the day Claudia and I got married.
It'll be, well, it's already been 62 years and it just, just
hang in there, it gets better. It does. It really does. Well, David said there's so much
I could say or he could say. I'm glad he didn't say it because
I'd have to live up to some, you know. Y'all already ruined
me. You've been playing these guitars. People at Kitchens Creek,
y'all thought I could play the guitar. Now you know that I can't.
I can't play the guitar. You know, I want to tell you
something this morning. I'm not going to take you down
memory lane. I'm going to bring you up. 45 years. I woke up at 1 o'clock
this morning. I was thinking about that 45
years. All that's taken place here at
Lincolnwood Baptist Church in those last 45 years. It goes
back a whole lot further than that. But I thought when David
and I met David, and we got married, and I met Pat after that, she
didn't come to the wedding. I don't blame you. There's a
rumor out that somebody, we hadn't quite figured out who said it,
but somebody said, we think Claudia's made a big mistake. One of these
days, I guess in glory, we'll find out who made that remark.
But, you know, I can remember going to their house. David was
in the Air Force. They came back to Houston. They
started this church out in Pasadena. invited the old sorry brother-in-law
to go to church with him, and Pat fixed lunch. And she's still
doing it. All these years later, and I'm
not gonna ask for a show of hands, but I imagine most of you have
enjoyed that meal with Pat. Thank you, Pat. Do you know,
I was just thinking about, you know, as the years have gone
by, I can remember preaching in the den of their house over
on Wheat. That's the first place I can remember the church meeting.
Did you meet him before that? Yeah, at the school. Well, I
remember us going to school. I preached there at the school
once. Then he redid the garage, and that became the meeting place.
You know, over the years, this guy, he's a worker. And
anything that I, you said yesterday you'd like me to tell the story
because I embellished them. If I embellish, oh, he's still
got a while. He can straighten it all out.
But David, he used to have a CDL. When I met David, when they first
came back, he was working for Coca-Cola, had a Coca-Cola route.
And then he went to work for Red Ball Motor Freight. But then
he let his CDL go. And when they got this piece
of property, David got his commercial driver's license back for the
Fred Evans. Had a dump truck. He loaned it
to David, and David hauled dirt in here where this building's
sitting. I guess he got it out of a bowel somewhere they was
cleaning out. That's the way we always did it back then, clean out a
bowel. And they didn't want to stack the dirt up, so they'd
give it away to you if you'd haul it off. And it just started
like that. And David, when they started
building this building here, I don't know the chronological
order of things, We, Claudia and I, would come in from Mexico
with the boys every summer. We had to leave Mexico every
six months, renew our visas. One time, we would go down to
Guatemala, Central America, and renew our visas. And then the
next time, we'd come in in the summertime to the States. And I'd come in. I'd catch up. And I'd ride around with David.
And later on, we got to eating squash soup at Luby's together.
But we went to a place of business, I don't know why, but we went
there, David had been over it two or three times, and a man
shook hands with us, and he said, you know that preacher, he said,
I've never shaken a preacher's hand that had such hard calloused
hands as this man has, this preacher has. Well, I got to thinking
about mine, you know. Somewhere or another, I wore
out the fingerprints because the Department of Justice started
my fingerprints. It took them six tries. I have
no fingerprints left. When they got the master in there,
she said, were you a bricklayer? I said, no. But anyway, they're
gone. They're gone. But you know, David, he always
had big hands. Mine were kind of like lady fingers.
compared to David's hand, but he worked. I think about, you
know, he didn't do it all, but this building that we're in,
you know, it wasn't a turnkey building. Mike, I don't know
where you are, Pat, Mike, but their brother, Timmy, he was
a steel worker. I remember he helped on his end,
but the men got together and they built this building. built
outside, inside, electrical, HVAC. Charlie, you may have been
with Pete Byers in some of that. I don't know. But the plumbing,
it was all done. They did it. Mike Savelle and
I, I remember back where the Sunday school rooms are, that's
the fellowship. It was a fellowship hall. And
I helped Mike start laying the linoleum tile down in that room
on the floor. I thought it was the craziest
thing I ever saw. I said, why are you starting
in the middle of the room? He had it all laid out, lines
laid out, this is where we start. I thought, you start on the side.
No, you start in the middle and work out. Well, anyway. These
men knew things I'd never heard of before. But the building was
built. And then they started on the
parking lot out here. Now, some of you remember some of this.
But as they got money together, if you ever wonder why there's
squares out here in this parking lot, it's because they got money
to lay a square. They'd build a farm, put the
steel in. Get the cement mixer over here
and start mixing cement and pour a section of the parking lot.
They got money together, they'd do another section. I remember
you got a couple of bad places out there. You showed them to
me. David said, I don't know if we got too much water in that cement
or not, but it kind of flaked off on the top. I'm just telling
you, I saw it, like I said, once a year. I saw it in leaps and
bounds. It was a lot of work all this
time. Those that could work, those
that couldn't, they supported the work. That's what I know. That's what I know about it.
But as this building was built, I remember Brother Murray and
David and I, pews were stored back here in the back. And we
moved those pews up here into this building. and then started
meeting in it. And by then, Claudia and I were
members of this church. And then came time to start that
back building. I remember David, Johnny, Steven,
Nathan. I can still see them out there.
Why didn't they start in the summertime? Scraping that grass off of that
dirt. And then the inspector, he wouldn't
allow one sprig of grass underneath that slab. I never could figure
that out either. But to get that done. And I left town. I went back
to Mexico. I wouldn't have to work so hard. But all this done,
Fred, I can still see him getting everything ready to do all that
plumbing back there. And the building was built. I noticed these boys bored. That
word was not in their vocabulary. That's these newfangled kids
that have bored in their, We always tell my grandkids and
it's good to have Andrew and Jody and Isabella here. I told these grandkids, I said,
don't use that word bored because we can fix bored real quickly,
you know. But you know, just I just think
of the television broadcast. I don't know how many years.
the gospel was preached here in the Houston area. And you
know, you remember that the church even had me preaching in the
name of the church in Spanish to this area. My, what a, you
know, when they figured then that it was six million people
that, you know, potentially reached, you know, I thought it just reaches
six. That's pretty good, you know. These things, they're just going
on, and the gospel is still preached here. David hadn't quit. I call him, David's two years
older than I am, if not more than that, but anyway, at least
two years older than me. And I call him and I said, well,
what you got going today? Oh, he said, I'm kind of just
reading today. I worked myself to death yesterday.
I cleaned all that brush off that fence line. Well, I know
that fence line. Let's see where we are over here.
Man, there's briars all over there. They'd eat you alive.
And he'd been out there cleaning briars. But it's just constant
work. And you men know you have constantly
worked here. for all of these years, as you
said, 45 years now. And there's still work to be
done. And like you said, start all
over again. Start all over again. V. GENE
MCKOWN, JR.: : I've got to correct you now. I was working out there,
but I didn't. I hope I didn't make you think
that I did all that work. But that particular day, I think
he did. There's a lot of men here calling
me a liar. Yeah. Oh, there was no intent
to think he did it all by himself. The whole congregation. It's
always been like that. What I say, it's always been
like that. And I pray the Lord will continue to bless whatever
time he gives us as we continue. the gospel will still be preached
here. I invite you to turn again to Hebrews chapter nine with
me. I like that passage of scripture
David read a while ago. I like those therefores. Whenever
you find a therefore or wherefore in the scriptures, find out what
it's there for. There's always a good reason why it's there. Paul uses one similar to that
here in the first verse of chapter nine when he says, then, then
truly. You know, Brother Todd Nyberg
told me he preached through the scriptures on that word verily.
That'd take a long time, truly, no doubt, when he said verily,
verily, verily. But the apostle Paul said, verily,
the first covenant had also ordinances, a divine service, and a worldly
sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made.
The first wherein was a candlestick, the table, the showbread, which
is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called holiest of all. which had the golden
censer and ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold,
wherein was the golden pot that had manna and Aaron's rod that
budded, and the tables of the covenant. And over it were the
cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot
now speak particularly. Now, when these things were thus
ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accompanying
the service of God, the priest, Those Levites, they went into
that first one, took care of the service there, but into the
second went the high priest alone, once every year, not without
blood. which he offered for himself
and for the heirs of the people. The Holy Ghost, this signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a
figure for the time then present and which were offered gifts
and sacrifices and could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience. which stood only
in meats and drinks and divers washings, carnal ordinances imposed
on them until the time of the Reformation. But Christ, being
come and high priest of good things to come by greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, speaking of
his body, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, But by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For the blood of bulls, and of
goats, and of ashes, and of heifers, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purged your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. And for this cause, he's the
mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
They which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Now under that first covenant,
the Lord was set forth to the people as dwelling apart, apart
from the people. He dwelled within that veil,
that thick curtain that hung before the most holy place that
concealed the light which symbolized the presence of God. None were
permitted to enter into that holiest of all except one man,
and he only once a year on that Day of Atonement. As I said,
Friday night, Yom Kippur, which was celebrated from Friday this
past Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon. Yom Kippur,
the Day of Atonement. None were permitted in. Now the
teaching there was that the Lord God is hidden from men. Why? Sin has made a division between
us and God. There's no way. The way to come
to God is not manifest. It has not been shown. It was
pictured. It was prophesied. It was promised. But it had not
been shown. Christ had not appeared. The
Lamb of God had not come in the flesh. Wasn't manifest yet. But a hint was given. Oh, it
was given that a way would be manifested, because the separation
was not made by a piece of brickwork. It was a veil. That gave them
hope, which once in the year was lifted, and that high priest
went in. It showed how sinful man would
one day be permitted to draw near to the most holy God through
the Christ of God. Oh, there was hope for us. There
was hope for us, and it was pictured there. All those other days,
ever how many there were, 353, 54, 55, all the way up to 61,
I think it was, they were kept out. That's what it said, keep
out. Keep out. One day of the year,
access was permitted. Those high priests of old, that
holy place, that most holy place, they were just patterns of things
in the heavens as he tells us here in verse 23. Not the things
themselves, they were instructive types and symbols, nothing more. But Christ, verse 11, being common
high priest of good things to come, by greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. And oh, what a blessed word that
is there, but, but Christ, but Christ. For up to this point,
it all dealt with externals. eats, drinks, washes, ordinances,
ceremonies, and the priesthood could only offer the blood of
bulls and goats. But the coming of the Messiah
changed all this. That's the reason John stood
there and he said, there he is! Behold the Lamb of God. the one they waited for, that
one promised, that one prophesied, that one pictured, there he is,
right there. He was manifested. Oh, he changed
all this. He's passed from shadow to substance. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Christ being come, that's what
they looked for. That's what they waited for.
You know, some trusted the ceremony. But read Hebrews chapter 11. What does it say about them?
They died in faith. Look at the list. They died in
faith. They looked to the Lord Jesus
Christ waiting for that Messiah to come as the fulfillment of
all of this. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And that destroys
the veil that separates us from God. He's coming high priest
of good things to come. Things. Things which in the olden
times were things to come. But things today are things present. They're here. For he's brought
to light the precious things of this covenant. God himself
has come among men in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
Emmanuel, God with us. Born in Bethlehem, lived in Nazareth,
died on Calvary. Now he's going up on high because
the work's done. He finished that work and he
sat down on the right hand of God. Now look at this high priest
standing outside that veil. The place of sinful men. The
place where the Lord Jesus Christ stood. offering his sacrifice
without the veil, suffering by being forsaken of God. My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That high priest, he couldn't
go in. He couldn't go in, not without
the blood, not without the sacrifice. That veil blocking between him
and God until his great sacrifice was accepted. And after he'd
presented his sacrifice, After he'd been consumed with fire,
he passed within the veil and he rose to the throne of the
eternal God, where he's now seated, even at the right hand of God,
making intercession for us by his own blood, verse 12. By his
own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. How'd he do it? It wasn't by
the blood of goats and calves. but it was by his own blood. You know, in Leviticus 16, we
see that high priest once a year entering into that most holy
place, but never without the blood. Our Savior is God and
man in one person, standing in the sinner's place. Couldn't
enter in within the veil until first he had presented a sacrifice.
sacrifice presented by our Lord. It was His own blood, the blood
of a man, a man like us without spot or blemish. Just like that
animal that they would choose from among their flocks and they
would put it up for four days and Check that and we could not
have a spot or blemish. And then they would take it and
it would be sacrificed and they would take the blood and they'd
put it on the doorpost. And the scripture say, when the
Lord said, when I see the blood. I'll pass over you. Oh, the angel
said to Mary that the Holy Ghost shall come upon them and the
power of the high shall overshadow thee. Therefore, also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. Pure, holy. Counting it not robbery
to be equal with God, God and man in one person. And you say,
well, how can that be? I'm grateful the Lord didn't
call me to explain these things because I don't understand them.
I just proclaim it because the scripture said, oh, he's our
substitute. He offered himself without spot
to God. The penalty of death is sin and
all through the law, There is no atonement made except by the
death of a substitute. The Lord God of heaven never
accepted man. You know, even Isaac, Abraham
took him up. Well, it looked like God's gonna
accept a man. Built the altar, they laid the
wood on it, and he laid Isaac on it, took that knife, fixed
him to slay that sacrifice, and God stayed his hand. I said,
God wouldn't accept it. He won't accept us. He won't
accept anything we do, anything we are. It's through that substitute.
You know, there's some of us that remember Brother Charlie
Payne. Brother Charlie died a number
of years ago. After the funeral, his son-in-law
picked up Charlie's Bible and he got to thumbing through it. Couldn't believe it. He thumbed
one way and he thumbed back the other way and he's looking at
it. He found that Charlie had written on every page of his
Bible, substitute. Substitute. From Genesis 1-1
through Revelation 22-21. Substitute. That's our only hope. Don't ever forget that God won't
accept us except through that substitute. Behold the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world. And it wasn't by
the blood of goats and cows. It was His own blood. That's what made that sacrifice
so valuable. It was His blood. Think who he
was, think who that he is that offered that sacrifice, the son
of God. Gave himself up as a sacrifice. Oh my, what a recompense was
made before the justice of God. There was greater satisfaction
made to the law of God by that blood than if the worlds of guilty
ones were born or had borne its penalty. You know, as I told
you the night, think about that number of animals that were sacrificed
every day. I still can't wrap my mind around
it. 1.2 million animals a day were
sacrificed in Israel. The greatest industry in Israel,
the sustaining industry in Israel was the buying and selling of
sacrifices. 1.2 million, but you could take
all, and that wasn't all of Israel. I don't know, there were three
million that came out of Egypt. There was still three million
when they came across that desert, came out of that wilderness.
These sacrifices were offered every day, day in and day out. Couldn't do it, couldn't take.
But you take all the guilty sinners of this world and you slay every
one of them, still wouldn't satisfy God's justice. Oh, it took that
perfect sacrifice, that perfect substitute. It said in Leviticus
16, he shall make an atonement for the holy place. Why? Because of the uncleanness of
the children of Israel. Why won't God accept us? Because
of our uncleanness. Oh, we're sinners. Sinners. Because of the uncleanness of
the children of Israel and because of their transgressions in all
their sins. Transgressions in all their sins.
So their sin wasn't just a sin. There were transgressions upon
transgression involved in that sin. The Lord Jesus Christ has
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. When did he do it? One time, one time. Oh, the emphasis
is on that word once, not something that's done again in the future.
It's been accomplished, it's finished. For by one offering,
he said here in chapter 10, verse 14, one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are separated, sanctified, called of God. Here in verse 25, he tells us,
nor yet should he offer himself often as the high priest entereth
into the holy place every year with blood of others. For then
must he have suffered since the foundation of the world, but
now Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this to judgment. So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. There's not a repeated offering
of Christ to God. You know, when he entered into
that holy place, the veil of the temple was rent. the holiest
of all was laid open. Not just lifted, as I said the
other night, so that priest could pass under it. No, he made a
way, he made a way. There's no veil hanging there
now, we have access through the sun. What did he do it? Well,
it's necessary that the pattern of things in the heaven, he says
here in verse 23, should be purified with these, but the heavenly
things themselves with better sacrifices, better sacrifices
than these. The holy place, it wasn't defiled.
But had we gone there without an atonement being made, it would
have been. But He prepared a place for us.
He'd go there. He wouldn't go there if the heavenly
places hadn't been prepared for us. But He's gone there. He sprinkled His blood upon the
mercy seat. He made a way. For Christ has
not entered, verse 24, into the holy places made with hands,
figures of the true. But He's entered into heaven
itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And what was the glory of his entrance? Well, he said he obtained eternal
redemption for us. As I told you the other night,
that word for us, you know, it was added by the translators.
It can be left out. He did obtain eternal redemption,
and it was for us. You know, I brought a message
one time from Isaiah 53. Who are the us? Who are the we
in Isaiah 53? I don't know about who heard
it, but it sure blessed my heart. Who are we? Oh, he was wounded
for our, who are the our? Our transgressions. Oh, it covers
everyone that's in Christ. You know, when Aaron went in
with that blood of the bulls and the goats, he had not obtained
eternal redemption. It was just a symbolic, a temporary
purification. But our Lord enters in because
His work, it's all done. Having found eternal redemption. He found this eternal redemption
in Himself. And He couldn't have found it
anywhere else. He entered in within that veil.
He entered in as one who not only desired to give us redemption,
but as one who had obtained it for us. And we're today redeemed
from far off, our far off condition. Far off in reference to the Lord
God, we no longer stand outside the veil, delivered from guilt,
for He has washed our sins in His own blood. And what He's
done for us, it's eternal. Everything ever made, everything
ever done points to redemption through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, the eternal counsel
of God have always had an eye to that everlasting righteousness,
to the everlasting redemption of the everlasting son of the
father. Redemption's not, not something new. It's not a new
thought with God. It's, it's not plan B. Oh, I
just, I can't, I was talking about this the other night. That
sign over there on just the west side of Leesville, and that Baptist
church there, the sign said, I hadn't been there very long.
I rode by that sign, it says, when Adam and Eve caused a problem,
God came up with the solution. And plan B. The Lord God of heaven
has no plan B. He purposed all things from the
beginning. You know, everything he does
is on purpose. Everything. And he may say, you think God
put me here? I said, who do you think put you here? God put you. He never talked to me again.
But you know, it's the truth. He does it on purpose. Why'd
he do it? I don't know, but he did it on purpose. He has a reason. He has a purpose. You can't possibly
outlive the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ because it's
eternal. Neither can any temptation ever
remove you from it. There in Romans chapter 8, who's
he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. My, does
that mean anything to you? Who could condemn us? It's Christ
that died. that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. That's the reason Paul said,
he said in verse 28, as we saw yesterday, we know. A little bit further on in verse
38, he said, I am persuaded. I am persuaded, are you? Is that your hope? I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, what else can you think of? Nothing. Nor any other
creature, created thing, whatever, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus. Why?
Because it's Christ that died. It's Christ that died. As John
told us in Revelation 1, unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in his own blood. Unto him, he made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father, and to him be glory and dominion forever
and ever. He sang that hymn a while ago,
one of my favorite. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing. If we just use the one we got,
it's a good start, isn't it? Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of his grace. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to our hearts this morning. Thank you, David.