
not sacrifice, but I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners.
I'll have mercy. Mercy. He turned to one group
and he said, I know why you followed me. You ate the loaves and were
filled. He turned to another group who
saw the miracles and followed him, but he didn't commit himself
to them. He knew all men. He knew what
was in their hearts. But everybody who came with a sincere cry and
plea and desire for mercy found it. For he delights to show mercy. He plenteous in mercy. Thirdly,
to gather in his name. is to seek his glory. To gather
in his name is to seek his mercy. To gather in his name is to seek
his righteousness. Do you know this is one of the
seven names by which he's called? Turn to Jeremiah 23, by which
the Lord is called. He says, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Do you realize this
is one of the seven names by which he's called? Jehovah our
banner, Jehovah our healer, Jehovah is present. But watch this, in
verse 6 of Jeremiah 23, in his days Judah shall be saved, and
Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Now my friend,
there is a righteousness to be followed before men and before
God. Turn, if you will, to 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. There is a righteousness to be
followed before men and before God. There is a growth in grace. There's a growth in faith, and
a growth in love, and a growth in obedience, and a growth in
holiness, and a growth in patience, and a growth in humility. That's
to be followed by every believer. 1 Timothy 6 verse 10. Listen to it. For the love of
money is the root of all evil, that's covetousness, which some,
while some coveted after, they've erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God,
flee these things, flee these things, and follow after righteousness. This is an obedience to God's
law, an obedience to God's will. It's walking in honesty and integrity
and faithfulness and holiness in this world to avoid every
appearance of evil. It's a righteousness to follow.
Listen. Listen. Follow after righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, patience, meekness. Follow those things. Give yourself
to them. Turn, if you will, to 2 Timothy
chapter 2, verse 22. 2 Timothy 2.22, flee also youthful
lust. Flee these things, but follow
righteousness. Follow godliness. Live a holy
life. Follow faith, that faith may
grow, love may grow, peace may grow. Follow these things with
them that call on God, with others that call on God, out of a pure
heart. There's a righteousness to be
followed. There's a growth in grace. There's a pursuit of holiness
on the part of every believer. But let me tell you this. The
Word of God says there's none righteous, no, not one. And you
may give your whole time and life and energy and effort to
this holiness here, but it will not satisfy God. For except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you'll never enter the kingdom of God. And our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Anybody here this morning who
feels righteous is unrighteous. Anybody here who feels holy is
unholy, still before God. The righteousness we seek, the
righteousness we covet is His righteousness. Turn to Romans
10. Now don't forget this. What does
it mean to meet in His name? I'm telling you, to meet in His
name. I know this. It's to seek His
glory, to seek His glory. Secondly, it's to seek His mercy,
mercy, never-ending mercy, everlasting mercy. It's to seek His righteousness. Paul said, verse 2, Romans 10,
I bear them record, they have a zeal of God. Yes, sir, enthusiasm,
But they're ignorant, not according to knowledge, they're ignorant
of God's righteousness, and they're going about to establish their
own. And it won't do. It won't do. The righteousness
we're seeking is defined in verse 4. Christ is the goal, the consummation,
the end of the law for righteousness, for holiness, for sanctification,
for perfection, for acceptance with God to everyone that does
what? Believes. That's where it is.
God looks on Christ and sees me. God accepts Christ and accepts
me. This was what was missing in
Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to Christ in all of his rogues of
religion and orthodoxy and theology and morality and all these things
and our Lord looked at him and said, you must be born again. This is what was missing in the
rich young ruler who came to Christ and said, what must I
do? What good thing must I do? One thing thou lackest. The Pharisee in the temple, he
had all that man demanded and nothing that God required. Saul
of Tarsus, he said, I was righteous before the Lord, I was righteous
before the Lord, the law. But I didn't know what sin was.
To gather in his name is to seek his righteousness, seek his holiness,
is to shut my mouth and become guilty before God. I don't care
how far I progress in prayer or understanding or knowledge.
Paul said this, I'm less than the least of all the saints.
I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. In his last epistle
he said I'm the chief of sinners. That's where you and I better
remain, needy creatures. Oh wretched man that I was, used
to be, am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God for his righteousness. Fourthly, to seek, to gather
in his name, is to seek his sheep. To seek his sheep. Our Lord's
encounter with Peter started out on this note. They sat down
there and our Lord asked him, he said, Do you love me? Do you
love me? Do you love me? Do you love my
presence? You love my communion, you love my fellowship. Oh, Lord,
you know I love you. What do you say? Feed my sheep.
Feed my sheep. Three times. You love me? Lord,
I love you. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Listen, my father gave me some
sheep. I came down here and died for
those sheep. I gave my life for the sheep. I'm going to gather
and bring the sheep, other sheep I have which are not of this
folk. If you love me, if you want my presence, if you love
me, you'll seek my sheep. Yeah, you will. You'll seek my
sheep. That'll be, you'll gather for his glory, you'll gather
to seek his mercy, you'll gather to seek his righteousness, and
you'll gather, not to prove your theology, not to argue religion,
to seek his sheep. I've never been a good pastor.
I know that. I'm an evangelist at heart. I
love to seek his sheep. The shepherd's seeking the sheep.
The Holy Spirit's seeking the sheep. The church is seeking
the sheep, the true church. And those who love him will seek
his sheep. They're looking for them. They're
going to find them here and find them there and find them yonder.
Find somebody that says, hey, I believe that. I believe that. I can't answer all the questions.
I can't cut it all up and divide it up like the theologians. I
can't quarter and split the hairs like you fellows can. But I'm
a sinner and I need Christ. You reckon he'd have me? I'm
looking for those folks. I'm looking for you. I believe
if we are, we'll have his presence. If I can join the shepherd on
his quest for his sheep, I'm going to have his presence.