Let me just sincerely thank everyone
again for everything that you've done to bring this conference
about, this meeting. It's been a great honor. I feel
like it's an undeserved honor and privilege. Thank you, everyone,
that has done all that you've done. I understand something
about what it takes to put these together, especially your pastor
and his wife. And sometimes preaching is difficult,
but presiding and overseeing these things is At
any rate, I thank you, and to everyone that played the hymns
skillfully, thank you. I enjoyed that so much, the special
music, the singing. Thank you, David. I love that
song. And the food that's prepared,
and just thank you, thank you, thank you. I often, if I go somewhere
I haven't been very many times and people have heard that mayhem
is going to preach, I apologize if you're expecting a different
mayhem. Charles Spurgeon's grandfather
was a preacher, pastor of a church for 50 years. And Spurgeon, his
grandson, was to preach for him one time in his church. And he
was late getting there, so his grandfather, James Spurgeon,
started preaching from a text. And he then walked Charles, late. And James Spurgeon, his grandfather,
said, well, there's my grandson. He said, he may be a better preacher
than me, but he doesn't have a better message. And I say the
same thing. My father may be a better preacher.
He doesn't have a better gospel than I do. And you know that
Spurge and Charles got up and started preaching from the very
text that James did. Because we have the same message,
don't we? One message. Thank you, pastor, for that word
this morning from Psalm 23. I know I have not heard those
names preached from that. That was wonderful. Whenever
it's about Christ, that's his name. And wonderful, wonderful. That was good. That's a blessing.
And you're blessed. I was so blessed to have not
only a faithful preacher, but a good one. A lot of bad preachers
out there. But you got a good one, a faithful
one. Amen. Revelation chapter 1. Go with me to the book of Revelation. As announced, we looked at something
that Isaiah said of the Lord Jesus Christ and then what Christ
said of him. And here in the very last book
of God's word is what God the Father gave to say of his son. Read with me verses one through
three. The revelation of Jesus Christ. which God gave unto him
to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel, his messenger, unto his servant John. John,
who bare record of the word of God, of the testimony of Jesus
Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed, blessed is he
that readeth. And they, blessed are they that
hear the words of this prophecy. And blessed are they that keep
those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. You may not realize it. Some
do, but most don't. How blessed we are to be here
today. How blessed you are to read this
Word, to have a copy of this Word. You know how many people
laid down their lives that we might have a copy of God's Word? How blessed we are to read God's
Word, doubly blessed to read it and hear it preached. like
the people in Nehemiah that we read last night. He said they
rejoiced and made great mirth because they understood the words
that were read. The men stood up and gave the
sense of the reading. They gave the meaning. They declared
it. How blessed we are, aren't we? That we hear it read and
hear it preached. How blessed we are. And then
he says, oh, How blessed we are if we keep it. That means lay
hold of it. Embrace it. Hebrews 11 speaks
of those that embraced the truth as something that was their life. Embraced the words of life. You
know, many come and many go. Many read the scriptures and
it's nothing to them. Many come and hear it and it's
nothing to them. They go away unmoved, uncaring,
and don't come back. But some people, by the grace
of God, by the mercy of God, lay hold, by faith, of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His word, his truth, is life
to them. Not just a church servant, but
life. Charles Spurgeon wasn't the Prince
of Preachers, Jesus Christ was. And many heard him preach, and
they said, these are hard sayings, and they went away. We can't
hear this. He turned to his disciples, whom he had chosen, and he asked
them, will you also go away? And Simon said, on our behalf,
didn't he? He said, to whom? To whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of life. We hang our souls on what you
say. And so it is with all of God's
people. This gospel is life and Christ is our life, his word.
We must have his word like those sheep that feed upon those pasture.
We feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The title of this message, the
subject of this message is a blessed people, a blessed book from our
blessed Lord. How blessed we are. It begins
by saying this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, doesn't it?
And how blessed you are because I'm not saying anything new.
I'm telling you what men for years have been saying and what
your pastor has faithfully been teaching you. You know these
things. Like Paul said, I believe it was the Thessalonians, seeing
that you know these things. But I'm gonna tell you again,
How blessed we are that we know this is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It was the translators that wrote
the revelation of St. John the Divine. I believe the
translators put that at the top of the page. This is not the
revelation of John. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It's his revelation to John that
the angel or a messenger gave to John to preach to the people. This is the revelation it's called,
the revelation. Salvation is by revelation. We're
not indoctrinated into the kingdom of God, not educated into the
kingdom of God, we're born into the kingdom of God. Born by the
incorruptible Word of God, begotten of God, and the way he does that
is through the Word. And the Word is Jesus Christ.
He is the Word laid flat. He is the seed. He is the gospel. This is eternal life. He said
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom he sent. All right? And the only way we
may know God is if he reveals himself to us. You don't know
me unless I communicate to you and reveal myself to you. Neither
does any man know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the
Son will reveal him. Isn't that what the scripture
is saying? We don't know the mind of God, we don't know the
will of God, we don't know the purpose of God, we don't know
the truth of God, unless He reveals it to us. Paul said this, didn't
he, in Galatians. He said, when it pleased God.
When is a man or a woman saved? When is a young person saved?
When they get good and ready? No. When it pleases God. Paul said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son, not just to me, but in me. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The revelation of Jesus Christ. He must reveal Himself to us. And the Lord said through Isaiah,
He said, You have I chosen, speaking of His people. that you might
know me, that I am he. Most people don't. Most people
don't know who he is, don't know why he came, don't know what
he did, don't know who he did it for, don't know where he is
now, don't know who he is, but you do, some of you do, don't
you? Why? God revealed himself to you.
Oh my, what a blessing, what a blessing. And it pleased God
for the foolishness of preaching. He reveals himself through the
preaching of the word. The Lord even sent an angel to
John. John fell down at his feet to
worship him, didn't he? Because he appreciated what he
was so amazed with, marveled at all that the angel was showing
him, the messenger sent by God was showing him, and John fell
at his feet to worship him. We're not to worship angels.
This man's an angel. It just means messenger. That's
all it means, a messenger. Well, the angel said, don't worship
me. I'm just a messenger. I'm of
your brethren. Worship God. Worship God. But oh, we're so grateful, aren't
we, for the angels that he sends us, the messengers. But we're not to worship the
messenger. We're to worship the Lord himself. This is the revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave. Told you I was going to tell
you what God has said about His Son. The whole book is what God
says about His Son. You parents have albums, don't
you? Photo albums. Austin and Sarah
have shown us 1,332 since we've been here. Why? You love her, don't you? You
delight in her. So it is with the Father and
His Son. Everything. It renounced to the glory of
God's son. That's why he created everything.
This whole book is as it were, the Old Testament is as it were
a photo album. Pictures, types, symbols, shadows
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at my son. In Genesis, he's the light, he's
the life, he's the woman seed. In Exodus, he's the Passover
lamb. He's the bread from heaven. He's
the smitten rock. He's the water of life. You know
these things, don't you? You've heard these things, haven't
you? You know how few people have? So many people that, well, everyone
that when the Lord begins to reveal himself to them, especially
in the Old Testament types, when you see them for the first time,
don't you just rejoice? A woman is a Methodist and they
don't know anything. They don't even use a Bible.
That's a fact. And she came and she began to
listen. She was invited by someone. She
began to listen and she didn't like what she was hearing at
first. And she even said, I'm going to go home and prove him
wrong. I said, good. And she got her Bible out and
could not prove the truth wrong. But the Lord began to reveal
himself to her through the types and the shadows. And she heard
messages like Noah's Ark for the first time, that that Ark
is Jesus Christ. Oh, Daniel, she just rejoiced. Oh, she just beside herself.
She said, I never knew. Like a young, a man recently
told my son-in-law, who's a pastor in Tennessee, and he'd been sitting
under the Word for a long time, he said, and with big tears in
his eyes, he said, I never knew that this Bible was about Jesus
Christ. The whole Bible, now I do. Now I do. In Leviticus, he's
the great atonement. In Numbers, he's the brazen serpent.
And as I said, like Moses, Christ said, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. There's the gospel. John 3, 14. And the preacher is only so good
like that pole that Moses lifted up the serpent. He's no good.
He's dead wood, as it were, if he's not lifting up and declaring
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God demands it. Sinners need
it. He's the message in there. One look at him and you'll live. If God will give you that. He's
the message of this book, the revelation of Jesus Christ. In Deuteronomy, he's the city
of refuge. In Joshua, he's Joshua. Scarlet line. Oh, I could go
on and on with all of those. And you have, you've seen them,
I know. I'm your pastor. But verse two says here, that
John bear record of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus
Christ. Two things. God gave to him the
word and the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And John said, I testified of
all things that I saw. He saw, John. He testified. Faithful witness to testify of
all things that he saw. What did he testify of? Well,
look quickly at Revelation 19 with me. Most people think that
this book is just an apocalyptic book of future events and the
end times and so forth, don't they? They do. Most people think that. But it
begins by telling them, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
This is another gospel book, isn't it? He wrote 66 books,
and it didn't write, and it all tells of Christ, but it didn't
write 65 books on one subject and change the subject. This
is the last chapter. This is the crowning chapter
of it all, isn't it? Look at Revelation 19, and no
doubt there are prophecies in this book, but look at verse
10. He said, I fell at the feet of
the angel to worship him and he said unto me, see thou do
it not. I am thy fellow servant and of
thy brethren that have the testimony, the gospel of Jesus. Worship
God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To Him give all the prophets
witness. And John is testifying the same one. It hasn't changed. The message is the same. The
revelation of Jesus Christ. Do you know what the first words
in this Bible are? Go back to Revelation 1. Revelation
1. Look at verse Verse 8, look at verse 8. I am Alpha, this is Christ speaking,
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. You see that? What are the first words in the
Bible? In the beginning. Christ said, I'm the beginning.
All right, what are the last words in the Bible? It's Revelation
22, 22. You say, no, there's only 21
verses. No, there's 22. The last two
words are, the end. The end. He said, I'm the beginning
and I'm the end. He is the book. He is the word.
It's all about him. The revelation of Jesus Christ. John said, God gave this to his
angel. And who that angel is, is unimportant.
Who the messenger is, is unimportant. He's unimportant, but his message
is life or death. To show, go to verse two, verse
one, to show unto his servants. As said, God's people are chosen. God's people are elect in Christ
and God shows unto them all things as they're in Christ. And it
says here in verse 1, things which must shortly come to pass.
All things are written, and they must come to pass. Our Lord Jesus
Christ said that. He said, heaven and earth shall
pass away, but not one word of mine shall fail. The scripture
says that everything that is written concerning Christ must
come to pass. Didn't Christ say that when he
preached to those two disciples? on the road to Emmaus. It says,
beginning at the books of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms,
he expounded unto them things concerning himself. That's the
whole Old Testament. And then he said he revealed
himself to them and he told them, these are things that I've told
you before, things that must come to pass. Everything written
concerning me must be fulfilled. And they have been, they are
now, and they shall be in the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave his
word to give to his elect the testimony of Jesus Christ, the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All things testify of him. Look
at verse two. John said, I saw all things. I testify of all things that
I saw. What did John see? Well, he saw
many visions, and they're written throughout the Revelation. But
I'll tell you what he said in his epistle. He said in his epistle,
he said, that which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we've looked
upon and our hands have handled. What, John? The word of life. The Lord Jesus Christ. Peter
one time said to the Pharisees, he said, we can't help but speak
the things we've seen and heard. What did he speak? Jesus Christ. Why don't men preach Christ?
They haven't heard from him. They haven't seen him. We can't
help but speak the things we've seen and we've heard. John said
this in his gospel. He said, we beheld his glory. We saw him, we heard him, we
beheld his glory, and so we speak of him. And John said, all things
that I saw, all things. John said, I saw all things.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, they that are spiritual
discerneth all things, understand all things. I can tell you right
now, all the purpose, all the mind, all the will of God in
three words. Right now, I can sum it up, all
of the mind and will, the word, the purpose of God, eternity,
salvation, everything, eternal destiny, I can tell you in three
words, very quickly, all of that, all the counsel of God, three
words, Christ is all. Is that too simple? It's so simple that wise people
can't understand it. Pharisees can't understand it.
You do, don't you? You do. Christ is all the purpose of
God. Purpose of God. That's what Ephesians, you love
Ephesians, don't you? Turn there to Ephesians 1. It
says he's all the purpose of God. Look at it, Ephesians 1,
verses 9 and 10. You have it? If I begin to talk
fast, I'm sorry. I got a lot to say and not enough
time. One time, Brother David was preaching
with Donnie Bell. You've heard Brother Donnie,
and he gets to talking kind of fast. And David preached after
Donnie preached. And David said, well, you know
how slow he talks. He said, well, he said, we have
the same gospel. He said, but Donnie just tells
it faster than I do. So I'm just going to tell it
faster. And I got a plane to catch. But
look at it. Ephesians 1 verse 9 and 10. I
shouldn't have said that. That's flesh. That's all flesh.
Forget that. But verse 9, Christ is all the purpose of God, the
will of God. Verse 9, He's made known, you
see, revealed unto us. Who's that? The blessed of God,
the chosen of God. The mystery of His will. It's
a mystery to most. What's a mystery? Christ. According
to the good pleasure of His will, He's made known unto us that
which He purposed in Himself. What is it, Paul? That in a dispensation
of the fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, in heaven and on earth. It's in Him. I can sum up salvation
in two words. In Him. It's to be found in Him. By Him, done by Him. All things are in Christ. Creation, the creation of God.
Colossians says this. You know these scriptures. Oh,
how wonderful they are and how blessed we are to know them.
By Him, Christ, were all things created that are in heaven, that
are in earth, visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities,
power. All things were created by Him
and for Him. All of creation was created by
Him and for His glory. Psalm 19 says that God the heavens
declares glory, and in the heavens is set a tabernacle for what?
The sun. That is, God the Father said,
let's make a vast expanse that we might put this big sun in
the sky in which we live and move and have our being. Without
it, we'd all die. This is a representation of the
Son of God, who is life, who is light. That's why He made
this place. That's why He made the plant,
everything. It all redounds to His glory. The sun, the trees
clap their hands, the scripture said, to the Son of God. The
birds sing His praises. The clouds are the dust of His
feet. All things created by Him and for His glory. All creation
sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says, all fullness,
all the fullness of God. It pleased the Father that in
Him all fullness should dwell. All the fullness of God, the
essence of God, the character of God, the power of God, the
glory of God. Yes, Christ, all the fullness
of the Godhead in a man. Isn't that amazing? In a Godhead bodily. He's the
express image. God said of man in the beginning,
let us make man in our image. Image of God? God's a spirit.
He has an image. And it's Jesus Christ. He's very
God of very God. Though a man. That's a mystery.
Explain that, preacher. I can't. But we believe it, don't
we? All the fullness of God, all
the love, all the mercy, all the grace, all the salvation,
all the promises of God. God made precious promises, exceeding
great and precious promises, and they're all in Christ, and
they're all yay and amen to the glory of God by us. When God
says, believe on the Son, and you'll have everlasting life,
that's a promise, and you can believe God. He cannot lie. When
God says, look to my Son, when God says, I receive all that
come unto me by hand, that's a promise of God, and He can't
lie. They're all in Christ. Look to Christ. Go to Him. Believe
Him. Trust Him. Cast all your care
on Him. And you'll be eternally saved.
That's a promise of God. All the promises of God are yes,
yay, yay. That's the way it's written in
it. Yay. When do you say yay? Last night, Austin, because his
team beat my team from Kentucky, he was saying yay. Well, all
the promises of God are in him are yay! Boy, a sinner ought
to be shout for gratitude and glory. Yay! Yay! Our God is merciful. Yay! Yay
and amen. Amen. Don't you love that word?
I love to hear it. I love to say it. I love to hear
people saying it. Let the amen sound from his people
again. You know what that means? So
be it. That's the way it is. All the wisdom of God. In Him
dwelleth all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Aren't
they? All the wisdom of God. People, if Christ is all the
wisdom of God, all the knowledge of God, whatever people may know,
if they don't know Him, they don't know anything at all. Do
you hear me? That's what God said. Professing
themselves to be wise, they become fools. If they don't know God,
the fool hath said there's no God. The fool hath said that's
just a man named Jesus and we can take or leave anything he
said. No, you can't. What he said are the words of
God. You can't take it or leave it. Can't be indifferent to it. Must bow to what he said. You
must believe what he said. Or everlastingly perish. That's
what he said. If you believe not that I am
He, you'll die in your sins. That's what He said. Can't take
this or leave it. Every knee will bow. I'm so sick of these athletes
today protesting the American flag. I'm sick of it. You know what that red stands
for on that flag? Blood. My brother laid down his
life for the freedom of this country. That's what that red stands for. And what you're doing, what they're
doing is dishonoring my brother. They don't have a right, really.
The very blood he shed ensured the freedom for them to whatever
they're doing, protest. But you're not protesting against
the government. You're dishonoring those that laid their lives down.
Do you understand me? Consider the divine irony here,
irony of God. That they tell people to stand
during the Pledge of Allegiance or whatever, and they won't,
they refuse, and they'll bow their knee. And God says, bow
the knee to my son. And men refuse, and they stand. Well, Glenn, I'm here to tell
you that God says every knee will bow. And every tongue confess. Confess
him. Ain't gonna do it. Not interested. Well, you will.
You will. Why? He shed his blood. To this end, Christ both lived
and died and rose again that he might be Lord. He's everyone's
Lord. You don't make him Lord. God
made him your Lord. And he can do with us what he
pleases. And here is the fear of the Lord.
Here is salvation. When God reveals to himself,
his son, to you himself, his son, Lord of the universe, and
you see Him and you fear Him and you bow at His feet, Brother
Jim, and you call on Him for mercy. When God makes you willing
to bow your knee, that's salvation. Every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess, unwillingly, made to do so. But God in mercy
and love and grace reveals His blessed Son to some now. And
they willingly, by the grace of God, bow their knee. Yes,
I'll bow my knee. The Son of God is worthy. Why?
His blood. The flag we fly is the flag of
His blood and the banner that Christ shed His blood. It's all
the wisdom of God. If Christ is all, everyone else
is nothing at all. All human beings think there's
something. Billions of worms. I bought a
bunch of worms one time. I paid good money for a bunch
of worms. 2,000 red wiggler worms. You say, are you a fool? Well,
I bought them. I heard they were good for the
garden and all that. Have you ever seen 2,000 worms? It's despicable. I got them out of this sack and
got them out. And they were just writhing and
wriggling all over. Just a ball of worms. And you
know what worms love? Dirt. They hate light, eat dead
things. That's man. If we could look
on mankind as God sees it, that's the way we would see it. Writhing,
wriggling worms. But God chooses some worms. I
got to tell a little bit more of this. This video is great. I bought, I paid good money for
worms. Why would you do that? They're everywhere. Why would
you pay money for worms? Well, I did for my use. My garden to bear fruit. Oh,
the price that God paid for worms. His son. Why? That they might
bear fruit to his glory. Well, I made him a house. I made
him a house. I made him a dwelling place.
I fed him. I lost him the first night. I got up in the middle of the
night to go check on him. Brother, it may be funny, but
Psalm 2 says, what is bad? Psalm 8, what is man that thou
art mindful of him? I go and visit him. What is he?
A worm. And Psalm 22 says Christ became
a Word. Behold what manner of love, what
grace, what mercy, what glory. If Christ is all, everyone else
is nothing at all. If you ever see Him, who He is,
you'll think of yourself as nothing, nothing. And whatever you have
done, whatever you have accomplished, He gave it to you. What do we
have we have not received? If we've received it, why, how
should we glory as if we had not received it? That's why pride
is the most odious and detestable thing of all to God. God has
determined it, determined it, scripture says, Isaiah, to destroy
the pride of man. Why? Because everything man has,
he gave it to him. And what does he require of us?
Thanks, praise. If Christ is all, all the treasures,
if we don't have Christ, we don't have anything at all, do we?
We have vanity, we have nothing, dead things. If Christ is all,
if he's life, if we don't have the son, we don't have life. He's all the wisdom of God, knowledge
of God. You ever thought about this?
In God's providence, amazing providence, he has men do this
and that and the other. Like the sun, in the English
language, it's no coincidence that one of the, if not the most
widely spoken language on earth, calls that, the thing that sustains
life, the sun. That's the sun, the son of God. God said, oh, every tongue is
going to be forced to say that, the son, the son. But somewhere
at some time, someone designated the owl as wise, didn't he? Call it the wise owl, the wise
old owl. I don't know. I guess at nighttime,
he can see everything. He's got big eyes and he doesn't
say much. But I'll tell you why. I'll tell
you, God had men do that. Why? Because he's wise, because
if you ask him any question, he'll give one answer. What's
the meaning of life, Mr. Al? Who? Not what. Who? What is truth? Who? What about salvation? What can
I do to be saved? Who? Am I being too simple? He is a wise person, wise unto
salvation, that knows that everything, all things are in Christ. It's
not what, not what I must do, not what I must know, it's who.
Who must do for me? Who must know me? Who must save
me? Salvation is in Christ. All things,
all things. Christ is all. Look at this,
back in our text, Revelation 1. I'll close. It said in verse three, blessed
is he that readeth the day that hear the words of this prophecy
and keep those things. Do you know what all people are
hearing today in so-called churches all over the land? Oh my. Some
of you are a part of all that. Is it not a blessing to come? Oh my. They hear the words and
lay hold of it. The time is at hand. That's what
he said. It was Baxter, I believe, that
said, I preach as one that may never preach again. As a dying man to dying man.
Now that's a fact. I've preached several messages
to people that were the last message they ever heard. Boy, that makes us... Oh boy. And it's even doubly
more responsible for the preacher. What's going to be the last message
that I bring? What do I tell people? My parting
word. Christ is all. The time is at
hand. All of our times are at hand.
Do you hear me? That's what he said. That's not
what I said. The time is at hand, our time. David wrote, my times
are in thy hands. And we sing that song, oh my
God, I wish them there. I'm glad they're there. In our
time, as your pastor said a moment ago, death is not the end for
God's people, it's the beginning. Death is a passing over to the
other side. Death is entrance into eternal
glory. How do we know that there's life
after death? Who? How do we know this is true? How do we know that death is
not the end? Because Christ died. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ died. Sin, the wages of sin is death,
but Christ bore that penalty, as he said. Christ bore that
price for his people, not all people, but his people. And whoever
Christ died for, there is no judgment, there is no condemnation,
there's no hell to fade, only eternal life and happiness and
joy and peace with God the Father. Because Christ died. He shed
his blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. And Christ shed his blood as
a payment in full for all the sins of all of God's people.
God is satisfied. He accepts that sacrifice, fully
accepts it on behalf of his people. And Christ died to show us, to
tell us that it's not the end, it's just the beginning. He went into the grave, they
saw him, and those three days he was gone were the worst days
of their life. The most sorrowful days of their
life, weren't they? They thought everything was over.
I'm sure none of them slept at all, and they wept until they
could weep no more. You know they did. He was everything
to them. He was their father. He was their
husband. He was their friend. He was their provider. He was
their captain. He was their protection. He was everything to them. But
bless God, three days later, he came out. He said, I told
you. And he said this, blessed promise,
he said all the promises of God are fulfilled and in him are
yay and amen to the glory of God by us and they're wonderful
promises. Christ said I go to prepare a
place for you and if I go, if I do this work for you on Calvary's
tree, if I die for you, you'll never die. I will come again
to receive you unto myself that where I am you may be also. That's
what he's saying, I'm coming for you. If you promised your daughter
that, and she's waiting on you, and you had the power to do it,
would you do it? Hell or high water couldn't keep you from
it. And Christ said, our time is at hand. He takes one at a
time. We don't want Him to, but He
does. They're His. He gave them to
us, and He takes what belonged to Him. But He's coming for us
soon. Our time is short. Time is at
hand. That's why I said redeem the
time. What we're doing right now is redeeming the time. Buying
the truth. The truth as it is in Christ.
He that knows Christ has life. He'll never die. Oh, if he'd just peel back this
veil of tears and veil of flesh we'd see glory. Spurgeon said,
we fear that thing which is the best thing that's going to happen
to us. Oh death, where is thy sting?
Oh grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God that giveth
us the victory through Christ our Lord. Christ came back and
he said, nothing to fear, everything to look forward to. Here are
times at hand, my times. Our days are numbered, our months
are with the Lord. They're determined. And for the loaves we love, they're
not when we would want them, but they're when God says them,
when God purposed them. And he takes them, but we're
right behind them. If you're in Christ, you're right behind
them. It's going to be like that, a moment of twinkling of an eye.
Brother Scott Richardson was no stranger to trial. Old coal miner, eighth grade
education. He was raised in an attic room,
not unwanted by his parents. Worked in the coal mines of West
Virginia for years. God made a preacher out of him.
Oh, what a preacher he was. And the wisdom the Lord gave
that man, if you'd read an article about him, you'd think it's some
scholar somewhere. But he's no stranger to trials
and troubles. And he lost his first child,
a girl. She's three years old. Somebody
in here knows something about that. And then his sons, a couple of
them ended up breaking his heart. One ended up in prison. He lost his wife. Some of you know something about
that. And he lost his health, got cancer. He had two ostomies,
colonoscopy and an ileostomy, two hanging from his eye. And he said, if you knew what God knows, you
would order your life Exactly like he ordered it. You wouldn't
change a thing. We don't know have to know what
God's doing and we don't quite understand it, but he does. And
it's all good for His people. Those that are in Christ, it's
all good. For God worketh together all
things for good to them that love Him, who are called according
to His purpose. And that purpose is all in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is all. Look to Him and
be ye saved by all the ends of the earth. May the Lord bless
you and bless His Word. Amen. I want to.