Let's turn now to the book of
Jude again, if you will, please. Now, in studying the scriptures,
or interpreting or teaching the word of God, it's always wise
find out three things about a passage of scripture. Number one, who's
speaking? Who is speaking? And secondly,
to whom is he speaking? And then thirdly, what's the
subject? What's he talking about? I'll give you an example of that. Nearly every preacher's got a
sermon on whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. The
Apostle was talking about giving when he said that. I know the
Scripture is bifocal. That means it has a primary application
or meaning, but it has also other applications and other meanings. For example, the book of Hosea,
which I used not long ago as a text The Lord is talking about
how much he loved Israel. He told Hosea to marry the prostitute
to show how much he loved Israel. But Hosea is a picture of Christ
and his love for you and me. So that's always wise, to find
out who's speaking, to find out to whom he's speaking, or about
whom, and then to find out the subject. Now here in our text
tonight, in the book of Jude, Jude had been writing about some
folks who had fallen, some people who had fallen into total ruin,
some people who had occupied some pretty important and high
positions, but who had fallen into complete ruin and complete
separation from God. For example, Israel. There was
a glorious day when Israel walked out of Egypt. That was a happy
day. I don't know whether you saw
the movie, The Ten Commandments. Personally, I think it's worth
seeing. I've seen it two or three times. About the closest thing
to the Bible I've ever seen on a movie screen. But when Israel,
when Moses assembled those people together, I know it was nothing
like the real experience, nothing at all. But it just made cold
chills run up and down my back when those people who had been
in in Egypt in slavery and bondage, suffering for 400 years, assembled
together under the blast of the trumpet and were marching out
of Egypt. They went down into Egypt, what
was it, 70 of them? And they came out with about
3 million. They came out of slavery and came out of bondage and came
out of suffering. God delivered them. There they
were, 2 1�2 or 3 million of them. under their leader Moses, marching,
marching out of Egypt. Delivered! What a glorious day. And then an even more impossible
glorious moment was when they stood there by the Red Sea and
saw the power and salvation of God. How he opened the sea and
they marched down on dry all the way across that sea and out
the other side. And then they turn and watch
the judgment of God as he consumed the enemy, as he drowned the
Egyptians and put away the entire army of Pharaoh. But what a sad, sad time. It
says in verse 5 here that God destroyed them. He delivered
them out of the land of They saw the death of the firstborn,
they were delivered, they saw the parting of the sea, they
saw the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, and they saw
the serpent on a pole, the rock give forth its water, and all
of these great things. And yet I stand and look over
that wilderness and I see the bones, the parched, bleached
bones of every single one of them with the exception of what? Every one of them who were over
20 years of age when they walked out of Egypt, lay dead in that
wilderness. That's what Jude's saying here.
That's what he's saying. He says in verse 5, I'll put
you in remembrance. I'll put you in remembrance.
We're on a serious subject. I'll put you in remembrance.
And now I'll take you to a worse scene than that. In verse 6 he talks about angels. I can't think of angels perishing
without actually trembling. I feel that I occupy a pretty
important position in the kingdom of God. I'm a preacher of the
gospel. I never am free from that tremendous
burden and responsibility that God has put upon me to teach
his word and preach his word. But I'm looking at some people,
at some creatures who were angels of God. They were angels of God. They
were creatures that inhabited the heavens. They were creatures
that moved about by direct command from the throne of God. They
were creatures that had seen the glory, the unspeakable glory
of God. They were morning stars that
sang together. And here they are. They kept
not their first estate. They kept not that position.
But they fell. They fell. They fell. And God reserved them
in everlasting chains. Virgins said since then they'd
been dragging about their chains. No possibility of deliverance
because Christ took not unto himself the nature of angel.
That makes me tremble. Can you think of an angel falling
without trembling? Can you think of a morning star
plunging into outer darkness without saying, Will I also go away? And then, further in this chapter,
he talks about preachers and teachers. officials in the early
church. And these officials in the early
church were men who were brought up under the care of the apostles. I know sometimes when people
come here for a while and hear the gospel and make much profession
and loud profession, and then they fade away. They pass away. But some of the folks here kind
of cast a a glance in my direction, why couldn't you keep them, Preacher?
Why couldn't you hold them? Why couldn't you do something,
or say something, or go drink coffee with them, or break bread
with them, or soothe their feathers, or rub them down a little bit
and keep them coming? If Paul couldn't do it, I'm not
even going to try it. Do you hear what I'm saying? If
the Apostle Paul could, he said, at my first trial, nobody stood
with me. Only Luke, he says, is with me
now. All men, he said, have forsaken me. It's not in my power to save
men or keep them saved. It's not in my power to convict
men of sin or convert them or keep them walking in paths of
righteousness. Only power and ability I have
is to try to tell the truth about God, about man, about Christ
and salvation. God will have to keep you. But
these folks here were under the care and eye of the apostles.
Some of these people had even heard the most glorious apostles
preach the gospel. And yet he calls them, listen,
he calls them spots in your feast of love. spots in your feast
of love. He calls them clouds without
water. There's nothing more tantalizing to a farmer who needs rain than
to see that dark cloud, that billow of cloud, roll up over
yonder in the east to the west, and then to see it pass on by.
It didn't have a drop of water in it. And there are a lot of
preachers and teachers like that. They look like they're going
to knock a home run, and they don't even have a bat in their
hands. They act like they're really going to come on strong
and refresh the people and be a blessing and nothing but clouds
without water, trees without fruit, wandering stars. This
is one of the most descriptive things in the world here. Did
you ever go out at night and see just, just see stars, shooting
stars? Here's a star up there that's
been there for a billion years. It just keeps on twinkling, keeps
on twinkling. Doesn't make a lot of light.
But it keeps on twinkling. Boy, you look to the right of
it, whoosh, here comes one, you know. Man, he just puts them
all to shame. You just look up there, and boy,
for about ten seconds, you don't even see another star, nothing
but him, whoosh. And then you don't see him anymore.
All he had lasted ten seconds. That's all he had. Boy, he dazzled
them for a while. He really set them back on their
heels for a while. He opened their eyes for a while,
and their mouths too. And that's these certain students,
these certain theologians, these certain geniuses in the Bible.
I've watched them come on the scene, and I've watched them
go by. I've watched them make a lot of noise. I've watched
a lot of people open their eyes. I've seen a lot of people follow
them. But I've seen some dedicated, diligent, They're plotting men
who occupy for the glory of God, and they just keep on preaching,
keep on preaching, keep on preaching, keep on preaching. And these
dazzlers come by, you know, with all their brilliance and all
their gimmicks. They think up a new gimmick every day, a new
gimmick. And they come by with their dazzling
brilliance and their gimmicks, and they show like a shooting
star for a few seconds, and then they're in oblivion, oblivion. That's what he calls them here,
clouds without water and shooting stars. He calls them trees without
fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. That's how dead
they are. Plucked up by the roots, no hope of ever being saved. And then he comes down to the
end of this chapter and he says in verse 24, and as we read all
of that, as we read all of that about Israel and about angels
and about Sodom and Gomorrah and about our father Adam, and
about the people who fell under the ministry of the apostles.
And we read all that and we just tremble, we just tremble. But
we come to this blessed doxology in verse 24, and Jude won't close
without saying, But now unto him, now unto him that is able
to keep you from falling. Oh, I tell you, I've never been
interested in anything in my life quite like I'm interested
in that. He's able to keep you from falling. He's able to keep
you from falling. Why do we preach about the danger
of falling? You say, Preacher, you have a
lot to say about that. Why are you so concerned about
people falling? Want me to tell you why? There
are about four reasons. Number one, because I've seen
so many fall. That's the first reason. I've
seen so many fall. That's the first reason. The
scriptures are full of examples of men who have departed from
what they claimed to be the faith. I don't believe that any of God's
elect will perish. I don't believe any of God's
sheep will perish. He said, my sheep follow me,
they hear me, they follow me, I've given them eternal life,
they shall never perish. But many who profess to be his
sheep for a while, I've watched them perish. I've watched them
depart from the gospel. The scriptures are full of examples
of men who've fallen. Life is full of examples of men
who've fallen. And you and I know many who've
departed from the faith. I'll tell you the second reason
why I preach about it a lot and why I think about it a lot. Not
only because I've seen others fall. I've seen men depart from
the gospel who could preach it a lot better than I can. Who
seem to love it more than I do. And I've seen men depart from
the gospel who seem to be outwardly more righteous than any of us
here. They were real powers. They were
real separationists. They were real holy men. Men of God. I'm persuaded of this. Whether
a man is a man of God takes a long time to prove. I'm constantly
persuaded of that. And then secondly, I'll tell
you another reason why I preach about it a lot, because I know
the weakness of our nature. I know our potential. I know
our thoughts. I know the things that go on
inside of a person. Some of you wonder sometimes
why I can ring your bell so easily, because my bell is cast out of
the same material. That's the reason I can ring
your bell. How do you know me so well? I live next door. That's
how I come. I'm preaching as a dying man
to dying men. I know you because I'm just like
you. You're older than I am, but I'm just like you. And I
know the danger. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Don't ever forget it. And then the third reason why
I preach about falling so much, I know the power of our enemy.
I know you don't, you know, you don't realize who your enemy
is. You know, it's not you he's after,
it's your God he's after. It's to bring reproach upon your
Lord. He couldn't care less about you. I hear these preachers always
talking about what they're going to do about Satan, you know.
They're not going to do anything about it. Even Michael, the archangel,
wouldn't challenge Satan. He said, The Lord rebuked you.
You're not going to do anything with him. Satan goes about as
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Peter didn't have
any defense against it. Our Lord said, Peter, Satan hath
desired you, that he may sift you as wheat. Job didn't have
any defense against it. Job's whole situation was decided
at the throne. That's where it was decided.
Did you know that? Think about it a little bit. That's so. Old
Joe's sitting down there in his house minding his own business
and Satan and God were having a discussion about it. That's
the reason our Lord taught us to pray, keep us from the evil
one. You know what that says, Charles?
You're no match for him. You don't want to challenge him.
I see these fellas all the time wanting to challenge the demons.
You don't want to challenge them. They jumped on some fellas one
time, sons of Siva. They were going to rebuke the
devil, you know. And they jumped on them and whipped them. And
they said, Paul we know, and Jesus we know, but who are you
fellas? And just whipped them good. You don't want to challenge
hell. You don't want to challenge Satan.
You don't want anything to do with him. Believe me, my friend,
and I tell you young preachers there. Old B.B. Carwell told
me this one time. He said, don't ignore demons,
but don't investigate them. Folks find what they look for.
And you go to peeping around in places you ain't got no business,
you might find, you might get a hold of something you can't
handle. I knew a preacher in Michigan that did that. Got to
studying demonology and delving into demonology and reading books
on demonology until he found out somebody was sitting with
him in his study one day. And they had to take him off
in a white jacket. And when he did come home, he
never could preach again. He was always aware of somebody's
presence. Well, then what are you talking
about? I'm talking about what this Bible talks about. It's principalities
and powers. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers and high
places. Yes, sir, I know who the enemy
is, but I know the only one who can whip him is my Lord. I'm
no match for him. And you're not either. Don't
you get high and mighty? Now, that's solemn warning, and
that's enough said. But I know the power of our enemy.
I know he's dealt crushing blows to men wiser and stronger and
mightier than you and me, the one. He's a solemn enemy. And then fourthly, the reason
I talk about it is because the Word of God warns us about falling. The believer is hedged about
on one side with God's promises, lest he despair. If we didn't
have the promises of God, we'd despair. But over here on this
side, we're hedged about with the warnings of God, lest we
presume. The Scripture warns us, the Scripture
encourages us, the Scripture cautions us, and the Scripture
gives us assurance. And I'll tell you another thing,
the reason I preach about it is the dangers are many. I need
to be kept from the error of false doctrine. I'll tell you
this, Satan doesn't care how religious you are, just so you
don't know Christ. He doesn't care how much you
preach, just so you don't preach the gospel. He doesn't care. You know, a lot of folks seem
to think that Satan lives in honky-tonks and houses of ill-fame
and gambling dens. You just don't know that boy.
You know where he lives? Lives in religious circles. He
changes himself into what? Into a devil with a pitchfork
and hooks and a tail and a red union suit? No, sir. He changes
himself into an angel of light. And his ministers into ministers
of what? Righteousness. Good words. Morality. Not Christ's righteousness, but
man's righteousness. Not Christ's holiness, but man's
holiness. Clean up the town. Satan will
lead you in that endeavor. It'll keep you from preaching
the gospel. Well, if he could get me tonight
to deal with some subject, that has nothing to do with substitution
and redemption and regeneration and what happened in the garden
and what happened on the cross, what happened in the heart of
a sinner when God saves them through the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that would be accomplishing just exactly what he set out
to accomplish. A man doesn't have to get drunk
to go to hell, just miss Christ. And you know where a man is in
greatest danger? In Italia. It's not in the honky-tonk,
God saves sinners. It's not in the gambling den,
God saves sinners. You know where a man's in most
danger? In the church without Christ. In a profession of religion. Christ said you come for sea
and land. You go through your soul-winning
exploits and endeavors and come for sea and land. You go to the
far corners of the earth to make a proselyte for your religion.
And when you've made him, he's what? Two-fold more the child
of hell than you are or he was, because now he's got a refuge.
Before he didn't have one. Before he had no hiding place.
Before he had no foundation. Now he's got one. And only God's
judgment will get him out of it. And you gave it to him. Keep on. Keep on winning people
to your way of thinking. You're doing just what Satan
wants you to do. Conviction's a work of God's
Spirit. Regeneration's a work of God's Spirit. Conversion's
a work of God's Spirit. Salvation's a work of God's Spirit.
And when you do that work yourself, you're doing Satan's business.
You're bringing people to religion without Christ. That's right.
That's his business. Peace when there is no peace.
I need to be kept from error of doctrine because I'm dealing
with a deceptive, subtle, crafty enemy. And he's been in the business
of deceiving human beings for 6,000 years. And I come on the
scene in 1981 with a few days' experience and I'm going to challenge
that bird who's got 6,000 years' experience of dealing with folks
just like me. I'm a peanut in his hands, unless
he keeps me from falling. You are too. He knows more about
human nature than anybody but God. And he knows where you are
vulnerable. He's a subtle, and if he can
handle Adam and Eve, he can handle you. If he can handle one-third
of the heavenly hosts who followed him in his rebellion, he can
handle the 13th Street Baptist Church. Unless God, by his grace,
keeps us from falling. I'm telling you the truth. I
need to be kept from error of spirit. He could accomplish his
work by bringing people into conflict, and division, and strife. I've seen so many churches split
and divide. You say, over the gospel? Some
of them, most of them not. They divide over, here's a church
dividing over a missionary. Somebody disagreed on whether
a missionary was this or that, or whether you ought to get this
support or that support, and the whole church split. I know
two that split recently over a missionary. Not over who is
God, or who is Jesus Christ, or how does God save sinners,
or why did Christ suffer on the cross, but over the life and
habits of a missionary, 10,000 miles away. Another church split
over a school. Somebody said to me one time,
if you want to send your church of the Lord Jesus Christ to certain
destruction, organize a Christian school and move it on the property.
And you are sending it to certain destruction. I can stand here
and name you seven different churches that were going seemingly
in a great way, and they organized what they call a Christian school,
and there ain't no such animal. Down south it's an all-white
school is what it is. And that's why they're organized
in most places. I can name you seven churches
that brought a Christian school on the premises, and every one
of the pastors are gone, and the churches are divided. The
church's business is not to educate little rebels, it's to preach
the gospel to them. They say, Preacher, we need Christian
education. Christian education is the gospel.
It's the gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the solution for any man's problem. You can't save
a child by getting him off the streets, he's got to be brought
to Christ. You can't save a child by putting him in jail and keeping
him from going to this place or that place or threatening
him. I know these schools that got
rules. You can't go downtown without an escort. You can't
go to a movie. You can't do this. Why can't
we do it? Because we'll kick you out if
you do. That's no motive. How about if a fellow wouldn't
go somewhere because he loved Christ? Now, that'd be a better
motive, wouldn't it? I'd say that'd be a better motive.
If a fellow wanted to live his life in godliness and holiness
because Christ is his Lord and Savior and Master, I would think
that would be a better motive. That's the one given by Apostle
Paul. He said, The love of Christ constraineth
me. We need to be kept from error of spirit, the wrong spirit and
attitude toward others, divisions and strife. We need to be kept
from open sin. We need to be kept from open
sin, rebellion against the law of God and the commandments of
God and the truth of God. We need to be kept from falling
from grace. Turn to Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5. Here in the fifth chapter of
Galatians, the Apostle Paul says in verse 3, verse 2, Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing." Now,
that doesn't mean that if a man is actually in the flesh circumcised
that Christ profits him nothing, but here's what he's saying.
Here's a Gentile who comes to salvation to know Christ. He
comes to believe on Christ. And the Jews, of course, had
the token of circumcision, which was a covenant token, token of
the covenant, people of God. In the Old Testament, every Hebrew
was circumcised. But it was a picture of the circumcision
of the heart. It was a picture of redemption
by Christ, the operation on the heart by the grace of God, cutting
away of evil. So this man The Jews get a hold
of him and they say, now Christ saves and you believe and you're
redeemed and Christ's blood redeems you, but you better be circumcised. You better be circumcised, because
that was commanded in the Old Testament. It's just like you better keep
the supper. Or you better be baptized in the baptismal pool. Or you better, you better not
eat meat. Or you better not do this. In
other words, Christ saves, but, you say, you better do this.
Paul said if you do anything in order to be saved or in order
to add to in any way the work of Christ, you've just counseled
out the work of Christ for you. Just counseled it out. He profits
you nothing. Nothing. I testify unto you, verse 3,
to every man that circumcised that he's a debtor to do the
Oh, Lord God. Boy, that's a challenge now,
ain't it? This is what it is. In the matter of the redemption
of my soul, I am absolutely passive. Christ is all my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Everything's Christ. It's not
Christ and baptism, or Christ and tithing, or Christ and holy
living. I beg your pardon. It's not Christ
in anything. He is my wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification and redemption. I'm complete in Him. I'm complete
in Him. If the thief on the cross never
walked, his feet were nailed to a cross, he never washed.
He died on a cross, he never worked! He never witnessed! He's saved by the blood of Jesus
Christ. Don't you give me anything to do! Anything! Because I'm
not going to do it. not in order to be saved. Now,
I'll do some things because I love Christ. I'll follow Him in baptism
in order to confess Him publicly. I'll give to support missions
because I want to see people saved because Christ gave Himself
for me. And I'll seek to walk in righteousness
and holiness and set a good example and avoid appearance of evil
because I love Christ and I want to bring honor, not shame, to
Him and His cross and His gospel. But don't you add anything to
the work of our Lord. If you do, you're a debtor to
keep the whole law. That's what he says. Verse 5,
4 now. Christ is become, this is so terrible, listen. Christ is become of no effect
to you, whoever you are that are justified by the law. You've
fallen from grace, from the preaching of grace, from the faith of grace,
from belief in grace, from any hope of grace. You departed.
Just preach anything. And I know we preachers are prone
to, we're prone to do this. We're prone to give people something
to do. Don't give me anything to do
but look to Christ. Nothing at all. He's everything. I need to be kept from this error,
my friend, this error of any way. You want a man said one
time years ago, and this carries a powerful message. If somebody
along the line, if somebody doesn't accuse you of being an antinomian,
you're not preaching the gospel. That's right, Jim. Somebody's
going to do it. Say, he doesn't believe in good words. They didn't
accuse Paul of that. They said, well now, if our sins
magnify the grace of God, then let's say that grace may abound.
Is that what you're saying, Paul? God forbid, he said. That's God forbid, that's about
the best he could answer. But he was preaching grace, grace,
grace, so clearly and so understandably. Ain't that what he's saying?
That they drew the conclusion that it didn't matter what a
man did, said, or how he lived. He was saved totally and completely
by the grace and mercy of God, and that's so. But then again,
it ain't so. You see what I'm saying? But
my redemption, my justification is by and in and through and
for the glory of Christ alone. And don't you come at me with
any kind of rules and regulations because I tell you where you're
going to put me, you're going to put me in a position of keeping
the whole law and I can't keep one jot and tittle, let alone
the whole kit and caboodle. I've got to trust Christ, because
I've got no other hope. Now, you may have, but I don't.
Here's another reason why I preach about falling, is because we
cannot keep ourselves. Let me tell you something. Somebody
said one time, you know what we are? We're like a cane in
a man's hand. You ever walk with a cane? My
dad, as he got older, and he had a cane. He whittled him out
a cane. Everywhere he went, he carried
that cane. He said it wasn't to walk with, it was to fight off
dogs. But I noticed he walked with it when there wasn't no
dogs around, you know. But he had that cane. You know, we're
like a cane in a man's hand, in the hand of our Lord. Let
the hand turn loose, and we fall. That's the way you are, Jack.
You're just like a cane in a man's hand. If my Lord just turns you
loose, You will fall. Now that's so. It's not you might.
You will. We don't stand. We cannot stand
a moment longer than Christ upholds us. You boast of your progress. That's the reason I don't care
for that song. I'm pressing on to higher ground. I'm about higher
right now than I'll ever get. I'm in Christ. In Christ. That's where I am. I'm in Christ.
I'm afraid of that higher ground that some folks are talking about.
I hear them talking about the victorious life. I hear them talking about
the higher life. You know what I want? I just
want the Christian life. I'll be satisfied. I'm afraid. No place guarantees security,
not the church, the closet, or the communion table. No rules
or regulations will secure a man. Somebody said forced obedience. Listen to me. Forced obedience
only conceals deadly sins. I'll take you, I went to one
of those schools, Tennessee Temple College, where they all have
the rules and regulations. You did too. And I'll tell you
this much. Your forced holiness and your
legalized morality covers deadly sins. Deadly sins. Gossip, phariseeism,
envy. Jealousy. The worst gossips in
this world are these little boys and girls studying to be preachers
and missionaries. They cut one another all to pieces. They're
professors and teachers and people and everybody else. But they
don't go to the show. I'm glad of that. If they went
to the show, that would be bad. No rules or regulations will
secure us. No position in religion will
keep us safe. Even angels fail, and apostles
fail. And apostles fail. That's the
reason I preach about it. But I'm glad for this. He says,
Now unto Him. Now unto Him. In verse 25, To
the only wise God our Savior. Do you know who that is? That's
Him who loved us. That's him who came to this earth
and was made in the likeness of our flesh, and as our covenant's
heretic and redeemer, effectually, sufficiently met the law and
obeyed it in every jot and tittle, and the voice of the Father spake
from heaven and said, This is my son, the son of my Lord, in
whom I am well pleased. And then he went to the cross
of Calvary and there he bore my shame and filth and guilt
and sin and died for me and was buried and rose again. To Him. To Him. Let's make sure we put
the crown on the right head. To Him. To Him be glory and majesty,
dominion and power. Not only now, but forever. But I want to show you something
else. He's not only able to keep you from falling because of who
He is, because of what He did, because of where He is, because
of His covenant promises and obligations. Our Lord has covenant
obligations as a surety. He's not only able to keep you
from falling, but I want you to look at this for a moment.
This will thrill you to death. Verse 24, he's able, now on the
hill, put the crown on his head. Think about the past and the
present and the future. Alpha and Omega, he hath done
it all. Christ is my redemption. He's able to keep you from falling.
And to present you. Woo! And to present you. And to present you. Faultless. Faultless. before his, the presence
of his glory. Now don't you think about that.
He is able to present you. I think, you know what I got,
I was sitting here thinking about that, and I thought about old
Mephibosheth. You know David had taken the
throne of Israel. God put him there. And David
had marched in in splendor and majesty and glory and power.
And David was now sitting on the throne. And, brother, that
was some place. And he was surrounded by mighty
men, mighty warriors and princes and captains and leaders. And all these great fellows had
fought with him and suffered with him. And now he was the
king. And everybody was bowing and scraping. And David was on
the throne. Is there any left of the house
of Saul that I may show mercy to him
for Jonathan's sake? And one of his servants said,
yes, there is one. There's a fellow down in the
house of Lodibar, the place of no pasture, no bread. And he's
a crippled fellow. Both his feet are crippled. He's
lame as a result of a fall, he preaches. Here comes the sermon.
He's lame as a result of a fall. When the soldiers came in, they
picked him up in a hurry. He's Jonathan's son. And they
picked him up in a hurry and started to run with him and dropped
him and crushed both his legs. Both of them. And he's been down
there in the house of no pasture, living off the welfare of others.
He can't walk. He's a cripple. And that's Jonathan's
boy. And David, didn't invite him
to come up because he couldn't walk. David said to his servant,
go fetch him. That's an old southern word,
but that's what it is in here. Go fetch him. Go fetch him. Fetching grace. And the servant,
Holy Spirit did this for you and me. He went down there where
he was. This boy wasn't looking for David
because it was customary for the incoming king to kill everybody
that was relative to the old king. He wasn't looking for David.
He's down there hiding. in his poverty and lameness and
filth. And the servant of David went
down and bashed him and said, David is sinning for you. And
he carried that boy on a horse or a carriage or something and
took him up there to Jerusalem and brought him smack dab into
the palace. Brought him right in and set
him down on the floor. In front of that awesome assembly.
Now you think about that. Woo! I bet Mephibosheth was trembling
from his lame legs to the top of his unshaven head. Scared
to death. And David sat there on the throne,
and brother I tell you, his daddy tried to throw David off that
throne. And he knew about it. His daddy tried to kill David. And my daddy tried to throw God
off his throne. and did nail him to a cross. And he sat him there, and he
said, Mephibosheth! Son, I'm going to make you one
of the king's sons. I'm going to set you at the table.
You're going to eat at the king's table from now. From now, what's
mine is yours. And Mephibosheth said, O matchless,
sovereign David, Who am I that you should show such mercy to
such a dead dog? And David said, I'm doing this
for Jonathan's sake. I'm doing it for the sake of
him whom I love, not for your sake. You're just getting grace, boy.
You're not getting what you deserve. You're getting grace for Jonathan's
sake. And let me tell you, my Lord
is going to bring me. And He's going to bring me before
the presence. You talk about David's throne
ain't nothing. David's throne's like you folks, Logan, excuse
this, Mud Fork, compared to the Grand Canyon, compared to the
Lord's throne. But He's going to take me where
the light is the brightest, where the glory is the grandest. He's going to take me where even
cherubims have to cover their eyes. He's going to take me where
even the seraphims have to cover their ears. He's going to take
me smack into the presence of His infinite glory. He's going to take me and He's
going to present me. He's going to call my name. I present to you the one you gave me from before
the foundation of the world, and made me his surety. And I went into the world and
did for him what he couldn't do, but what you required. And
here he is. Here he is. And he's going to
present me how? Not just forgiven, that ain't
enough. Not just pardon, that's not enough. Because you see,
I couldn't get into God's presence if all I had was a pardon, see,
so I got to have a holiness. I couldn't last in that awesome
place where a speck of sin couldn't survive. Not one bit of flesh
or one thought of evil. I can't tell you just how pure
I'm going to be, but I'm trying. I couldn't survive. If Christ brought me into His
presence, the presence of His glory, I'm not talking about
some cabin in the corner of glory. Why don't you quit singing that
mess? It's a mess, that's all it is. I'm talking about the
presence of His glory! He's going to present me! Faultless! No fault in my past, no fault
in my present, no fault in my future! Now, fasting twice a week won't
get that. You want to talk about your holiness?
Well, I pray every morning at 6.30. And I lay my glasses on
my Bible so it'll look real holy, and then I kneel over here. That
won't get you into that presence. I'm not making fun. Yes, I am.
I'm making fun of all this pious hypocrisy. I'm trying to turn
your attention on something that has to be done. Jesus Christ
has to make us faultless. And that can only be through
His righteousness and His obedience and His prayer and His holiness
and His faith. I live by the faith of the Son
of God, not my faith. And so, He's going to present
me faultless. He never stops short of perfection
in what He does. If God in Christ saves your soul,
you're as holy as Christ, or you'll never get in His presence.
And let me tell you another word here. He says, Now unto Him,
not only is He able to keep you from falling, but to present
you, to present you faultless, clothed in His righteousness
and holiness before His glory. But for the glory of His presence,
the presence of His glory, His infinite glory, His unspeakable
glory, His bright and spotless glory, His eternal glory, you
thoughtless, and He's not going to sneak you in, He's going to
do it with exceeding joy. Exceeding joy. I'll tell you
this, I got a lot of joy over the fact that Christ loved
me and died for me and makes me joyful. And I know that you
are glad that God's been merciful to me. But you know who's the
happiest and who has the most joy? Him who redeemed me. Because he's going to present
me with exceeding joy. There's going to be a lot of
joy on my part, but there's joy in the presence of the angels
over one sinner that repented. Let me ask you this. When the prodigal son came home, when he came home, who was the
happiest? They say he was. I don't believe
that. I think he's awful happy. He had some shoes on for the
first time in a long time. He had something to eat for the
first time in a long time. He got a bath for the first time
in a long time. He felt clean. When you say his
neighbors, well, I think they're happy, but you know who the father
Rejoice with me! Rejoice with me, with exceeding
joy! Come and sing!" My son's come
home. Oh, I can't hardly wait. How
about you? I can hardly wait. Salvation is of the Lord. I think
one of the greatest sermons Mr. Spurgeon ever preached, Jonah
2.9. I think it's in in the third
or fourth volume of the New Park Straight pulpit. It ought to
be read by every preacher. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
of the Lord in His planning. It's of the Lord in His execution.
It's of the Lord in His application. It's of the Lord in His sustaining
power. And it's of the Lord in His ultimate
perfection. He will keep you, and He's going
to present you. all this before the presence of His glory. And He's not going to sneak us
in. He's going to do it with joy. There are going to be some
brass bands playing, and He's going to put us on display as
trophies of His grace to show off the riches of His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. And I'll tell you this, if you don't learn to give Him
the glory here, all of it, I just don't believe you'd be comfortable
up there with those people that have given him all the glory.
I don't believe you are. If you can't put all the crowns on his
head and at his feet, now, right now, you can't do it unashamedly,
uncompromisingly, whatever the cost. Found him Lord of all,
Lord of creation, Lord of providence, and Lord of salvation. I just
don't believe you'll be able to sing that song, because those
who sing it there learned it here. I preach too long, but if you
give me four minutes, I'll tell you a story. I believe you'd
like it. I kind of got you where I want you in here. Like the fellow that spoke to
the prison, he said, I'm glad to see so many of you here, Brother Barnard said, I don't know if he made this
up, but nevertheless it's good. Said he dreamed he died, and
he went to heaven. And he said he was taking that
last walk, you know, to that great, glorious, and beautiful
place. And he said he heard singing, whoo, like he'd never heard before.
It wasn't a sire note, or a blue note, or an off note, it was
just perfect singing. The most beautiful singing that
he ever heard in all his life. And he said he kept getting closer
and he saw a choir. Everybody was in the choir. It
wasn't nobody in the congregation. It was all singing praises to
the Lord. All in the choir. Everybody was in the choir. They
were worthy as the Lamb. They were singing the Psalm of
Moses and the Lamb. Glorifying Christ. He said, oh, whoo, thrilled
him to death, just thrilled him to death. And he said, if I could
just sing with them, I'd just give anything to sing with them.
Oh, I'd love to sing with them. And he said he kept looking,
he saw a seat way up there on about the 794th row, about 714
in from the right. He said he saw one empty seat,
just one. And he said he made his way up
there, Jack. Climbed up those steps and walked all the way
across there. And when he got to that seat,
there his name was right on the back of it. Rothbardy. He said, it was reserved for
me. Plenty of room in heaven but no empty seats. You believe
that? I know he's talking about it.
He sat there. And he said, I picked up that song and sang it right
along with him without missing a note. Because he said, I'd
been singing that song all my life while I preached. I'd been
singing that song, Worthy is the Lamb. And he said, I just
took up there where I left off here. If there's a seat up there
with your name on it, I'll tell you who wrote that name on that
seat. And I'll tell you who bought your ticket to sit there. Huh? And I'll tell you who you're
going to praise when you get there and sit down. The Lord
Jesus Christ, now unto Him, is able to keep you from falling.
I hope this lives for you like it lives in my heart tonight,
and to present you. You, that's right, you. You. You may feel like the most insignificant,
unworthy, and that's the kind He presents. That's the kind. You. Because you know, if Ed
Ballard took you to Heaven, he'd get all the glory, wouldn't he?
Ain't no way you'd make it by yourself. You're in the same
company as Jay Wembley. Ain't no way. He'll get all the glory, I guarantee
you. But that's the way it's supposed to be. Our Father, we
thank you for your grace. We thank you for your mercy.
Mercy. It's mercy to me. Pure, undeserved,
unmerited mercy. I know it. You have taught it
to me, and I thank you. And if by your grace you are
pleased to keep me from falling, and by your grace my Lord Jesus
presents me before the presence of your glory, I will forever sing the song,
Worthy is the Lamb, all glory and Praise and honor and dominion
and power both now and ever belong to Him. Amen.