Gospel—B. Brockmeier Jr.
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House stands open with its love and light and song, And returning to that father all to you may now be long From sins distant land of famine toiling Neath the midday sun, To a father's House of plenty and a father's welcome come #2.
Turn, if you would, tonight.
To a well known verse in the third chapter of John's Gospel.
John chapter 3 and verse 16.
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. I read this verse tonight at the outset of the meeting for two main reasons. The first reason is perhaps there is one or two that have never had the privilege of hearing the gospel of the grace of God. And I wanted to write at the outset get to the very essence of the matter, the very heart of the matter.
And that is the heart of God, that God desires your blessing and your eternal salvation.
How the precious truth of the gospel is summed up in this very well known and very much love verse for God. He's the source of the gospel, friend. It did not come from the great minds and intellects of this world. No, it came from the mind and the heart of God. He's the source of the gospel. It is the gospel of God. It is a message from God to your heart, for God so loved the world. Oh, that's the sweetness of the gospel, that God loves your soul.
Despise Him you may have, but he loves you. Rebellious you may have been, but he loves you. And how wonderful to know, in a world filled with hatred and enmity, that God is love.
Oh, in the world filled with despair and hopelessness, how good to no one. Who is the God of hope?
In a world filled with sorrow and heartache and anguish and tears, to know the God of all comfort.
In a world filled with war and rumors of war, to know the God of peace, Oh, this is God as he would set him forth, said He set himself forth in his precious word that he so loved. Has that ever moved your heart? Has there been any response to think that the eternal Almighty God loves your soul? And so great was his love that he gave. Love gives and love sacrifices and all. What a gift the Father gave when he bestowed his Son. And that's the grand subject of the gospel.
That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son the very dearest object of His heart. He sent forth that blessed One into this world.
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When he arrived here, there was number room for him, and there is no room for him even today. We would ask you tonight, friend, is there room in your heart tonight for God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of man that came to seek and to save that which was lost? Oh, the grand subject of the gospel is God's Son, the gospel of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him. That's the simplicity of the gospel.
You know, there was one of old Naaman the Syrian who was a leper.
And he went to the prophet of Israel, Elijah, and was told the way for his healing would be depth to be to dip seven times in the river Jordan. And he was angered at such a proposition that the great.
Syrian general should have to descend into the Muddy Waters of Jordan. It was beneath him for such a thing, but all he had servants that cared for him. And they said if the man that God had bid thee do some great thing which thou not have done it, how much rather when he says wash and be cleaned.
And that's the gospel. It's not some great thing that God requires of you, but to own your need as a guilty Sinner. You qualify, friend, for the gospel because you've sinned against God.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And so he said, wash and be clean. Oh, and his friend, it's simply believing in him. God knows the heart. A look, a sigh, a tear towards himself.
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Oh, that's the great salvation of the Gospel.
To reject the gospel, to reject God's Son, it carries a huge price.
We read of those, the Lord will say, and these shall go away into everlasting fire. No, there is a solemn consequence to reject and refuse the story of God's love and his gift of love, the Lord Jesus.
And it's the blackness of darkness, forever suffering. The vengeance of eternal fire is the portion of those that reject the Savior. And such is the course on which you and I would be headed tonight. Apart from the Savior is that Broad Rd. that leads to destruction. But oh, God gave his Son that you might not perish, that you would be delivered from so great a death, but have everlasting life. Oh, that's the satisfaction of the gospel. How God loves your soul. God is for you. God wants your blessing.
Eternal life is not simply unending existence. No, because we quoted earlier, these shall go away and everlasting fire. And we find that scene a great white throne, when the Lord Jesus sits there on that throne in the dead, small and great stand before him.
And the lost or cast out into the lake of fire, which is the second death.
Eternal existence, but it's eternal death. Separation from God, forever in judgment. Oh, but the gospel summed up right here. This is what God desires to preserve you from and to bring you into.
It's the outpouring of the heart of God.
And with all this within me tonight, I would like, with the Lord's help, to in some way set forth the heart of God. And I would like to look at something that's just been before me in recent weeks. I would like to look at 3 homecomings in Scripture, the homecoming of the Sinner, the homecoming of the Savior, and the homecoming of the Saints. So could we turn first to Luke's Gospel, chapter 15?
For we have the homecoming of the Sinner.
We'll begin reading from verse 11, but I would like to note that in verse three it says he spake this parable unto them, perhaps three parts to this parable, and so will briefly just mention the two parts proceeding. We have a man that had 99 sheep, and one of them was gone.
All this brings before us the value of a soul. You know how it is with us. If we had, $0.99 of a dollar would stay close enough. Let's call it a day. But that's not the heart of God.
There was one sheet missing and so he would come and where were the sheep? They were in the wilderness and this is where the Lord Jesus came to save. He came into this world which is a wilderness. It was not a world that throughout the welcome mat for him. If I can put it reverently, this world is opposed to God and opposed to Christ at every step so much so that prophetically the Lord Jesus could say they that the reproaches of them that reproach thee.
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Fell on me.
All the enmity and the antagonism of the heart of man to God.
Now had a place to express itself.
Against God's beloved Son is God came down in lowly grace. God manifest in flesh, and all of the hatred and enmity in man's heart against God now is directed towards God's beloved Son who came into this world. It was a wilderness. It was a place where He was not wanted, but He came here to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to save you.
We find the next scene. There's a woman working.
To find one lost coin, and if in the story of the sheep we find it's a wilderness in the coin, it's lost in the house.
I'm very solemnized when I read this because in large measure we're speaking to those that are in a place of favor in the house, if I can put it that way. Not scattered on the wilderness, but there was a sheep that was lost in the house, or a coin rather, that was lost in the house. And maybe there's a lost coin in the house tonight. And the Spirit of God would work to find you.
This pictures to us the work of the Spirit of God, and there's two instruments in which the Spirit of God would use in order to find that coin, the broom and the light, and the light would be for searching the corners and the recesses.
You know the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword.
No, the word of God would come as a sword. It would come as a light to expose and how God would look through every corner in order to find one that is lost. And furthermore, there was the broom. This is to sweep the house. Why is this to stir things up? Because that coin might be buried under dirt or something in the house and all. I believe this is a great work of the Spirit of God. You know, it was in the house. It wasn't out in the city and the streets were all could see it was within the house.
And that's how the Spirit of God works. He would work within your breast. Some people boast of how they can read faces. I can't read faces and but God can read hearts. I know would to God tonight that there would be the stirring up within your breast.
We live in a day of casual profession.
We live in a day of belief without conviction.
We ascent to certain things.
But where is the sincerity, the depth, the earnestness before God? The Spirit of God has seen typified the work of the Spirit sweeping the house in order that things might get stirred up. Can you casually just set the word aside and say, when's the next meeting? What are we going to do next? Or have you ever heard the voice of God coming down to your soul?
Remember some years ago being down at the Theologian Institute in Orange County?
There was a dear brother spoke to the men there.
And he spoke to them from the passage in Second Kings that.
That was the There was the earthquake and there was the fire and there was the wind and it says.
The Lord was not in the fire, He was not in the wind, He was not in the earthquake. But a still small voice came.
To the Prophet.
And her brother speaking from that said to the men there, he said, you might not get shaken up by the earthquake. You know, it might not be moved by the wind, you not might be impressed or intimidated by the by the fire. But he said, how is it, men, when you go to your bunks at night and you hear that still small voice that says, I love you?
As we filed out to leave, an older man, an older prisoner who knew the Lord, he leaned over to me and says that brother knows how to reach them. How is it, friend? Have you ever heard that still small voice come to you in quietness?
I love you all, the love of God. Have you ever been stirred in your hearts to this one that would reach you?
We live in a day of so much pretense.
The veneer, the facade, every man walks in the vain show. Where is the reality before God? Some of us remember dear Jerry Smith, who was in fellowship there in Los Angeles, gathering before his tragic death.
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Jerry was telling me Jerry was saved out of the gangs.
Large arms, skilled in the martial arts, he had the boldness of a lion, and he would go back to his former associates in the gangs to bring the gospel to them. He says they laugh at me, and he says I quote them. Proverbs 1413. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
Oh, friend, how much is just laughter's external? But the end of that mirth is heaviness. There's no lasting joy. Well, let's get on to the third one here in verse 11. Let's read.
And he said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
And he divided into them as living, And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and their wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, and he would fain have filled his belly with a husk, that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bred enough and despair, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will send him. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off.
His father saw him, and had compassion and friend, and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in eyesight, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. The father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hit of the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and is found and they began to.
To be married.
I said there was two reasons why I read John 316 at the outset of the meeting. The one was to to seek in simplicity to set forth the grand truth of the Gospel for perhaps those that have never heard. But there was another reason I read that verse. And if there's a chapter that's as well known in the Gospel as the first John 316 is, it's the 15th of Luke. But I want to ask you.
You that have heard the gospel any number of times.
Think back what I suggested we read John 316. What was the response of your hearts?
Here we go again.
Can the brother do anything better than read John 316? I've heard that before. You've heard it before, and you heard it again. But what was the response of your hearts? When I suggested we turn to read that verse, you know it's not what we know, but what is the response of our hearts?
To really the heart of God as we read this wonderful chapter that no doubt we are all familiar with.
What we find the story of the runaway son.
You know, if we go back to the prophet Jonah, we find the story of the runaway prophet. God said go this way, and Jonah went that way. Do you know God tracked him down and brought Jonah back by way of the whale's belly, the belly of the great fish. He brought him back to do what he desired. You know, if we turn to the book of Philemon, we have the story of the runaway servant, a man that wronged and stole from his master. He ended up in prison and there he met.
The apostle Paul who gave him the gospel, and he was saved, and Onesimus went back to his master Philemon for the epistle of Philemon in his hand.
God brought him back and we find the story here. The runaway boy, God brought him back, but there were some things he had to go through before he went back. He starts off by saying Father give me, Father give me. Says in Proverbs 30 that the horse Leech hath two daughters crying. Give give you know the leeches.
Parsley should just attach itself to the horse and suck the blood. It gives nothing. It just takes oh that's the character of man in this world, receiving from God, giving nothing.
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Hannah in her prayer in First Samuel 2 likens the condition really of the Sinner, where it says he taketh a beggar from the dunghill to set him among Princess, that he might inherit the throne of glory. And that's an apt description of man lost in his sins, where we each were, and perhaps some still are. A beggar has nothing to give. It's only to receive and ****** beggar on the dunghill that placed a defilement. It's a place where you find you find yourself in your sins.
Defiled with nothing to give to God, but God desires to reach down, take that one, that needy soul to set him among Princess to inherit the throne of glory. Well, he says, Father, give me and all the largest of the Father's heart his Father gave him. Oh, how much God has given you.
Health, strength and life and time and the privilege to have the word of God. And some of us have had the word of God before us from our youth. Scripture says to whom much is given, shall much be required? No, there's responsibility and there's accountability. Was it Daniel Webster that said his greatest thought?
Was the sense of his personal responsibility to God. Friend, have you ever considered that that you are responsible to God? We read in Hebrews 4 that all things are naked and open unto the eyes of God. No, under the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
God is not an abstract concept for theological discussions.
The eternal God you have to do with God manifest in flesh, and the person of the Son He will one day stand before.
Father give me his father gives him. He's given you much. And what does this younger son do? He wastes it with riotous living.
But in verse 13, it says he took his journey into a far country.
Or in a country.
A long way off.
Country a long way off. Is that where you would like to be as far away from God as you can get?
Well, we find he's far from God. He wastes his substance.
And he begins to be in want.
Now the effects, the consequences of his decisions begin to begins to feel them. He begins to be in want. It's just the beginning, friend, to leave the presence of God, to walk away from the things of Christ, to begin to be in want. But you know, maybe they had a proverb or a a quote as we have today. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. So he dealt with it and said, I'll know how to deal with adversity. I'm going to I'm going to join an alliance here.
He goes.
In verse 15 he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.
I'll work my way out of this jam. There's nothing we can't handle here.
What we have here is an unequal yoke. This young man enters into it.
I'd just like to pause for a moment on this subject.
An unequal yoke in Scripture, and the one I'm thinking of in particular now is the marriage of a believer, one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, united in holy matrimony with one that does not love the Lord Jesus, one that is not a Christian.
You know, I'm thinking of Samuel Clemens, you know, as Mark Twain, of course.
He took up with a profession of Christianity, ordered married into a Christian home. It was a false profession. He made out and he was a man that was conversant with the Scriptures. In fact, we know he's the one that said it was not the things in the Bible he did not understand that bothered him. It was the things in the Bible that he did understand that bothered him. Now that's honesty.
Well, he had a Christian life. At least one of his children was saved when he came back from a trip to England after visiting royalty. He knew all the great men and women. And he came back and told his family of his visits, and his little girls looked up to him and said, Daddy, you know everybody but God.
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One of his daughters died in her youth.
And to think of a man here is an unbeliever with a family, at least some of them that love the Lord Jesus. One was taken in death.
And as he lost his young daughter, he wrote a poem.
Was this as her body was buried underneath the grave? He said. Warm summer sun shine softly here, shine brightly here. Warm summer breeze blow softly here. Green sawed above lie light, lie light. Goodnight, dear heart, Good night, good night.
Is that the hope that you want to have in the presence of death when you buried a loved one? Good night, good night. That's it. Never to see him again. Oh friend, if you're lost without the Savior, association with Christians does you no good.
Only as they can point you to the Savior, and you have to do with Him.
You'll permit me now to speak to some of you that may be playing with fire. You love the Lord Jesus, and you're finding a companion among one that doesn't love the Savior that died for you.
I was leaving school some years ago, campus and I.
Felt for whatever reason, I should go back and I didn't know why. And I, and I, I did. And I thought, when I wear my, what am I doing here? Where am I going? And they had some of these different booths set up with, with literature of different religions, quote UN quote. And I thought, well, maybe there's someone I should speak to here. And nothing materialized and said, well, that was, that was some crazy notion that I had. And I began to walk to the car and I heard my name called.
And over on the large cement planter was a young man I knew to be a Christian.
And one very nice young man, I had a PE class with him the semester before, he said, Bill, come here, he says. I want to ask you something.
He said I'm going with a girl and she belongs to and he mentioned the name of the religious group that denies the deity of Christ.
He said I want to know what you think.
I said, Ron, what do you think?
He said. That's what I thought.
And I said what does the scripture say?
And return to 2nd Corinthians 6 and it says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Can I see that? I said yes. I handed him the Bible and he read it.
And he said to me, and what he didn't say to me was, well, Bill, that's your exercise on that verse.
Or there you go again with your Piper, conservative interpretation of the Scriptures. No, I didn't say that. I said Ron, it's pretty plain, isn't it? He said. It's very plain.
He said I know that that is right. And then he said to me, he says I also know I will not break off this relationship.
A couple weeks later I saw him and his now fiance walking across.
I just caught it in the verse. How can two walk together except they be agreed?
But what so solemnizes me?
Was that when I first talked to him, he was very sobered. He said the word of God is very plain and I knew his conscience was being challenged. But when I saw him just 2-3 weeks after that, he was as happy as a lark. He was in trouble. He wasn't bothered.
The decision had been made.
Oh, it troubles me is when the Spirit of God works in your soul. You suppress it, you push it away as we sing in hymn. Go spirit, go thy way. The Spirit of God is not obligated to entreat your soul forever.
Someone comes to your house and knocks after a certain amount of time, knocking on knock indefinitely. God is a God of patience.
But he's not committed himself to plead with your soul for the rest of your life. If God is speaking to you now, heed His voice, Obey the gospel.
Well, this man, he joined himself to a citizen of that country. Well, he proved.
The truth of the Italian proverb that he that has a partner has a master.
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It's a partnership he joined himself and his partners sent him out in the field to feed swine.
Well, as he's there, what a picture for one. Perhaps raised in a Jewish Home, now feeding swine the unclean animal. But what is the what is the feeling of his heart?
He starved, and he longs that his belly might be filled with what the swine are feeding on.
The things of this world will never satisfy your heart.
And what does this say? And no man gave unto him. He said, Father give me. And his father gave him. But now he's in desperate need. No man gave unto him.
Whenever 17.
When he came to himself, he doesn't say I've got to find another partner in business. No, he came to himself. He looked at things in reality. Where am I as I grovel?
Where the swine He came to himself, Friend, have you ever come to yourself? Have you ever sized up where you are before God?
The mess you may have made of your life, where you are, Have you looked at it honestly?
He did. He came to himself, thank God, Before he came to his Father, He had to come to himself to size things up, things up, to recognize what God said about him was true.
Were lost, were needy sinners. No man gave unto him, but he came to himself and he says, how many hired servants of my Father's have read enough despair, and I perish with hunger. Thinking back now of the hired servants had a better place than he had. So he says, verse 18 I will rise and go to my Father and will send him Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. Have you ever come to that point? He said, notice two things I have sinned against heaven.
And before thee.
That is, heaven is God's throne, and we know that.
That what characterizes God's throne is righteousness, and he'd sinned against heaven.
That is, he recognized he'd done wrong. He violated the truth of God, the righteousness that God requires of man. But it was more than sinning against light, if I can put it that way.
And sinning against, right, It was sinning against love, because he says I have sinned against thee, not just against heaven, but against his Father.
To realize that it was our sins.
'Cause the Lord Jesus to die and to suffer. It's those sins that grieve the very heart of God. This man had come to himself. He's not sugarcoating it now. He's being honest. I've sinned.
Against heaven and before thee. And I'm no more worthy to be called thy Son. Make me as one of thy heart servants. Verse 20. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off.
Or when he was a long way off, he had gone to a far country, he had gone a long way off. And when he comes to himself, his father sees him a long way off. His father runs. Oh, and there's a turning of your heart to God. He's there to meet you.
He came all the way to meet him. This is the heart of the father. His father saw him and had compassion.
Always sometimes hear of a Sinner in the hand of an angry God, but that's not the picture we have here. Here's the Father that has compassion and all the Father has compassion on you. You may have sinned against him, you may have blasphemed the very name of God and the very name of Christ, but He has compassion on you. You made a made a mess of your life, but he loves you and he wants your blessing. He had compassion. He runs and fell on his neck and covers him with kisses.
Oh, the outpouring of the heart of the Father on this runaway boy. But there's more.
Verse 21 And his son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven in a nice sight, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son.
And his father interrupts him. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best drove, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
Oh, the heart of God. We sometimes sing a hymn, and I'm going to quote it a little bit differently. We sometimes singing him trembling. We had hope for mercy, some lone place within the door.
But the ring, the shoes, the best robe, all were ready long before. What is the best robe? Well, if we turn to Ephesians chapter one, we find that He has taken us into favor in the Beloved.
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I love the illustration. And during the Civil War, there was a man that came to see the president, President Lincoln. There was a couple of hours each week that he spent time to see those in need and distress. And this man had come a long way and he'd missed the time and sat outside weeping. He'd missed his chance to meet the president and wouldn't be able to see him. And he's sat outside this consulate in sorrow that he missed his chance. A young boy run by and said, well, what's the matter, Sir?
And he told him his plight and the young boy, perhaps his name was Willie, he said follow me.
He took that man right past the attendants and right into the very presence of the president.
He came in and all the value of the President's son, not now as a citizen of the United States seeking some help, but now one that came in and all the love that the Father had for the Son. That is your place before the Father. When you come to the Savior, you don't come in as a hired servant.
You don't even come in as a rebellious Sinner, but in His presence with the best robe and put it on Him in a ring on His hand. Oh, that speaks of eternal love. But let me say this to you about the ring. A very practical illustration of this is that I like to think of it as the engagement ring. It sets before us two things. Scripture speaks of the Spirit of God indwelling as the ceiling, as the earnest and the anointing, but you know, the ceiling of the Spirit of God.
Is that we're marked out as belonging to him, just as a woman were in the engagement ring.
Says I'm off limits for all others, I belong to another.
But you know, it says more than that. It says it's the earnest in anticipation of all that the husband to be.
Has will be hearse. So God has given us the Spirit of God. It marks us out as belonging to him and gives us the great joy in our hearts that all that is the sons He will share with us. He had the ring. It also speaks of authority. God has given us the right that he might be called the children of God. And then there's the shoes.
You remember when Moses came before the burning Bush and he was told to take off your shoes, for the place where on you stand is holy ground. We read elsewhere in the book of Hebrews that Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant. But you know, and we've been brought into the House of God, it's not as a servant, it's in all the liberty and the dignity of sons.
Oh, friend, this goes far beyond what would have met your need. This is the outpouring and the unfolding.
Of the heart of God in the House of God the Father's house. And I like to think of it in this way, that the Father's house is the place where the Father's heart can be fully expressed, can be fully known and fully enjoyed. What a scene this is where love would bring the Sinner and bring him to the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. What's the fatted calf?
It's a picture to us of the death of Christ. For you and I to be blessed, the Lord Jesus must die.
Christ Jesus who was delivered for our offenses, but he was raised again for our justification. What's the picture we have here? We have a picture of the Father feeding on the fatted calf, and we have a picture of of the runaway return feeding on the fatted calf that you and I can now feed with the Father on Christ himself. The very portion of God's heart he says you share with me. You enjoy this one.
That is my eternal delight.
And let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. When he went to the far country, he began to be in want.
And for the one that dies without Christ's eternal want, an unending eternity of judgment and of doom, and of hopelessness.
Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, but here. And they began to be merry. All the unending joys of heaven, the unending joys of the Father's heart, this is what our God has for you.
Some years ago.
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Brother-in-law Tom and I, we used to.
Go sing some hymns and share the word Meadowbrook Convalescent Hospital is really a.
An assisted living home.
And there was one lady, her name was Mary Ann. She would sit, it's when you could still smoke indoors, she would sit on the side of the wall there right next to the air purifier and, and smoke. And the poor woman is was in very bad shape. And we were very sad that every time when we came in to share the word, we came in, she went out.
And sometimes it required cutting off the television. It wasn't always the most happy experience.
Well one time we came and we would have loved if she would have stayed and I came over to her and she muttered.
Under her breasts.
Invoke the damnation of God upon me.
I felt sick at heart. Not that I fear the judgment of God.
But this woman, as we speak colloquially, she had one foot in the grave already and my heart was torn up as she went back to her room, not wanting to hear the word of God.
And just just was before the Lord about it.
The poor woman.
Soon enter eternity, not wanting anything to do with the things of God. Well.
No, it was the next week. She may not have been there, but the following week we came in. She sat where she always did and I expected, as it had been gone on for the last two years or so, that you get up and leave but you stayed.
Always a thrilled our heart and so we sought to preach the gospel with all earnestness. She sat there and listened. He's at the front of the room. She was on one side and directly across from her there was this piano. She motioned to me to come down to the piano. She got her Walker and she pushed it over to the piano.
She lifted her hands, leaning over the piano in a raspy voice. She played and she sang. I know not why. God's wondrous grace to me. He has made known the why, and worthy as I am, He claimed me for His own. But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
She looked up to me with tears in her eyes and she said my father was a Baptist minister. But I rebelled. I turned my back on God.
But the father's little girl had come home.
Do you know that dear woman? For the next few weeks, every day she came and she sat. She listened to the word, and every week she gave out that song. I know whom I have believed.
Oh, what a word to continue in prayer. My father's prayers were answered many years after he departed to be with the Lord.
But what about you, friend? Where do you stand? Have you turned to God? Have you turned to Christ?
We don't have time to get into the elder son. He was a self-righteous man that had no part.
And all the joys of the Father's house. He was a legalist. There's none too bad for the Savior, but there's many that are too good. And this was one that was too good. You know, there's two.
Common misconceptions about man just this past week.
There's been a few opportunities.
General manager says to me. He says, well, I'm sorry about your father, I said well.
I know he is, He's with Christ.
And he's a man, he's a religious man, but he's not the Lord's, he said. Well, that's where we're all going to be anyway.
Except for so and so.
The soil and soil he's referring to when I know why I said it. He's a man that is a real Christian although.
He's not honoring the Lord in his walking ways, but I simply said to him, I said the blood of Christ is sufficient for the worst Sinner.
No, friend, we're not all going to end up there after all.
God is under no obligation to bring All Souls to heaven. He's made the way plain. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. It all hinges on this one thing. But think ye of Christ unto you therefore, which believe He is precious, What is your response to Him? We don't need to get into this thing. Why? I had a spiritual experience or a spiritual awakening, or I gave my heart to Jesus when I was a little child. What do you think of Him this afternoon or this night?
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If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be a curse. The Lord cometh.
Can you say with clarity what your position is in a relationship to God's beloved Son?
Oh, if there's any hesitancy on your friend, consider it, considering where you stand.
Know there are those that will hear those sad words depart from me, cursed into everlasting fire. I never knew you.
Another man came into my office expressing the same sentiments.
So I'm sorry about your father and I said, well, thank you for your sympathy, but I'm very thankful to know where he is. He's with Christ.
He said and I know I'll see him again. And he said, well, we hope so.
I said no, we know so on the authority of the word of God. We know Christianity deals with that which is sure that thou mightest know the certainty of the words of truth. How wonderful to have the truth of God. I said we're going to speak about 3 homecomings. Let's turn Acts 2 for the second one.
The homecoming of the Savior.
Acts 225.
For David speaketh concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh shall rest and hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, or hades the unseen world. Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One, to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with Thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David.
There is both dead and buried in the sepulchres with us under this day.
Therefore, being a prophet, in knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ.
To sit on his throne. He's seen this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, or again Hades neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
David prophetically Speaking of what was true of the Lord Jesus. David's body saw corruption, but the holy One, the Lord Jesus, his body did not decay. He was sinless. The effects and mark of sin would not even in death would not affect his body. It says his flesh shall rest in hope, that is the body laid in the grave and rest, but it rested in hope, in hope of the resurrection.
But what may I want to draw your attention to?
Is.
Verse 28.
The last part thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Oh, to think the Lord Jesus who poured out his soul into death, that one that was laid in the lowest pit, the one after enduring all that man could hurl against him, the one that endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, the one that was forsaken of God in those hours of darkness. The hours of darkness passed, he says, Father.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit. What a moment.
When His Spirit departed, and when a moment three days later, when He was raised bodily into the presence of his God, Thou shalt make me full of joy without countenance. Oh, to conceive of the Father's delight in His beloved Son, the one who could say, I do always those things that please Him. I have finished the work which Thou gave us me to do. What a welcome.
For the sun. For the Savior.
But you know, that very same welcome, that same measure is the measure of our own, those of us that are Saints of God.
One end in First Thessalonians 4. But before we go there, let's turn back to Matthew 25.
Matthew 25.
And really looks on to the day of reward for faithfulness of believers in the Kingdom. But I I want to just draw a few thoughts from verse 21.
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His Lord said unto him, That is one that had gained 5 talents and trading. He said, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make the ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
He says well done.
A good and faithful servant.
You say, how is this in Luke's gospel? We read when we have done all that was commanded us to do, we shall say we are unprofitable servants. We've done what was our duty to do.
If you did everything you were told to do, and you did it in perfection, you're an unprofitable servant. That's the minimum standard. So how is it here we could find one called a good and a faithful servant?
You know, there's two servants in Scripture that are spoken of as being profitable. One is John Mark. We sometimes speak of him as the failing servant that abandoned Paul and Barnabas in the work of the Lord. But as Paul writes from the prison cell, he says bring Mark for he's profitable.
Oh, it's grace. The other man is, when we referenced earlier, it was Onesimus, a man that had stolen from his master, and when he sent back to his master from Paul, Paul says he's profitable to me and to thee. It's all grace. Even in reward here, good and faithful servants is grace. But it goes on. Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Do you not see the heart of God? It's not faithful in many, reward in many.
It's faithful and few reward in many, but now this enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Sometimes we think of the joy of those that have departed to be with Christ.
But all to think of his joy here it's enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. It's his joy. Now turn to 1St Thessalonians chapter 4.
And this is what we're waiting for.
The homecoming of the Saints.
Verse 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent or go before them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
The coming of the Lord.
That grand and happy reunion, I just want to call attention to a couple points here. It says that in verse 17. Then we which are alive and remain, that's our present hope. We're remaining, waiting, just waiting for the coming of the Lord. She'll be caught up together with them, that is, with those that have died before in the clouds.
Then to meet the Lord in the air, It's not to meet the Lord in the clouds, it's not to meet them in the air, it's to meet them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. I see it this way.
That when the last Trump sounds, all the redeemed, all those that have died in faith from Adam to the last one that's fallen asleep and death, their bodies will be raised incorruptible. We shall be changed.
Those of us that remain shall be caught up together to meet them in the clouds. And so you have the entire redeemed company, not just the church, but everyone that's died in faith. All those, as it says in First Corinthians 15, they that are Christs, that is coming, all that belong to Him. The entire Redeem company is reunited for the first time. They're all together on the cloud, and then the entire fruit of the Lord's work goes to meet Him together.
To meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord? What a hope, what a prospect that awaits the believer.
But friend.
Unless you believe the gospel, unless you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unless you by faith reach out and say, Lord Jesus, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. If you do not do this, you'll be not part of this happy scene.
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This happy company.
Instead, we hear those fearful works, and these shall go away into everlasting fire. Oh, May God grant you to be decided for Christ tonight.
It's not a time to be half hearted, to be uncertain, to be unsure. Make sure you bow before Christ even tonight on Him as your Lord. Let's sing #5.
Or rather #8.
Before we sing it, I had one more.
Comment Notice verse 3.
When the Savior at his coming shall his own and glory bring, will you be among the number? Will you too? His praise is sing.
Before our youngest was born. Before my parents youngest grandchild was born.
My father said to me, Willie.
I'm already praying.
That this little one.
What we found among the numbers.
That will sing the Savior's praise.
Two weeks. Two days ago.
After seeing my father lying in death.
I left my mother's house. We drove home with happy hearts, but sad hearts.
Reflecting.
The little one and my father had prayed for before he was born.
Unsolicited and announced, began to sing this very hymn. Will you be among the number? Will you to his praises sing? Oh, what a word to grandparents. Pray, pray on, I thought. Well, there's the first answer to Dad's prayer since he's been gone #8 Might we stand and sing it?