Gospel—David Mearns
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We had read to us, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Could we sing?
The first verse of #49 in the appendix. The first verse of #49 in the appendix. In the little hymn sheet that we sang from this morning and also last night, there's a little chorus. We'll sing that too. So 49 the appendix, just the first verse.
There is life and a look at the crucified one. There is life at this moment for him.
The Lord, the man love unto him, and he said unto him.
He was now in the middle of the street.
There is light down what kind of Christmas we find one.
There is life back in the morning.
We ask the Lord for His help.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus.
We thank thee for that Blessed One who was lifted up.
And we just would pray that if there is anyone here.
This afternoon.
That is a stranger to thy love and grace.
A seasonal beauty in that blessed One, our Lord Jesus.
That their hearts would be touched in the next few minutes and they might turn to thee. We just would ask this our God.
For thine honor, and for Thy glory, the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Just like to read a few verses in connection with umm.
With this, in my personal reading, I'm in John's Gospel and yesterday morning I read.
Half of the third chapter, and this morning I read the other half. So I'd like to read a couple of verses from each of my readings yesterday morning and this morning in John chapter 3.
John, Chapter 3.
And verse 14.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And then turned back to the Book of Numbers.
The Book of Numbers.
21St chapter.
And verse four, an attorney from Mount Horror by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom and the soul the people was much discouraged because of the way.
And the people speak against God and against Moses. Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? Is there no bread?
Neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread.
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee. I pray unto the Lord, that he may.
Pray unto the Lord, that he may take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pool, and shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live.
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, And it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
I don't know everyone here in the room.
This afternoon.
But perhaps there is someone here that is a stranger to the Lord Jesus. You do not know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
You know we read.
The apostle wrote to the Saints in Corinth, and he said, The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not.
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The Gospel.
I had an interesting thing happened a year ago this past February. There was a brother in our assembly that passed away just a few weeks ago. And at our fellowship tea in the month of February, I asked this older brother. There was a number of months where he wasn't able to come to meeting the last few months, but in the month of February is his last fellowship Lord's Day that he attended and I sat across the table from not a not a man that was a stranger to me. I knew him very well. When I first came to Rio Ferry, I lived in his home.
I boarded with Heena's wife and I sat there across the table from him.
And I said Ross.
When were you saved?
And he looked me in the eye and he said, David.
I was saved when I was 17 years old.
It was one month before my 18th birthday in 1939.
You got this far la far off look in his eye, he said. David.
A soul must realize that he or she is lost before they can be saved.
A soul must realize that they are lost before they are saved.
This afternoon at the end of these meetings.
Do you have a sense in your soul that you are lost?
You have a sense in your soul that you are lost.
You know, this morning our brother Paul was speaking about a quagmire of clay. As he thought of that, my mind went back a few weeks ago to when James and I were working on a job and it had been raining for a little while. We were trying to do an audition and we were just doing the excavation and it was clay and it was wet.
It was such that we had the backhoe in there and every scoop that the backhoe took up.
He couldn't shake the dirt out. There was nothing to hit onto. He he often you see a backhoe shaking the, the, the, the bucket to get rid of the dirt. And so James had to, with his shovel, get the dirt out of the out of the bucket. I just thought of that in connection with a soul, a Sinner that's in the quagmire of his sins. And perhaps there's someone here this afternoon and that's just where you are. But you don't know it. You don't know it.
Maybe if we start through these meetings, you are like these folks here that are so low that this light bread, this, these things that we're speaking about from the word of God, they're dry things. They're of no value to me.
You know what a marvelous thing to realize we've had before us in these meetings that blessed One, our Lord Jesus in so many aspects. To think of this portion we've read in the 12Th of John, the Lord Jesus saying, I, if I be lifted up, we'll draw all men unto me. To think of the Lord Jesus there on that cross of Calvary. To think of him bowing his head in death after those three hours of darkness where the question of my sins was dealt with forever. And to see that soldier take that spear and plunge it into the side of the dead Savior, and forthwith came thereof blood and water.
The Lord Jesus taken down from the cross, buried in a grave, and then and to see him rise again the third day.
Does that mean anything to you this afternoon? Is it nothing at all?
As we consider all that's been done for the soul.
It's something here in this portion. I just want to look at one verse in Numbers 21.
It said, And Moses made in verse nine. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and he put it upon a pole, And it came to pass if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
He lived.
We've just been singing. There's life in a look at the crucified one. There's life at this moment for thee.
It's astounding to think of the finished work of Christ, all available for the soul.
And all you have to do is your gaze from here to be lifted up. Think of these ones that were bitten by the serpent. All they had to do was lift their gaze and they were healed.
What about you this afternoon?
Where is your gaze? Where is your gaze this afternoon?
We've had much about the eyes in these meetings before the last.
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Meeting yesterday, we read in 123rd Psalm unto thee do I lift up my eyes?
Impressed with the many times we have those that lifted up their eyes in the word of God.
We won't turn to them, Gideon could say.
Look upon me as I do, so do ye.
Think of Jehoshaphat with a great company against them, he says. We have no might against this great company that's come against us, but our eyes are upon thee. It was a great victory.
To think of as we had last night of Lot's wife had her gaze this way. She changed her gaze and it went this way. She didn't lift her gaze up. Think of Moses and how it says after he slew the man, he looked to the left and he looked to the right. We don't find him looking up. He buried the man in the sand.
Where is your gaze tonight? The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not the Gospel. I told a story just and our reading meeting this past Thursday. I'm gonna tell it now. We had a very a bear story this morning. We're gonna have another one.
This evening some of us were canoeing just a week ago.
And with some young people. And while we're canoeing, umm, on the 2nd morning, uh, I got up where the boys were.
We're sleeping and I swam over to their island and I got up on the island and I asked one of the young men. I said, so how was your night? He said, oh, it's pretty good. I said, it's any bears. Well, you have one. It's interesting, I said. So what did you do? He said I poked his eyes out and then I killed him.
He was pulling my leg.
I told him a story of my brother-in-law.
Who is a farmer and was plowing the field and while he was plowing he he did a circuit around and he noticed that there was a pheasant sitting on some eggs.
And uh, he bypassed the pheasant and then did another circuit and on the next circuit around.
As he is approaching this pheasant that was sitting on eggs, he was watched a hawk come down.
So he jumped out of the tractor as fast as he could, and he made a beeline over towards the pheasant to try to scare off the hawk. But the hawk had landed, and just as quick as a flash, it had poked out both the eyes of the pheasant.
Which is what they do, and then he can kill the pheasant at its leisure.
What about your eyes this afternoon? Your eyes blinded.
If it's that way, it's the God of this world blinded your eyes.
So that you can't see any beauty in that finished work of Christ.
That one, our Lord Jesus who has done so much, who has done everything, God the Father giving his only Son for you and all available to you. And all you have to do is take your gaze from this poor sin, sick world and the quagmire of your sins and lift it and gaze at that blessed One, our Lord Jesus, and accept him as your Lord and Savior. Will you do that this afternoon right at the close of these meetings? Let's turn to 49 in the back again and we'll sing the last verse.
#49 in the back it's almost the same as the first verse, but the last line is different. Notice the last line of the first verse, The last two lines. Then look Sinner, look unto him, and be saved unto him who was nailed to the tree. But then look at the last verse. Then look Sinner, look unto him, and be saved, and know thyself.
Spotless as he.
Oh, what a thought to think.
Of us brought in into all the acceptance of the Lord Jesus himself by a look at the Savior.
About Need a confession of His name? Let's sing this last verse.
There is.
Life.
After it's gone and 48.
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Every life and I was at the grill and did my mind.
That is why it happened.
Can we pray?
Our God and our Father, we thank thee again for the Savior.
We thank thee for that Blessed One that was lifted up.
That one whose desire is to draw all men unto him. And we thank thee, our God, for those of us who have been drawn to thyself.
But our prayer this afternoon is for anyone here that is lost and in their sins, we pray that they might realize it and they might indeed look to Thee. They might look to the Savior.
Might have their sins washed away in that precious blood and to be able to go from this place on their way rejoicing. We just would earnestly pray our God that thou hast work in the heart of some such person this afternoon. And so we just would thank thee for our time this last couple of days. And we just would ask now thy blessing upon my precious word and the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.