Gospel—Robert Boulard
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Hello, I want to welcome everyone to the Gospel meeting. If you're not a believer in the Lord Jesus tonight, I trust you're going to hear words by the grace of God, words whereby you might be saved. We're to read from God's book, the Bible. There's only one revelation that God has given in His and it's in His word. He's told us of his Son, and He wants us to believe upon His Son and to have our sins forgiven. So if you've never had your sins.
You've never had a relationship with God. Perhaps tonight is the night to make that decision for Christ. Let's, uh, sing #6.
Number six.
Maybe somebody can start it.
While it's torture and they're shooting the stars.
All the glory.
Oh, progress shining.
In the standing, they're standing.
Uh, let me deliver from above. No, it's no, it's not in the Lord and love.
To bring the light.
Of the glory.
Of not very good.
Shall I continue?
You know, let's get into your standard and we're not going to make sure. I don't know.
On the red hands make it leaves.
And we're like Christine.
Lord of all the trees, let's not happen and bring it in, my father.
Is out of the grave.
It's not funny. And let's say they're saying.
And.
Promised.
Lord is laundry and glory and glory.
He could suffer once and will drain anything.
All right. Umm.
Jesus Christ.
And Lord.
Shining.
That's a hand with a strange ending. Uh, let me see you soon.
God is going to go away and go out loud together. The blood.
Let's ask the Lord's blessing in our meeting together.
Our father is.
Just read a couple of verses of scripture to open up.
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The passage that I would like to take up.
Just Two Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14.
If there's going to be any blessing here tonight, it's going to be on the part of God himself and God in His Word. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But it says in verse 14 here that the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him.
Which died for them and rose again.
Dear friends, tonight there's a God who loves you, a God who sent his son into this world because he loved you. He loved you as an individual. He knew that you would be sitting here tonight. He knew what state your soul would be in. He knew ahead of time. And he has arranged for you to be here tonight to hear His word and he if you're not saved tonight.
You still have the judgment of God hanging over your head for your own sins. By the grace of God, He's allowing that you will hear about the Savior tonight and that there is free forgiveness of sins on the basis of the finished holy work of Christ, and that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son can cleanse you from all sin tonight as an individual.
And we're going to read a passage of Scripture. I'd like to take up Luke's Gospel, chapter 14.
In the gospel, because you know, the, some of the writers have referred to this chapter as the gospel, uh, the chapter of the great grace of God. I think Mr. Kelly calls it that and.
I think in connection with the feast in verse 16, Mr. Darby says it's the UMM, the Gospel of the great Gospel, the supper of the great grace of God.
And so we're going to read about this chapter, and I'd like to just comment on these few passages, these few little stories.
That the Son of God himself spoke.
God sent his Son to speak to you.
It was inconvenient to leave those courts of glory where sin can never come, inconvenient to come into this scene that was so filled with sin, such defilement. But you know that Holy One came into this scene and He brought blessing wherever he went in chapter 14. His rejection is already a foregone conclusion in this gospel.
But he went about doing good. He came.
To display the grace of God, and to pronounce the love of God for sinners, and yet to pronounce solemnly that there was judgment to fall upon those that would refuse the grace of God. And so let's read this chapter.
It came to pass, as he went into the House of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. Behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
And Jesus answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful?
To heal on the Sabbath day they held their peace. He took him and healed him and let him go.
And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an *** or an ox fallen into a pit, or a well, and will not straightway pull them out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things. And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms or the first places.
Saying unto them, When thou art hidden of any man to a wedding.
Sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou bebidden of him. And he that led thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when our bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that made thee cometh.
And he may say unto thee, friend, go up higher.
Then shalt thou have worship her honor in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
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Then said he also to him that bade him, when thou makest to dinner or supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and the recompense be made to thee made thee. But when thou make us to feast, call the poor that my named the lame the blind.
And thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee.
For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
And when one of them that sat at meet with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden come, for all things are now ready, and they all with one consent.
Began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of pro of ground, and I must needs go to see it. I pray thee, have me excused.
Another said, I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I go to prove them, I pray thee have me excused. Another said I have married a wife, therefore I cannot come. So the servant that servant came, showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly in the streets and lanes of the city.
Bring in, hit her, the poor, the maimed, and the halt and the blind.
The servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And Lord said unto the servants, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. And there went great multitudes with him. He turned and said unto them, If any man come to me.
And hate not as father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters. Yeah, and his own life also.
He cannot be my disciple. Whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down 1St, and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? Less happily, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish? Or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down 1St?
And consulteth whether he be able.
With 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000, or else while the other is yet Co a great way off. He sent us an ambassador, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned.
It is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Dear friends, tonight.
The Son of God, the creator of this universe, the one who created Adam with his own hand and breathed into his nostrils. The breath of life came into this man's house, a Pharisee.
Grace was shown to the religious bigots of the day, and there may be religious people in this world and they're going to have the gospel of the grace presented to them. And you may be sitting here in your sins tonight very religious about it and pretending to be a Christian. This Pharisee, you know, he saw the Lord Jesus doing these works, these miracles.
And he perhaps we're not told exactly what was going on in his heart, because God knew.
But he wanted the Lord Jesus to come into his house.
The Creator, the one by whom the worlds subsist.
He came into the world. The world was made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. And he came into this Pharisee's house to deliver a blessing on the principle of grace. He wasn't going to bless this Pharisee on the basis of his religion, on the basis of his ability to keep the law. God wants nothing from the Sinner. He doesn't need your money, He doesn't need your service, He doesn't need what you have.
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He doesn't want it. He's a blesser. He's a giver.
And He has something to give, and He wants you to be blessed in his presence for all eternity. And He's come. He came into this world right to where you are, and he's speaking to you right where you sit. He came into this man's house to eat bread on the Sabbath day, the last day of the week. You know, in Judaism, they had six days that they could use for themselves.
Monday, Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Lords Day, the first day of the week, they used all those days for themselves, but then they were to give Saturday. It was commanded that they give Saturday to the Lord no end this or but they had to give him that one day. Well, you know what they did? They used all seven days for themselves. That's what they did. But in Christianity is different.
God has given us the first day of the week, and in grace He doesn't command you to keep the first day of the week.
No, He says, let us offer the sacrifice of praise and Thanksgiving to pray to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks unto his name. He says on the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. He says, let us. And so he's not putting you under law. He's not suggesting that we keep it as a a law. And as we said earlier in the reading meeting here.
The Christian has no Sabbath. God never promised you a rest in this world, and God isn't going to promise you a place of rest in this world.
If you accept the Lord Jesus as your savior, you're going to have the struggles of normal life and the Lord will use those struggles to produce the characteristics of Christ in himself in in your life. But he came into this world. This Pharisee watched him to see what he was going to do. And there was a certain man before him which had the drops. He had a build up of body fluid in his body. Not sure what would cause that.
Maybe congestive heart failure, whatever it would be, Jesus answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, the doctors of the law, The Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? They held their peace.
You know their conscience is, answered him.
You're a Sinner tonight if you don't know the Lord Jesus as Savior. You sit in your seat and he sees you as a lost Sinner. But I see some people here in this room that I know belong to Christ, and he doesn't look at you as a Sinner. If you've accepted Christ as your Savior and you've been forgiven of your sins, you're no longer guilty before God. He sees you in a new position.
Justified because of the finished work of Christ. He sees you.
As a son or as a daughter. And that dignity, not honor. And the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world to release this man from the power of sin and Satan, and he gives us a story.
The Lord Jesus come into this house. The Pharisee evidently didn't receive a blessing.
Solemn, the Lord Jesus came to your house. Would he be welcome?
You know, chapter Brown tells a story, says he was visiting out in the country, some place in the city, and he came to knock on the door of a family. In those days, they wouldn't call ahead and say we're going to come and visit your house. They would just come to the house, knock on the door and with their Bibles and say we'd like to come in and have a a visit.
And they knocked on the door.
And there was a lot of noise going on in the house. There was a boom, boom, boom. There was a music going on. It was loud. He banged on the door. Finally, somebody came to the door. The wife, she came to the door. She answered. She looked through the curtains, and then she shut the curtains. And then she called to her husband. Turn it off. It's the Browns.
Turn it off. It's the Browns.
Well, her husband finally heard her and he shut the music off and then they came. They got things sorted out in the house and then they finally let the Browns in. They have the Bible reading in that home.
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It wasn't a very good ending in that home. Mr. Brown told the story in one of his meetings. I just want to ask you this, friend.
What the Lord Jesus, be welcome in your home.
Could you come into your house?
When you open the curtains and say, oh, I just have to straighten things up a little bit.
What hast thou in the house?
O the Lord, Jesus wants to bring a blessing into your home. Don't bring anything into the home that would cause them discomfort and that would bear upon your conscience that it ought not to be there. You might miss a blessing. The Lord might not be comfortable, so to speak, to come. You might not be free in the presence of the Lord in your home, to be able to have a reading in the home and to be occupied with spiritual things because of what you've allowed in the home.
The Pharisee didn't get a blessing.
Religious man. And he was shown the grace of God, the Son of God, the one who kept the orbits in perfect synchrony, the one who maintained the breath, the amount, One who created that very man. He came into this house to give him a blessing. He didn't get a blessing.
Solemn.
But there was a man, he was afflicted, he was sick, and he came. He was presented before the Lord. He got the blessing. He came to show grace to those that are afflicted by sin.
Sin destroys life.
Had a man in my car years ago.
We're driving, doing business.
I can't remember. It was probably an engineering call. We were going someplace and, umm, we were trying to present the gospel of the grace of God to this man. He was an unbeliever. Name is **** Merritt.
And I said, **** you have an illness that is fatal. You have an illness, it's fatal. It's called sin. And you're gonna die because of sin.
You're gonna die because of sin and you need Christ. You need the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from that sin. You need the forgiveness of God.
He said I don't need the blood of Christ. I don't need it. I don't want it.
I don't want the blood of Christ.
I said there's only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all.
God sent His Son into this world to cleanse you from your sin. He didn't want it.
He was sick with sin, and tonight in your seat, if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you're sick with sin and it's fatal.
The soul that sinneth it shall die.
The eternally separated from God. If you die the second death, if you die without Christ, if you die without your sins forgiven in this world, you leave this scene without Christ.
You will forever be separated from a holy God, never to experience the grace of God, the love of God. And it's the love of Christ that constraineth us. Do you know that when the Lord Jesus came into this man's house, it was on the basis of love for him? He healed this man on the basis of love.
Well, he goes on. He tells this story in verse 7 down to verse 11 of, uh, this feast, a wedding feast.
And how these men like to have the 1St place, a place of prominence among their brethren. You know, there's a lot of pecking order going on in this world, people that want to be at the top of the food chain, at the top of the government, at the top. Can you imagine? Would you want to be at the top of the government?
In the country like America.
Would you want to be the top man?
Would you want to be reigning over a country filled with rebels?
Could they be managed? Could they be governed?
Just barely.
Would you want to be the government, the head of the government in Brazil?
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Would you want to be the president of Brazil?
These men wanted the 1St place. They wanted the best place in this world, a place of position, authority, respect, honor of this world.
But you know God is going isn't going to give you a blessing based on your pecking order in this world.
This world is under judgment. God is already pronounced. It's under judgment. Why would you want to be the captain of the Titanic when it's already hit the iceberg and it's already going down?
We are living.
At the end of Western civilization, we are living just before the collapse of Western civilization. When the Lord Jesus comes, he gives a shout. Perhaps tonight he's gonna give the shout. Arise, my love, my fair one, come away.
Approximately 7 years later, the Western Christian world will be an utter collapse. It will never rise again.
We could read of the final demise of this whole world. We might just read it in second Peter chapter 3.
God is the God of grace and he's offering forgiveness of sins tonight, but if the grace is refused, there's judgment. It says in chapter 3 at First Second Peter.
11 verse 8 Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That one day is what the Lord is. 1000 years and 1000 years is one day. The two days of grace are almost up.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promises. Some men count slackness, but his long-suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The day of the Lord will come. That's the appearing of the Lord Jesus after the Tribulation period, at the time when the Western Christian world and the remnants of it will be judged by the Son of God.
The.
At the appearing and then he speaks of the end of the thousand years of the millennial reign of Christ, and he says, The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and all and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Not one thing will remain.
What are you working for tonight? What are you thinking about? What are your plans?
I was reading a book recently.
A man by the name of Arthur Scott, young man, he came to age approximately, I guess 18 years old. This is in England.
And Arthur Scott, his father, gave him a grand party at 18 years old.
Given the privileges of being the son of the wealth, the heir of his estate, and he had this big ball going on, he had a rich uncle.
His uncle came to the house.
Drove up. It is, uh, nephew.
Arthur Scott thought, Ma, I'm gonna get some money out of this. I'm gonna get a good check. His uncle gave him two envelopes.
Said Arthur. I'm giving you 2 envelopes tonight. This one here you can open right now.
He opened it up. Wonderful check. Large amount of money, he said. Arthur, I'm giving you this one, and when you get into your room tonight, you open this one by yourself.
Arthur got into the room and he was an honorable man and he didn't open it up until he got into the room. He opened it up and it said this for me to live is.
Dot dot dot.
That's what was on that piece of paper inside that envelope. And Arthur Scott, you know, he said. I wonder why uncle gave me this one.
Then he began to the gear started to grind a little bit and he said.
He understood something of the word of God. He wasn't as well versed in the Scriptures as he should have been, but that's a quotation. In Philippians, the apostle Paul quotes this. He says for me to live is Christ.
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And highest gain.
I wanna ask you tonight, what are you living for? What are your plans? Are your plans in this world? If I gave you that sheet of paper and you went into your room tonight by yourself, what would you put down at the finish of that sentence for me to live is?
Dot dot dot I'm not gonna ask you to do it.
But it might be a good exercise for every one of us. What are we living for?
Well, this man, these men, they wanted the 1St place, a place of prominence, place of honor in this world. But God doesn't bless the Sinner on the principle of pride. He blesses people on the principle of humility. Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Have you humbled yourself before God?
Have you told the Lord that you're a Sinner?
Have you confessed to God I'm a Sinner, God, be merciful to me a Sinner? Have you bowed the knee?
You'll forgive me if you've heard my give me this little give this little illustration before, but I often think of this.
There was a young girl. Her name.
Was Jessica Blaine before she was married?
And Jessica worked at a little factory in Mount Eaton, OH, as summer job. She's 16 or 17 years old.
I came into the office, I had an appointment with a fellow by the name of Jim and I came in there a little bit early and 15 minutes or so and Jessica said, well, Jim's not here, have a seat and enjoy. Well, we'll just talk and so on and just just wait. He'll be here.
And so beside her computer she had a little piece of paper, 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper pasted on the side of her wall. And this is what it said, If you meet me and forget me, you have lost nothing, but if you meet Jesus Christ and forget Him, you have lost everything.
And she quoted a couple of verses of Scripture.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man opened the door, I will come in and Sup with him.
Oh, she's quoted John's Gospel 5/24.
If you meet me and forget me.
You've lost nothing, but if you meet Jesus Christ and forget Him, you've lost everything.
Well, we had a nice chat on that morning.
I said, Jessica, is that your sign on the side of your computer? She said yes, that's my sign.
I said, are you a Christian? She says. I'm thankful to have bowed knee to our Lord Jesus Christ in this life. Every knee shall bow.
It's the most wonderful concession of faith I've ever heard from a young girl. I'm pleased to be numbered among those that have bowed the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ in this life. Have you bowed the knee? Have you bowed the knee and said yes, Lord?
Lord, save me.
Every knee shall bow.
Some of us have had the experience of driving out to Otter Lake. I don't know if the sign is still there, but it says every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There were other signs that Otter Lake, but that's the one that had bullet holes in it.
That's the one that had bullet holes. Have you bowed the knee? You will bow the knee. What a wonderful to bow the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ in this life.
And to enjoy his fellowship, to enjoy his communion and to enjoy his leadership. Well, it says here a little bit further on, he's going to show grace. And he shows grace on the principle of those that are the weakest, the poor. Verse 13.
The lame, the lame, the blind, all those that have been so ruined by sin.
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You don't need to walk very far to see someone that has suffered the results of sin.
And God is saving sinners that are damaged by sin.
And Satan has invented all kinds of ways to ruin your life.
You are engaged in a Mortal Kombat with an enemy that is determined to drag you down into a lost eternity, but you have a God who is more powerful.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And God is going to see to it that heaven is filled, and He is offering you tonight because of His love, because of His grace, because of His kindness, because of His mercy. He's offering you the free forgiveness of sins. On the basis of the finished work of Christ, God sent His Son into this world.
Someone sinned and someone had to pay.
You sinned.
And you would have had to pay for all eternity. Impossibility to exhaust the payment.
But God sent his Son, and in those three dark hours.
Every sin, not one, was swept under the carpet. Every sin that I have committed, past, present and future, were laid upon the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, and He bore my sins in His own body on the tree.
He paid the price.
So that I could be judicially forgiven. I will never face God as a judge. God would be unrighteous.
To judge me for my sin. They have already been judged. You know, there was a man who stood before Napoleon.
The draft board drafted this man in France, young man, and in those days, if you're wealthy enough, you could hire someone to go to war in your place. So this man, he hired someone, paid him a decent sum of money, man went off to war and he died.
And then the draft board sent the young man another draft notice.
The man said, oh, I was drafted before.
And I sent a replacement. He's dead, he said.
I, I'm free from the, the law of, uh, being drafted. No, the ones that were running the conscription, they said no, we're short of men and you need to come. We're giving you a draft notice. You have to come, he says. I appeal to Napoleon. He stood before the emperor and the representatives of the draft board.
The story was told in Napoleon.
And Napoleon said the man is free. Someone else paid the price with his life. The man can never be drafted.
And God on a righteous basis wants to offer you the free forgiveness of sins so that you can sit here in your seat tonight and rejoice and say I'm no longer guilty before a holy God. No longer guilty. That's what it means to be forgiven. Because if you have your sins upon you, you're guilty before God. You're guilty of sinning against him. You're guilty of rebellion against God.
And you can't get away with it. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to.
Have the free forgiveness of sins. Well, this man, these ones came, all those that were in a poor state. But then there was a supper made. He said in verse 16. He said unto him, a certain man made a great supper, and bad many.
You know the gospel is an individual invitation. God is giving you an invitation tonight. He's inviting you to receive His Son.
That he has set a feast.
Christianity is a feast.
A feast.
And there's going to be a feast in heaven. There's going to be, you know, it says in the language of Scripture, that's wonderful to think of in chapter 12 of Luke, it says in verse 37, the last part, he says he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them.
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You're not going to have angels serving you. Those of us that know the Lord Jesus as Savior, you're not going to have an Angel serving you.
The Lord Jesus, the one who died on the cross for you.
Loves you so much, you know, Mr. Darby said. Love delights to serve. Selfishness wants to be served.
Love delights to serve. Did you know that the Lord Jesus, who loved you and gave Himself for you, bore the judgment for your sins in those long three dark hours? Dear St. of God is going to delight to have you sit down. He's going to delight to serve you with heavenly happiness for all eternity.
And did you know that the heaven is going to be full?
Absolutely full, it says in this verse. It says in verse 23 said unto the servant specter of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God can compel sinners.
Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
Heaven's gonna be full.
There was a man not too far from here.
Jacqueline Family.
One of the brothers was in fellowship at the Lord's Table here. Gerald, Jacqueline.
There's another family here. I think it was, uh, Bob Gaulette's family. There were five boys in the Gaulette family. Let me get my family's mixed up, but there were five boys in the family.
Godly mother, she prayed for those boys all her life.
She never saw one of them saved, Not one of them. She prayed to the day she died for those boys to be saved. They lived reckless, godless lives, but they had a praying mother.
And after she died, every one of those boys got saved.
Bob Goulet said he would be in a reading meeting or he'd be just talking in the home at a meal. And he said, I don't know about you, brother. I don't know about you, brother, but when the Spirit of God gets a hold of you, there's no getting away. He said. I couldn't run.
He got saved. He took Christ as his Savior. What does it mean to be saved? It means to be saved from the judgment of God.
God is a judge, God judges sin, and God wants to save you from judgment.
And he has made full provision because of his love, that you might never face God as a judge.
He sent his son.
We would never know the love of God or the extent of the love of God except that God sent his Son. The law could never tell us of the extent of the love of God, but God sent his Son, and his Son showed us well. There were all kinds of excuses.
It says that without they all, with one consent or without exception, began to make excuse.
An excuse is an insult to God. Are you sitting in your seat making an insurance an insult to God? An excuse as to why you cannot come to Christ tonight?
An excuse as to your age, an excuse.
Something else has distracted you. You know the grace of God. He presents this little story, the Lord Jesus. He says he speaks of man that bought a piece of ground. He was a man of the earth. He wanted something in this world. He, he was attracted to the real estate of this world. He, that's what he wanted. Another man. He's bought 5 yoga box and he was a man of business. He wanted business. That's what he wanted. He wanted prosperity.
And he loved business. He lived for business. For me to live is business. That's what he would have said.
Then he says of one that I've married a wife. I cannot come.
He was a man of relationships. He let the relationships of life interfere with his relationship with the Creator God, the Savior God. And everyone of us needs to judge those things. Are we?
Allowing relationships to hinder us from walking in obedience and faithfulness with Christ Himself.
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Oh, May God give us the grace, those of us that know the Lord Jesus to set those relationships in their proper order. And we know that the Lord Jesus is not saying here that we, uh, set those relationships and we ignore those relationships that we have responsibilities in. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that needs to be one relationship that has the priority in your life.
You know, if you turn back just one page or two in your Bible to John's or Luke's gospel, I think it's Chapter 9.
It says in verse 59.
Let's read verse 58, loop 9, verse 58. Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Suffer me first to go bury my Father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee.
But let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.
Well, there's a lack of sincerity. There's a lack of commitment.
Me first.
That in all things he might have the preeminence.
Does God have the 1St place that the Lord Jesus have the first place in your life?
It wasn't convenient to leave heaven.
It wasn't convenient to leave the Father's house.
It wasn't convenient. He knew what would take place.
The Lord Jesus came in obedience, He said prophetically speaking in Isaiah chapter 6, it says here my send me.
He could say I do always those things that please my father.
Who are you trying to please tonight?
Are you trying to please yourself?
You will never be happy.
God has made us in such a way.
That the only way that we can be happy is that we're trying to please someone else. If we're trying to please ourselves selfishly, we can never obtain satisfaction. But to have the happiest life is to desire to serve Him and to please Him. The happiest man that ever lived upon the face of the earth is the Lord Jesus. He rejoiced in spirit when he was rejected of men, and he said, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good unto thee.
He accepted it from his Father. He rejoiced in spirit in the face of adversity while the Lord Jesus wants to have the first place in your affections, but you're going to need to come to him. And so this is what it says in.
Luke's Gospel chapter 14, verse 26. He says, if any man come to me.
Have you come?
You know that word is used something like 1900 times in the word of God. Come, come.
You know, obedience is one of the things that's been thrown out the window in the North America, in the Western Christian world. Obedience.
Obedience to children.
Is not really stressed.
We live in a different age, don't we?
But now it says God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Men and women are going to be a lost eternity for disobedience. You know, when I was a little boy, you'll forgive the personal illustration, but.
As a little boy, my father worked at the Canadian Pacific Railway of north of Lake Superior, Lake uh, Huron in the middle of nowhere.
And there were bears, moose, deer, but the bears?
One summer we were very hungry. It was dry.
And, uh, couple of two year olds, 3 year olds along the track. And in those days, my father was Telegraph operator, high tech Telegraph operator, and he was working in the office and he could see down the track both ways. And his two little boys were working. We're, uh, walking along, playing along on the railroad track.
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He stepped out of the station house window. Uh, out of the station house door.
And he said come.
And he had trained us to come the first call. If we didn't come the first call, there was a spanking.
He said come, we came running down that railroad track.
And you said we said yes, dad, what? What is it? He said turn around and look. And we turned around and looked and there were a couple of bears. They had decided a couple of little boys would probably be a pretty nice snack at this time of day. And he had seen us.
In our lives had been spared. God has seen you in your danger. God has seen you that you're just about to perish into a lost eternity. He knows when the Lord is coming. He knows God knows when he's going to give that.
Give his son the call to call his bride into his presence.
You're in danger of going into a lost eternity, and he's giving you a command. Come.
Unto me, all ye that labor, and our heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Have you come to him? If not, come tonight. Well, he says too, he nee we need to come after him.
We need to he speaks of building a tower. Which of you intending to build a tower? Sit us not down 1St and counter the cost whether you have sufficient to finish it. Friends, if you take Christ as your Savior, it's only the beginning.
If you're saved by the grace of God, saved from judgment, it's only the beginning.
It's like stepping through the door.
It's only the beginning, and he wants you to enter into all of the privileges of what it is to be a son.
An heir of God, joint heir with Christ.
He wants you to enter into the blessedness of what it is to be set free in His presence, to be in the Father's house, know what it is to be justified in a new legal standing, legal position before God, liberty before Him.
He wants you to know it all, He enjoy it all. Being saved is only the beginning.
And if you take Christ as your Savior tonight, it's only the beginning. God is going to open up the floodgates of blessing. And if you will just read His Word, study His Word.
Read some ministry, some teaching. The floodgates will open.
Never in the time of this history of this world, the Western Christian world has ministry teaching being as readily available as it is today. You and I in the English language can read and study the Word of God, and there's no excuse for us not to know the Bible front and back.
Especially the New Testament, because that's written to you and I, and it's written for us.
And to read the Book of Revelation, the book of prophecy that's written.
To the church and for the church, so that we would intelligently know what God is going to do in the future.
And how soon it is that he's going to do it.
Are you studying the Word of God?
You're building a tower one day at a time, 1 brick at a time.
If you're taking crisis, your Savior every day is a little brick. You're building that power at the testimony before this world. Your life is a testimony. People in this world are looking and they're saying you say that you're a Christian.
I wonder what kind of a tower this is.
Is it a good power? Is it well built, founded upon the truth of God, founded upon Christianity and the principles that Christ has made known to us through His apostles?
You know, there's some people in South America.
That don't have the liberties that you have.
That are saved by grace.
No, Christ's Savior and they don't have all this.
They have almost nothing that has been written and translated into Portuguese. There's a sister, her name is Rosemary.
She lives in.
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And she was saved as about 12 years old, thirteen years old. And she wandered in the air of church systems for 30 years.
Different pastors and church people telling her that she could be saved and lost. Again, I'm here to tell you on the basis of the Word of God, the truth of the Word of God, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
For this girl wandered in the church systems for 30 years.
And she was distraught one day and she was on the Internet and she wanted to have certainty as to eternal salvation, eternal security. She wanted to know and she listened to them gospel messages.
By Mario Delfona and she contacted him and she asked him about the truth of what it was to be saved and forever forgiven of her sins.
He told her the truth. She read the word. She asked him where she could go.
And he told her there's a little assembly in Curitiba. You go there, she's been gathered to the Lord's name. Five years or six years.
She works for the government in Brazil. She has a high up job.
She's well spoken and she's well educated women.
Articulate and capable in the Portuguese language, and she's also required to be able to speak English, so she is able to communicate in English and writing and so on. She's translating.
Some of these books.
I guess I don't see it here, Philippians.
She has a husband that's not very spiritually minded. Paulo, dear brother Paulo, he has every.
Laurel and Hardy movie ever made all the posters and he spends his life looking at these movies and so on. He's gathered to the Lord's name. He comes to the meetings with her, she sits on the sofa.
She takes this book in English.
With her laptop sites beside her husband, he's watching these movies and she's reading and she's translating this book.
She says I have to put it down.
And I weep, and I weep and I weep, she says. After I stop weeping, I've learned something. I've enjoyed something, and I never read it before. I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it.
She says finally I stopped weeping and I keep translating.
Dear friends, tonight God not only wants you to have your sins forgiven, He not only wants you to be saved from the judgment of God, but He wants you to enter into all of the full privileges of Christianity. He wants you to enjoy the feast that He's prepared for you.
Do you have an appetite for what He's prepared for you? We're just about to pass out of this scene into the presence of the Lord.
But we're in a state of starvation as we.
Are waiting the coming of the Lord. Well, May God bless his word tonight. And if you are not saved, you never have accepted Christ as your Savior. And you're sitting in your seat tonight while I'm praying. You pray and you tell the Lord you're a Sinner. You bow your knee tonight, the knee of your stubborn heart, and you thank him for Christ and the work of Christ on the cross and the blood that was shed. And you start building that power.
Our loving God and our Father we thank.