Acts 10:1-8

1 Timothy 3:1-9

Philippians 2:1-9 Thank you for the beautiful songs and playing this morning. Today I’m going to be reading from Philippians Chapter 2. The Apostle Paul was writing to the church at Philippi and he said “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any [...]]]> Let This Mind Be In You: Download Sermon

Philippians 2:1-9
Thank you for the beautiful songs and playing this morning. Today I’m going to be reading from Philippians Chapter 2. The Apostle Paul was writing to the church at Philippi and he said “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if an bowels and mercies. Fulfill ye my love, that ye can be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory: but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God . But made himself of no reputation and took of himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name:” We’ll close our reading with verse 9 of the 2nd Chapter of Philippians and our thought is from verse 9 and this is a tremendously challenging verse and I hope you will listen as I read the verse. The Apostle Paul was using these words in verse 5 “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” And this is a very very challenging thought to let our own minds be as the mind of Jesus Christ. I should say to you in my message today that it would be near impossible for us to have a perfect mind and perfect motive and perfect attitude in everything that we do. One of the writers said “let us be perfect as he is perfect.” And we know perfection in the flesh is impossibility. But the message is that we strive to have in us the mind of Christ and to do as Christ did during his earthly ministry and to be as much as we can an abstainer from sin and immorality and all of those things. The Apostle used these words as he spoke to the Romans in Chapter 12 and verse 2 and he said “and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind what is the good and acceptable will of the Lord.” There is some difficulty even with Christian people to not let their minds be conformed to this world. The things of this world are all about us and they are enticing and they are enjoyable for the flesh part but our minds as the children of God need to be of a higher elevation and a more serious nature than the things of this world. So let us not be conformed to the things of this world but let us be transformed into things that are as much like the mind of Jesus Christ as much as we possibly can be. In Chapter 3 and verse 15 of the Philippians letter the Apostle Paul said “let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in anything ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you.” As I said we know that it’s impossible for us to be perfect in the flesh but as much as we are to strive to be like minded as the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are several things I want to talk to you about that I believe was like the mind of Christ. Several Sunday’s ago I preached to you on the subject of God Is Love and we know that the bible teaches us that God is love and Jesus Christ is love. He gave his life for us without hesitation and in that it shows us by example that Jesus loved us and gave himself for us. Inasmuch as he loved us the bible teaches us that we are to love one another. Jesus said “by this shall all men know that you’re my disciples if you have love one for another.” People are watching us much like the camera that’s on us this morning for the internet service the camera is catching every word and every action of our body likewise the bible teaches us that God is watching us and all humanity is watching us. Every member of the church is watching us and we are watching every member. Therefore we are to display our actions and reactions to one another the love of God that’s in our heart. And if we display it right according to the scripture people will see the love of God in us and believe that we have been born again and that we are good examples as the children of God. Jesus said “I give you a new commandment”. You know what this new commandment is he said that you love one another. I cannot explain it any more clearer than this this is not my commandment this is not the commandment of the church however we believe in it entirely that we should love one another. I’ll say to you this morning that I have my faults and you have your faults but we are to love one another in spite of our faults. If you’re going to be a real friend if you’re going to be a real genuine Christian we are to accept one another as we are and we are to love one another with all of our hearts. Jesus said “I write no new commandment unto you but the one you had from the beginning” and he said “and this commandment is that ye love one another as the children of God.” This is not a new commandment I am not introducing to you a new commandment but I am simply renewing your minds by a way of challenge that the bible teaches us that the mind of Christ is that we love one another as the children of God. And the bible uses another verse that is really hard on us it said “if any man say he love his brother whom he hath seen and hate the Lord whom he hath not seen he is a liar and the truth is not in him.” Now we say we love the Lord and we do but we haven’t seen him and we say we hate our brother whom we have seen that’s been born of the spirit of God and that’s a mistake. For the bible says if a man hates his brother the love of Christ isn’t in him. Now that simply means this we may not like his ways and we may not like his thinking but in spite of whether we like his ways or not we will love our brothers and sisters because they are our kinsman in Jesus Christ. No man ever so hated his own flesh the bible said or no real Christian will hate despise disregard their own brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ he was asked by one fellow what was the great commandment? You all know the great commandment is “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind.”And the second one is like unto this it said “everything is based upon these two commandments.” The second one is “love thy neighbor as thy self.” I want to repeat to you one of the verses I read to you in the beginning of my message. One of the favorite quotations of Bro. Brooks during his ministry is listed in the second chapter I read to you he said “let each esteem other better than themselves”. Sister Dorothy, Sister Anita, Sister Carolyn, Sister Ruth and I don’t know if there were others that sat under his ministry and pretty often he would quote this verse and challenge the members to esteem their brothers and sisters in Christ above themselves. Now I’ll tell you on the front end that is not an easy task. It is easier to find fault with one another. It is easier to criticize one another. It is easier to let our tongue get away from us and say things we wish we could take back but it’s hard to take them back once they’ve gotten out there and you may be sorry for them. The Proverbs of Solomon said “a soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stirreth up anger.” I need to caution you this morning to hide this verse in your hearts and be mindful of this verse that by doing so you may have the respect and esteem of your brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.  And Jesus said “love your neighbor” now that doesn’t mean whoever lives on this side or the other side of you. It does mean them but it also means a wider span than just the people that live next door. Let me say to you that in this verse is the respect of the property of other people the respect of the feelings of other people and to esteem and love your neighbor. All this means don’t go and move the fence line or don’t go and bump into his automobile and then go off and not tell him. If you respect your neighbor you’ll treat him like you want to be treated and it will bring fort fruit. Respect your neighbor’s husband and respect your neighbor’s wife and so many times in these times in which we live comes problems with this and you’ll say “well Bro. Gentry what has this to do with the mind of Christ?” The mind of Christ is when a person has taken a wife or a husband it’s your responsibility to leave them alone because they are already taken. You know this little ring on my finger this morning that Ms. Puddin put on there says without saying “he’s mine” and don’t go fooling around with them. Now I’ll take that one step further this morning when I see you I shake hands and speak to you and we’re supposed to do that with our Christian brothers and sisters. And I think that not only out of respect but it’s fellowshipping with one another. Let the mind of Christ be in us. Paul used this word but I don’t think we can successfully do this but he said “greet one another with a holy kiss” but that will get you in trouble most of the time. He didn’t mean anything wrong by that but we have to be careful and respectful and sometimes when you may be trying to do what’s right then it may lead to a friendship and relationship that’s not in the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are not to covet the things our neighbors and friends and brothers and sisters have in the Lord Jesus Christ and we covet not them to do something wrong to get the personal belongings of other people but we have all respect for them. It goes on “love thy neighbor as thyself” if you love your neighbor as yourself then you won’t be shooting anybody because “thou shalt not kill” the commandment says. Bro. LB is here this morning and he can tell you that he’s been called out and is called out for circumstances not only of families and maybe others that have been close by and somebody has become mad and irritated and their pointing a gun in the direction of someone that is his neighbor and perhaps in his own household. And this is contrary to the mind of God. We are to love everybody especially the members of our own household. Then he said “we’re not to commit adultery” we’re not to take our neighbor’s wife or husband and take advantage and that is a sin in the eye’s of God and he said don’t do that. He said to esteem your brother and sister and love your brother and sister in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it goes on “thou shalt not bear false witness” you know what this means not to tell a lie on your brother or sister in the Lord Jesus Christ. The mind of Christ is to tell the truth he is the truth and ye shall know the truth and truth shall set you free and if the truth shall set you free you shall be free indeed. And so we are to love and respect our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. The next thing I want to talk to you about this morning the mind of God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ is grace and mercy I have said to you in time that he is the God of all grace and the God of all mercy. What is mercy? Well mercy is opposite of justice. Sometimes people will say “all I want is justice” no we really don’t want justice. Do you know what I mean? If we received justice we’d all die in our sins and be turned into hell forever and forever. But instead of justice we receive merc y the mercy of God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we have just received mercy then grace picks up and saves our soul. Grace is something that is unearned undeserved but is a favor of God. Paul used these words to the Ephesians he said “for by grace are you saved.” That means when we are saved it is not earned it is not of ourselves but it is simply of the mercy and grace of God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ. If we could have been saved of our own merits then Jesus Christ would have died in vain but he did not die in vain. It’s through grace and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul the Apostle said to the Romans “that the grace of God is freely given us”. Now it doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost us anything financially to be saved but it does cost us coming humbly before God in repentance and faith giving up humbly your own self trusting in him. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Isn’t this wonderful how the mind of God is that any should perish but that all cometh to repentance. So when the mind of God is when not any should perish the grace of God that brings salvation appears to all people everywhere. Aren’t we glad the grace of God appeared to us and that we understood and knew what it was and when convicted sought the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved by his wonderful marvelous grace. I cannot be thankful enough in my heart and life this morning for the grace of God. The Apostle Paul went on in Ephesians chapter 4 and I want you all to listen to this and he said to let “all bitterness and all wrath and anger and clamor and all evil speaking be put away with all malice.” Boy this is a challenge isn’t it? This is the mind of Christ “let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and all evil speaking be put away with all malice.” And then he followed that with this verse “be ye kind one to another”. I challenge you this morning as your pastor to be ye kind one to another. It is not very Christian like to use ugly or profane words. It is not very Christian like to speak disrespectful of your Brothers and Sisters in Christ. But be kind to one another as you would want to be treated. Speak to them with a soft and kind voice and then he said “forgiving one another as God Almighty hath forgiven you.” Let’s just look at that for just a minute. What if God had not forgiven us when we come to him? What if he had held our unbelief in him against us all the days of our life? We would have been lost forever and forever. But in as much as God for Christ sake forgives us of our sins we ought also to forgive one another of our sins. And Jesus said “if ye forgive not men of their trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you.” Now that’s a tough verse and what it means is if you hold malice in your heart to your Brothers and Sisters in Christ and do not forgive them neither will God forgive you. And I can’t afford that but maybe you can. It’s too expensive for me. I need to be at all times in the fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and in fellowship with God. I forgive people that don’t ask me. I forgive people that have no intention of asking me for forgiveness. Do you know why I do? So I will have fellowship with God and that I will have the spirit of the Lord when I get up to preach. And he also said “if ye forgive not men their trespasses he won’t hear you when you pray.” I can’t afford that but maybe you can. It’s too expensive for me. Therefore he said “as God for Christ’s sake forgives us we ought also to forgive one another.” “Fulfill my joy” he said “that ye may be likeminded having the same love being in one accord and of one mind.” What a challenge to us as Christians. What a challenge to us as members of the church. “Fulfill my joy” in other words make the Lord happy. Do his will and serve him that we may be of the same mind as God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ having the same love for one another as God has for us. “We know” as John said “when we passed from dark into light because we love the brethren.” Isn’t that wonderful? We know we have because we love the brethren so fulfilled the joy of the Lord. Make him happy we’re not only doing it for ourselves or our church but we’re doing it because it fills the Lord Jesus Christ with joy. Seeing us do that his name is glorified and we give him glory and honor and praise when we are likeminded. “Be ye likeminded as the Lord Jesus Christ.” Let the Lord be in you as also the Lord Jesus Christ as the body may be of one accord and one mind. And when we respect each other and love one another and when we esteem one another when we love God we can be of one accord. These harmful words if we let our tongues loose “it’s a little member” the bible said. “The tongue is a little member but it can create a world of fire.” You know what we do when we but bridles on horses so we can control them and the ships have helms so they may be controlled and likewise we are to bridle our tongues. We studied in Sunday school two or three Sunday’s ago that if we speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love then it’s like a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. Let us use the choice our words the choice of our actions to be like minded of Jesus Christ that we may be a perfect example to people that are looking at our lives and people are looking at our lives. People are looking closely at our lives and it may even be somebody in our own family that we love and if we live soberly and righteously and like minded as Jesus we’ll be a good example to the people in our community.

Blog Post 072510 – But Made of Himself No Reputation – Philippians 2:1-9 – 3367 Words

Ephesians 3:14-20

For our devotional I’ll be reading from the 3rd chapter of the Book of Ephesians. The Apostle Paul was writing to the church at Ephesus and he said beginning with verse 14: “ for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of [...]]]> Unto Him Be The Glory: Download Sermon

Ephesians 3:14-20

For our devotional I’ll be reading from the 3rd chapter of the Book of Ephesians. The Apostle Paul was writing to the church at Ephesus and he said beginning with verse 14: “ for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breath, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask of thing, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church my Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” That’s reading verses 14-21 of the 3rd Chapter of Ephesians for our devotional and in those verses is a lot of the things Ms. Kathy sang in her song this morning. It’s the truth and the word of God. My subject this morning is verse 21 of Chapter 3, the Apostle wrote “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” This is a wonderful expression of the need for us at church to give honor and glory to the Lord as we pass this way. This is a new subject for me in over the 52 years I’ve tried to preach this is the first time I’ve used this verse as a text of a subject but I’ve used it many times in my messages.  Bro. Gibbs said to me when he was an old preacher and I was a young preacher he said “it was a lot easier for me when I was younger to speak on new subjects. My thoughts came quicker I could remember my mind was sharper and I have found that to be the truth.” Nevertheless on this new subject I speak to you. The Apostle Paul was addressing this particular New Testament church in the city of Ephesus. However this message is for all churches everywhere to give honor and glory to the Lord. So he said “unto him” that is unto the Lord. The first question comes why should we give honor and glory to the Lord? The first reason is by God Almighty and thru the Lord Jesus Christ and by the aid of the Holy Spirit created all things heaven and earth and all things therein. And he created humanity of whom was the highest creation of God and to this human family to which we are a member we are to give honor and glory to God thru the church because he is our creator our Heavenly Father. Paul said to the people in Athens “God is not worshiped with men’s hands as though he needeth anything.” He doesn’t need us to survive he doesn’t need us to be God. He is the true and living God. He is the eternal almighty everlasting omnipotent God. But he deserves and urges the praise and glory and honor that comes from his people thru the New Testament Church. So unto him be glory. In the 148th Psalm in the 149th Psalm and in the 150th Psalm they all begin by saying “Praise ye the Lord.” The Psalmist knew a long time before that Paul wrote these words that it was his duty and the people of God to praise the Lord and in one of those chapters he said “and sing him a new song.” That is sing unto the Lord. Sing honor and glory and praise might be rendered to the Lord. Praise him for his might acts the Psalmist said. Praise him for his creation. His acts his creation is beyond our understanding and we are here to enjoy the wonderful creation of God. “Praise him for his excellent greatness.” I thought about this for a moment the Prophet Isaiah said “his ways are higher than our ways his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.” They are past our understanding yet they are given for our use but God is so much above us we cannot understand everything that he does but we do understand that he does all things for good to them that love him. So we give him honor and glory and praise. We praise him with the trumpet. There are 4 or 5 verses here that are about musical instruments. Some people have questions about musical instruments in the church but they take them in their homes they use them at weddings and festival times. The Psalmist said “let us praise him with the trumpet the psaltery and the harp. Praise him with the trimbal and even the dance.” I have a little history book in my home and when I was a boy we went to church on a revival Sunday and there was an elderly man from the community there on that Sunday and I always wondered why he didn’t come to church. He was a good man and after church they went to dinner and he said “let’s have the blessing” and someone asked him “Mr. Charlie why do you always have the blessing?” He said “well for one it gives everybody an even start and number two we ought to be thankful to the Lord for what he has provided for our benefit.” But going home I asked my mother “where has this man been? He hasn’t been to church and he’s well thought of in the community.” She said “well when he was much younger they were having some pie suppers and dancing in our community and the church turned him out for dancing and he didn’t come back.” Well now that probably wouldn’t happen in these times. But the Psalmist said “let us praise him with the trimbel and let us praise him with the dance.” In fact what it is saying is in whatever you do praise the Lord. Praise the Lord with the cymbal and with a high sounding cymbal. Now I don’t know the difference in a low sounding cymbal and a high sounding cymbal but I think it is saying to let our musical instruments and our voice praise the Lord. And the closing verse of Psalms 150 says “let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” He is worthy of our praise he is worthy of our honor. In this verse it said “unto him” and then it said “through the church by the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are the Lord’s people and we are his representatives and we ought to praise him. In verse 20 it gives us a good reason to praise the Lord. Paul said “now unto him” that is “now our prayers are unto the Lord. We do not pray to idol gods or calves but our prayers are to the Lord. And then he said “who is able” I like the words “who is able” and he has proof that he is able to help us and bless us again and again and again and when we think we’re just down and out and begin to ask where is the Lord he comes on the scene and lets the whole world know that he is the Lord. If there is any doubt about that then look at the tornadoes  and  you can look at the hurricanes and you can look at the rain and somebody is in control of them and that somebody who is in control of them and who sends them is the Lord. And perhaps with some of these things he’s trying to remind us that he is the Lord and that we are to return unto him nigh unto him that is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above that which ye ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. To him whom we pray we believe and our faith is that God is able to go way beyond for what we ask or what we think or what we want and to provide that and to bless us with his spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus . Now again the Apostle used these words to the Philippians he said “my God who is our God” his heavenly father is our heavenly father but how could we know that because he has sent the spirit into our hearts which cry Abba Father. So he said to the Philippians “my God is able to supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory “. Anything that can supply all of our needs is worthy of our honor our respect and our praise. Let me just say to you this morning that the bible said that he is the head of the church. Now somebody said just the other day “cut your head off and you’ll see where you are” you see your brain is in the head and the head gives the directions to our body and to the things that we do. Jesus Christ is the head of the church he’s the head of this church at least we believe that he is and because he is the head of the church we are to give our respect to him not only respect but honor glory and praise and worship. And then the bible said he’s the head over all things to the church now there’s a difference between those things. He’s the head of the body if the church is cut off from the head then we’re as dead as dead can be. But he is the head over all things to the church and that means he is our source of strength and he is our source of blessings. He is our source for everything in the New Testament church and he is able to supply everything that we need. If there is something that is lacking we are to go to him that is head over all things to the church and to ask him to help us and to supply our needs. And so he said “he’s the head over all things to church unto him be glory in the church or thru the church.” We are here to worship on this morning and let me say to you one of the ways we honor and praise him is thru worship. And you may ask about that worship is in obedience to the command of God Almighty since the resurrection of Jesus Christ the church and the saints of God have worshiped the Lord on the first day of the week and they began then and Paul used these words he said “fail not to do that.” We are commanded to worship the Lord. So when we come together in the house of God before we begin and when we begin just the gathering of the people gives praise to the Lord because it’s in obedience to what he said and then not only is this so but when we begin to sound the piano and when we begin to sing the music this is a sweet smelling odor in the nostrils of God Almighty and he is honored and glorified in all of this. The songs are about him and they are drawing our hearts to attention for worship and it makes the people aware the worship has begun and that we are to worship him in spirit and in truth. The piano is only an compliment to the song but in the music as the Psalmist said “we praise the Lord” and we do it in the church and in the midst of the people of God and then he said “by Jesus Christ.” Everything goes thru the mediator office of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray we go thru him and when we worship we worship thru him and when we sing we sing thru him and all of these things bless the Lord. Not only does the song and the music bless the Lord but when the minister stands up to read the word of God it gives honor and glory and praise to God Almighty thru the Lord Jesus Christ and thru the church of the living God. And when the preacher begins to read the word of God it’s a wonderful thing. I think that maybe we do not have the respect for reading the word of God as we ought too. Let me just say to you the children of Israel had a dry spell when they were taken over into the land of bondage. The people could not read or sing as they once did they said it was hard to sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land. So when they were beginning to return to their homeland the bible tells us that Ezra the scribe stood at the gate of the temple and read from the Law of Moses and they all stood up and gave attention to the Lord. When the bible is being read we should give attention when the bible is being read we should absorb as much of it as possible because it is the word of God. God breathed and that what it means is that all scripture is given by the inspiration of God. And the next phrase in that verse is “and it is profitable” and it means it is worthwhile to us that sit under the sound of his voice. So when the minister reads or when the Sunday school superintendent reads or when the Sunday school teacher reads we ought to give audience to the word of God and let it speak to our heart and let it do that we are praising the Lord and giving him honor and glory and praise. Not only in the reading of God’s word but in the preaching of God’s word. The bible said “it pleased God to save people that believe” people believe because they hear the message of the Lord Jesus Christ thru the church. Jesus gave the church the responsibility of sending out the message to this world and the unsaved. And then he said this and I think I mentioned this verse two or three Sunday’s ago but he said “when the gospel of this kingdom is preached in all the world for a witness of me then shall the end be.” Perhaps all the world has not heard but it’s coming close to the word of God being spread in all the world and people having the opportunity to hear and thru this preached word people are brought to attention that they are sinners and that Jesus Christ saves and he is the only sufficient sacrificed Savior for the sins of the whole world. So when the message of the gospel is preached by a preacher man the Lord is honored thru the church and he is exalted as he ought to be. Not only the songs but the fellowship of the people of God our fellowship is a manifestation of the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts. The most part of our service as we’ve been this morning is been about love. Bro. Jeff led three songs and they were about love. Bro. Chuck taught the Sunday school class this morning and he talked about love 1st Corinthians chapter 13 about love. Our love for one another pleases God and he is honored and praised when his people love one another. The Psalmist said about this “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help.” Why do we lift up our eyes to the hills? Because God Almighty our Creator and Jesus Christ sit on the throne of glory the throne of grace in heaven looking down upon us. And we lift up our eyes because all of our help comes from him. We are glad and it’s true. He said “I lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help for my help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” He that keepeth Israel will not slumber or sleep. Isn’t that wonderful the Lord will not sleep this morning but his eyes are upon us. I’ll mention something but it’s something you’ll know. Jesus said not a hair on your head would drop out without him noticing that isn’t that amazing. I don’t have many left but when a hair drops from my head he notices and if he notices a hair dropping out then be sure that he notices everything else about you. And when you say something or do something that glorifies and honors him he is so glad. The scriptures said “all good and perfect gifts come down from the bountiful hand of God.” Our spiritual gifts not one of them comes from Washington and not one of them comes from Nashville but every one of them comes from our heavenly father and he makes us to sit together in the church in heavenly places in Christ Jesus enjoying those good gifts. So let us all praise the Lord. Let us all worship him in spirit and in truth. I’ll say to you this morning the bible said there was more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repenth than over ninety nine just persons which need no repentance. Honey if there is anything that please God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit then it’s another soul that comes into the family of God. All of heaven rejoices and the bible says two things about that there’s rejoicing in heaven and then it said there’s rejoicing in the midst of the angel’s of God in heaven. So when people are saved in this world though they may be saved in the midst of the congregation of the righteous and we rejoice at their conversion how much more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner and it comes about with the Lord’s church the New Testament church which is keeping house and carrying on for the Lord here in this world. So we are glad that these things are so. I need to take this one step further before I close my message this morning. The Apostle Paul said to the church at Corinth “I have espoused you to one husband.” Lord have mercy what does that mean? Speaking to the church he said “I have espoused you” the first thing it means is that the Lord promised Jesus Christ his son that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ would be his bride in glory. And the bible teaches us that when we get to heaven that we’ll enjoy being the bride of Christ and we’ll be able to sit down at the Lamb’s supper with our Master and the bride and the head of the church the Lord Jesus Christ. And unto him be glory in the church and through the church by the Lord Jesus Christ and then it ended with these words throughout all ages world without end. We are while we’re here to give honor and praise to the Lord. Praise ye the Lord the Psalmist said praise him with a new song. Praise him with a new song praise him through all ages. Our praise our worship is not perfect we’re human beings  but when we get to heaven we’ll be able to give him perfect praise throughout the endless ages of all time and unto him be glory. He’ll receive the glory that belongs to him. The time is coming when this world is going to become his foot stool and when the world becomes his footstool we’ll reign with him in glory throughout the endless ages of all time. Bro. Lambert preached the doctrinal sermon before the association a few years ago at the Siloam Association at Old Union Church in Bowling Green Kentucky and I’ll tell you this and then close as he spoke to a large congregation of people he talked about the old ship of Zion. By the old ship of Zion he was talking about or representing  the New Testament Church and he said the old ship of Zion sailed on the ocean of time and he was mentioning the fact of a little organized church with about 17 members sailed in a unified covenanted body together to the shores of America.  And when they got here they set up housekeeping for the Lord and unto him be glory in the church by the Lord Jesus Christ. If we worship the Lord this morning it is not I it is not you it is not we but unto the Lord be honor and praise and glory be to the Lord forever more. Let all things he has created give honor and glory and praise to his name.

Blog Post 071810 – Unto him be glory in the church… – Ephesians 3:14-21 –  3551 Words

1st Pslams Again we thank you for these good songs and music and your presence here. I’m going to read from 1st Psalms the First Division of Psalms this morning the entire chapter. Beginning with the first verse “blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel [...]]]> The Blessed Man: Download Sermon

1st Pslams
Again we thank you for these good songs and music and your presence here. I’m going to read from 1st Psalms the First Division of Psalms this morning the entire chapter. Beginning with the first verse “blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of the water that bringeth for his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” That’s reading from the entire first chapter of the Book of Psalms this morning and for my subject this morning I’m going to speak to you on “The Blessed Man” and the word man used in this sense is used for both men and women. The Lord blesses alike both men and women. Before I begin to address that question I want to say to you that the Psalmist David contrasts the righteous and the wicked and I think there is a lack of contrasts in the righteous and the wicked in these times even with ministers and churches. There is so much difference in them. The bible said the righteous is as bold as a lion and that means they are not afraid of today and they’re not afraid of tomorrow they are not afraid of death the judgment and eternity because the Lord has settled their peace with them and they have peace with God through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But the wicked is very different. He said with the ungodly are not so and they are not as they seem to be. The ungodly sometimes seems to be having a good time they seem to live a very pleasure filled life and a very productive life but they are not the real thing they are counterfeit and so the ungodly are not so. The truth is the simple truth is the saved is prepared for heaven and the unsaved is going to be turned into hell with all nations that forget God. So having said that I’m going to begin to address my subject this morning “A Blessed Man”. The Lord wants to bless all of us and I’m glad that he does and I think all of us wants to be blessed. And I’ll ask the simple question n who wants to be blessed of God to this large congregation of people this morning is an indication to me that everyone present wants to be blessed by the Lord. You believe in God you believe in Jesus Christ and you believe in eternity and we’re all going to live somewhere in eternity when we’ve passed from this life. We are all who are here this morning is blessed of God I myself feel very blessed of the Lord I won’t take any time to numerate all of my blessing of the Lord but I am blessed in a very great way. The first step in any person’s spiritual life is to be saved. You cannot be blessed of the Lord without being saved. So through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we are blessed of the Lord. There is no formula or prescriptions in the bible that prescribes the blessings of God without first having faith in God and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I’m glad that when we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts we receive our very first spiritual blessing. I believe our first spiritual blessing is salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul said it’s not of yourself it’s a gift of God. So God blesses us with his holy spirit in salvation. And I believe we remember that blessing all the days of our life. There’s just something about it some people are not satisfied with what they receive and some people do not immediately testify to that which they received but 40 or 50 years down the road when they are down in the gulley or on the rock they go back to that which they received earlier in their life and say the Lord blessed me right here. Jacob continued to say that the Lord blessed him at Bethel you remember when he trusted in the Lord when he and Joseph were together and Jacob was on his dying bed and it was his privilege to tell Joseph’s sons his grandsons that the Lord blessed him at Bethel. So we can tell our children and grandchildren that the Lord blessed us but we probably none of us were at Bethel but at church or wherever that we were but we can tell them the Lord blessed us there. The Psalmist in these first few verses assumes that the people he is writing to are all saved I think sometimes it’s a mistake for us to assume that everybody is saved because everybody is not saved. Ms. Barbara McDonald expresses to me on occasion and says that everybody I’m preaching to is not saved and I hope you don’t assume they are all saved. Preach to us like there are people in the congregation that’s not saved and I have taken thought on that. A blessed man will meet some detours on the way every one of us a man or a woman. The Psalmist listed three things here in this chapter concerning this detour. He said “a blessed man a saved man wouldn’t want to walk in the council of the ungodly”. Now I’ll say to you that it is human nature for the ungodly to take his stand he will be quick to give advice or show examples and we have that every day that confrontation in our life. But we ourselves don’t want to walk in the council of the ungodly or be found giving ungodly advice or being ungodly examples to the lost and dying world. Secondly he said for the detour he said “we would not stand in the way of sinners”. The cruelest thing a Christian could do is stand in the way of a sinner. People are watching us let me remind you this morning people are watching us and we need to be careful in what we are saying  and what we are doing less we lead somebody in the wrong direction. The first defense of a sinner when you go to talk to them about trusting in the Lord they’ll say “well I better than so and so who is your church member” and I’ll say “you may be on the outside but the least saved person is better off than the unsaved”. And when I use the word least everybody gets the same when they are saved but sometimes because of the slackness or unused of our abilities or talents do not shine as they ought to then we put them in the category of small Christians but really there are not any small Christians. But we are all big Christians in the Lord and we ought to let our light shine and let the people see something in what we profess to be and glorify and worship the Lord. The second thing I said to you about standing in the way of sinners and sometimes Christians become a stumbling block to sinners and they will use the expression if that’s Christianity I don’t want any of it. I had a friend a kinsman in the flesh who said of his brother and he said if that’s Christianity I don’t want any of it. We don’t want to be standing in that place when people don’t want any of it. We want people to have a desire to be the children of God and to be the servants of God and let their light shine out in the world so people might see what they profess to be. The final detour he said “or to sit in the seat of the scornful.” You all grab hold of the back of the seat and hold on for just a minute this morning you all know who the scornful are those that are saved the scornful are those who are members of the church and the scornful are always finding fault with their brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. I might say to you that it’s not any trouble finding fault with the other person it’s just not any trouble you can find plenty of fault with you pastor this morning find fault with his preaching find fault with his living and his life and find fault with his family that’s not hard to do. But the scorner will go outside the church with it and will scatter his opinions his feelings with everybody else. Let me say to you that is a no-no a no-no and I’ll say to you this morning that being a scorner only leads to disaster for you as a Christian. It may hurt the person you are speaking of it may hurt the church you are speaking of but in the long run it will hurt you more and you know what it will do? It will rob you of the joy of your salvation and you’ll find yourself outside the blessings of God and you won’t enjoy the fellowship of the church and you won’t the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ll be like David was when he said “Lord restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.”  So in simple it’s about controlling our tongue. But a soft answer turneth away wrath but a grievous answer sirreth anger and this is so all of the time. The delights of a blessed man is this he delights in the law of the Lord. Are you glad this morning that you can come into the house of God. The Psalmist said “I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord.” There was a time he said when he couldn’t go the doors weren’t shut or barred shut or locked but he was afraid for his life. Saul the King of Israel was threatening his life and he said the birds can go and build their nests around the house of God but it’s a sad thing when the birds can go but it’s a sad thing when God’s people can’t go or won’t go into the house of the Lord. But let us delight in the law of the Lord and let us be glad to go into the house of God. In the house of God is strength in the house of God is fellowship in the house of God you’ll be able to find the blessings of the Lord. I’ve observed people who’ve come and for some reason forsake the assembly of their self in the house of God but when trouble comes you’ll find them coming back into the house of God. And when they come back do you know what they find? They find the same word being read the same message being preached like before the same songs being sung and it brings a delight to their soul and it brings blessings upon their life. And they ask themselves without saying so why have I neglected so long my duty my obligation in the house of the Lord. So the Psalmist said “his delight is in the law of the Lord” and then he said “doth he meditate day and night”. Honey it’s a wonderful thing to meditate in the law of the Lord for you and for me. We can take God’s word early in the morning while the dew is on or in the evening when the lights are burning we can sit with our bibles in our laps and we can read from our bible and the word of the Lord. It renews our strength in the law of the Lord. It renews our faith in the Lord and it’ll bring blessings to our life. Warm tears run down our cheeks sometimes as we meditate in the word of the Lord and as we read from God’s holy word. It is a blessing to be able to do that. Now to some people and I want you to listen to that but to some people the word of the Lord is boring. They don’t find any joy and they don’t find any satisfaction and I hope that’s not anybody here this morning. I hope you find strength satisfaction and hope in the word of the Lord. To some they seem to find no entertainment and joy in the word of the Lord. Bro. Cornwell uses this word and when he comes he usually sits on the back seat and he’ll say I sit back her where I can watch him it is not dull there is some life and some strength and some will say it is fantasy and there’s nothing too it. You ought to say as far you know there’s nothing to it because there is something to it there is something to it. Bro. Jack and Sister Carolyn are on vacation this morning but when he came to seek the Lord from another faith and that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t saved but he wasn’t saved and he came right down to the front seat and after a while Bro. Brooks said to him “and you do believe there’s something to it don’t you” and it wasn’t long until he got saved and he could testify there was something to it. It was real genuine a blessing. So a blessed man will delight in the word of the Lord and then he turns the page to the destiny of the ungodly. And before I talk about the ungodly one more word about the blessed man he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. You may have stood on a bank or a river or stream and looked at a tall oak tree. Its roots grow deep and it branches grow tall. You admire the strength and the beauty of the tree. You see the stream here is a relative synonym of the spirit of the Lord and the roots draw water from the Holy Spirit tall Christian draws strength as he comes to church and worships the Lord as a tall oak tree. People who come regular to church are rooted and grounded in the word of the Lord and they grow tall and exemplary people in the house of God and people begin to notice their lives and sometimes people come so far in such a short time. It delights me to see younger people and older people who are being saved grow simply grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This tree will bring forth its fruit in due season. We don’t have to worry about that it will just happen. Its leaf will not wither that is your testimony your life will be your testimony the words of your mouth will be a testimony and then he said “whatsoever you doeth shall prosper.” Isn’t that good? And then he said “the ungodly are not so”. I watched the ungodly I do I was called to do the funeral of a man and his family said “don’t read any bible verses and don’t say anything about the Lord.” I said you’re making a hard request I’m supposed to represent the Lord I’m supposed to talk about the Lord and we did the best that we could. I did read some verses of the bible and I did say a few things about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I don’t know if it was satisfactory or not but the simple truth is it doesn’t matter how much a man or woman may prosper and it doesn’t matter if they have a tall stature in the community but if they are unsaved then they are not so they will be turned into eternal night and darkness forever and forever and forever more. The bible said they are like the chaff. Have you ever watched the chaff or the husk when you have taken it off the wheat or the grain or the corn and when the wind blows it just goes everywhere and so it the ungodly there is no stability about them. But the Lord knoweth the way of the ungodly the bible said the ungodly and sinners shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous. Now I’m going to take the last one first we encourage and welcome the sinners to come into the congregation of the righteous here and we know it’s an advantage for them to come and they have an opportunity to be reminded how bad they need the Lord so they can come and we welcome them to come into our church but there will be no unsaved not one in heaven there will not be one saved person able to get in the door of the kingdom of God. So he said they shall not stand in judgment the judgment of Jesus Christ will be fair the most fair judge in the world. But if you have not been saved and your name is not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life he’s going to give you this judgment “depart from me I never knew you into everlasting destruction” that’s sad that’s hard and that’s a terrible defining moment but the truth is that you have willingly come there in that condition. People do not have to stand in judgment without the Lord they can be saved. They do not have to stand and hear that sad denunciation “depart from me I never knew you”. You can make preparation while you live to meet the Lord. So sinners will not be able to be in the congregation of the righteous when we depart from this life to be with the Lord. And finally the Psalmist said in the last verse of Chapter 1 “the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous” and he does. Every name is written down on the Lamb’s Book of Life and every grain – and I think I used this other Sunday and he’ll gather every grain into his garner. You’ll be safe in the fold of God but the way of the ungodly shall perish. There will not be one sinner get into the kingdom of God to live there forever and forever and forever. While me may not contrast here the righteous and the wicked and we may not separate the righteous and the wicked God Almighty is going to separate them out there in time to come. I’ll give you this example and then I’ll close my message. My dad while he was up at New Macedonia up on Pea Ridge and the revival was going on and the pastor said I’m going to divide this congregation tonight. I want you all to pay attention and follow as instructed. I want all the saved people to come to the front and the unsaved to stay in the back and when everyone had divided, he asked the saved to turn around and look and they got a glimpse of what a division would take place. Son, wives, husbands, daughters, daughter in laws, and a great revival meeting broke out because they saw the need of it. It was their own people they were going to be separated from and many got saved. Maybe sometime we need just divide and see who’s on that broad road that leads to destruction. The subject of my message is a “Blessed Man”. You are blessed I am blessed. Thank the Lord that we are blessed but there will be some that’ll be on the other side and let them know they are in a dangerous position and on a dangerous road to destruction. A man said to me the other day that people are not making any distinction about hell and hell is real and I said “amen”. Hell is real and we need to tell people about it and our people are going there and it ought to be an awakening for us and when we come to church we should tell our people who are unsaved if they don’t trust in the Lord they’re going to Hell. Jesus said “if you believe not that I am he then ye shall die and will be turned into hell with all nations that forget God.” It disturbs me when I read I was joking with a fellow yesterday and he asks if the bible said anything about liars going to hell? I said yes it said “all liars” it did “all liars and ungodly” and I can’t mention them all but they’ll be turned into one nation that forget God. Honey there won’t be any unrighteous there, there won’t be any holiness there, there won’t be any songs of the church there, there won’t be any preachers preaching there, there may some preachers there because of their false teachings and every one of them who are there will be and I expect that to be true. But every one of them professed falsely and was not saved by the grace of God.

Blog Post 071110 – The Blessed Man – 1st Psalm – 3650 Words

Proverbs 14:33-35 I invite your attention to the reading of the scripture Proverbs Chapter 14 and verse 33. The wise man Solomon said “wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding: but that which is in the midst of fools is made known. Righteousness exalteth a [...]]]> Righteousness Exalteth a Nation: Download Sermon

Proverbs 14:33-35
I invite your attention to the reading of the scripture Proverbs Chapter 14 and verse 33. The wise man Solomon said “wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding: but that which is in the midst of fools is made known. Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. The king’s favour is toward a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that causeth shame.” That’s reading the last three verses of Chapter 14 of the Book of Proverbs for our devotional this morning. The subject of my message is from verse 34 that I read in your devotional. “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” This ought to be good instruction to us on the birthday of our country in that the best way that we can being a righteous nation exalting God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ. Before I begin my message this morning I want to read you something from the Constitution of the United States but before I read that I am glad to be an American this morning and I hope that you are. We have the most religiously free country in all of the world, I don’t know if we really appreciate it but I hope that we do and I hope that we walk and live as such as to keep it in the condition as good as it is or better it if we possibly can. Other than Brother Richard this morning I don’t know how many of you know what the First Amendment of the Constitution is. The first 10 Amendments are known as the Bill of Rights and most of us at some time when in school studied the Constitution which is the Bill of Rights. These first ten were adopted December 15 1791 and that’s before the Declaration of Independence and it has stood good for us all of these years. The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Thank the Lord and I hope you are thankful this morning there are a lot of countries bound by religious ties and dictations and there are some that are religious dictations that are absolutely foreign to the word of the Lord. I think it’s important for us to meet here this morning at the North Carthage Baptist Church without fear of being molested by somebody and this First Amendment gives us the guarantee of that right. We can come here and sing and pray and preach according to what we believe the bible to teach and I think that’s a wonderful thing. “Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of press or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” We can also petition God Almighty on how we want him to bless us and help us in our services and in our lives. Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. I’ve said to you over the years so many times only God and the Lord Jesus Christ are righteous. Our righteousness comes from them. The country, the nation itself are in some ways like a church. The church is not a building but it is made up of members of that church. A nation is made up of its people so its people for us to have a righteous nation a nation that keeps the commandments and statutes of the Lord why its people must be righteous. We believe in the separation of church and state however let me just emphasize to you the importance of Christian people well established honored and honorable people taking part in the governments of our cities our states and our country that we may have a degree of righteousness in our country. Righteousness does not come from the land it does not come from the trees but the righteousness of our country comes from the people that make up this country and so our peoples righteousness comes from the imputed righteous of Jesus Christ and the involvement of our people in making laws and keeping those laws and statutes of God Almighty are really important. While righteousness exalteth a nation it means it elevates it and it raises it up. In respect sin is a reproach to any people now I’m not always right and I hope I’m wrong about this but as I see it in these times that sin is more of a priority than it ever has been in the history of the world. Now I know that from the very beginning people have been sinful and I acknowledge that and perhaps because we are more sinful is because there are more people and there are more people in the world. From the beginning God Almighty chose a nation of the world to represent him now in the New Testament time Jesus organized a church and the church was to be the light of the world. And now Jesus has gone back to his heavenly father to sit in his mediator office and not with us in person therefore he organized the church to be the light of the world having the responsibility to preach the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. But in the Old Testament there was no church and so God called Abraham from the Err of the Chaldees and asked him to leave his father’s house and his people and to come out and be a light to the world. God told him in Genesis Chapter 12 and verse 2 he said “ye are a chosen nation and in being a chosen nation I’ll bless you and you’ll become a blessing to all nations or to all people in all of the world.” And so that was true for a long time in this world people were born and born and born and Abraham passed away and so did many more people that didn’t know the Lord and didn’t care anything about the Lord corrupted the nation of Israel. Now I don’t have time to go through all the scenes of that but I’ll say to you that after a period of leadership under David and Solomon people forsook the Lord yes forsook the Lord. They began to worship Bail and Bail is a false god and he cannot hear he cannot see and he cannot help in any way. He is if you will a little god and we need to see him in that light. In Elijah’s time he said “let it be known today as he prayed to the Lord who is God in Israel.” This morning we as a church and as a people of this nation should pray to the Lord that all of America and all of the world would know that God is God. He is the everlasting eternal almighty and all wise God. He is from everlasting to everlasting. He is from the beginning to the end. He is the only one that keeps promises as we spoke about a few minutes ago in a song as we sang. As long as the people walk in the commandments and statutes of the Lord they will be blessed by God Almighty but when we begin to turn aside out of the way and walk in our own ways and worship idol gods which brings idolatry to us why we get in trouble. So after a period of David and Solomon and actually before that Samuel was the last judge before Saul was King of Israel and the people of Israel came to Samuel and they said “Samuel make us a king so we can be like other people.” Now I want to say to you this morning that I think we have a pattern or tendency to want to be like other people. Now the want to be like other people may be all right and if it is I say Amen to that. But to be like other people just to be like other people doesn’t accomplish a thing in this world. In this case they were turning away from the leadership of God Almighty and his servant Samuel and turning to idol gods. So they said “give us a king so that we may be like other people”. And so Samuel cried and cried and he cried because he thought they had rejected him and the Lord said “Samuel they have not rejected you but they have rejected me.” So it was on a much bigger scene and a much larger scale if they had been rejecting Samuel. However the Lord said to Samuel “give them a king but tell them they’ll be giving parts of their means to the government tell them that this will lead to no good for them.” During the reign of Reoboam who was King Solomon’s son the nation of Israel divided and here was a people representing God Almighty to the whole world and they divided do you know why the became divided? It was not because of righteousness it was because of sin. Jeroboam came up out of Egypt to take the ten tribes and the bible said of Jeroboam that he was the son of Levate who caused Israel to sin. This man cause Israel to sin but before I go on with that I want to say to you that a king or a queen or a national leader or a president and even a pastor of a local church can lead people to sin against the Lord and cause them to go astray from the ways of God. What did Jeroboam do to cause Israel to sin? The first thing he did was to forsake the true and living God. He told the people of these ten tribes we’ll be places of worship you see in those days they had two places of worship and the main place of worship was Jerusalem were the house of God the temple was and when the people went back to Jerusalem to worship Jeroboam was afraid that the arks of the ten tribes would be turned away from him and turned back toward Jerusalem. And so he said we’ll build some false places and put some calves in there for the people to worship. Can you imagine our people worshiping a calf this morning as a god? I can’t envision that in my small mind this morning yet I know there are thousands and millions have worshiped calves and things made of stone. Not only did he build idol gods he built places of worship. I need to say to you this morning that not every house that has the name of church over the front door is the Lord’s house. There has been a direct line of descent from Jerusalem to now that represents the Lord’s house. The house of God is the foundation of the truth the preaching of the gospel the upholding of the truth is not left to government or to governments but is left to the New Testament Church to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we let down the gap or let the gate open then our people will go astray so it’s important that we know that the church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth here in this world and we here at this church do our part to uphold it and not only to uphold it but shall perpetuate it as long as this world shall stand. So the people of Israel forsook God and they forsook the house of God. The third thing they did and I think is prevalent in this world you see the tribe of Levi represented the Priesthood it began with Aaron and his son and no persons from other tribes were to be ordained but in this rebellious nation they began to ordain priests the bible said of the lowest degree and they began to lead them in the direction of away from Go d rather than toward them. Now I want to say to you this morning that I think we are falling into this category you see this church believes in a divine God called minister and I don’t think there is a substitute for Paul said it pleased God who separated him from his mother’s womb and called him by his grace to deliver the message of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.  He went on to say that “I went not back up to Jerusalem” which meant he did not have to go back up there to ask the home church if he was called to preach he knew he was called to preach. He didn’t have to ask them about the revelation of Jesus Christ when he got saved he did leave Damascus and he went into the desert and stayed for 3 ½ years perhaps preparing for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he said “neither did I receive it of man, neither was I taught it of man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Now I believe in education and I’m not against that but honey you can’t put enough education in a man to make a preacher out of him. He must first be saved and then called by God Almighty and then have some study time and then he must have some time for meditation and prayer with God Almighty in order to be an effected minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So what I think we’re in today is we are in a time when thousands of people have chosen the profession of preaching instead of being called by God Almighty. I think maybe ministers ought to give more time to it but it is looked at in these times more of a profession than a high calling of God from on high. The Lord told Jeremiah during these difficult times now I want you to listen he said “Jeremiah you go and stand in the gate or in the door of the Lord’s house” in other words when you get them in stand in the door so they’ll hear what you’re saying. You know it would be awful this morning if I went back and preached from the door and I didn’t let you out of here but what I’m saying is that would probably be awful. But the Lord told him to go and stand in the door of the Lord’s house and speak to these people and proclaim to them the word of the Lord. He said “tell them to enter in to the house of the Lord and you stand in the gate and proclaim to them” what was he going to proclaim? The first thing he was going to say to them was to trust not in lying words in the temple of the Lord. In other words they were coming into the temple of the Lord and it was all mouth worship and their heart was not in it. We must when we worship God worship him in spirit and in truth it always has been that way. Just being in the temple was not good enough. We could come into this church house until we are dead with old age and go the way of the earth and die a sinner person so it’s important when we come in that we come in that we come in to hear the word of the Lord. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord the Apostle Paul said. So we open our eyes and do you know what the Lord did to Israel? Now I’ll get back to it in just a minute. But the Lord gave them eyes but they could not see and he gave them ears so they could not hear so in simple he gave them the spirit of slumber. In fact they went so far off in sin that he turned them off cut them off but that doesn’t mean they can’t be saved but it means that the truth of the gospel is not as abundant to them as it was in their earlier days of their history. And the scripture said “he grafted in a new people” and do you know who got the blessing of that? We did we did this country got the blessing of that but let me remind you that Paul said in the Book of Romans how much easier it would be the Lord cut off those that were grafted in and re-graft the old people of the nation of Israel. I’ll ask you this morning what this means and what caused him to do that, sin sin sin. Sin is such a reproach God will just not accept sin and he frowns upon that. Jesus came to forgive us of our sins and transgressions but we must make some good choices for the Lord. The bible said of Mary that she had chosen that good part and that no man can take from her. And so as he spoke to them about lying of words and he said the temple the temple and he said Jeremiah stand in the gate and say to the people of Israel to amend your ways. I want to say to this people and our country that I think we need to amend our ways and we can begin to amend our ways by coming into the Lord’s house on the Lords day. The Lords day is no more as sacred and sanctified and set aside as God meant for it to be at the beginning of time. We ought to take heed of this he gives us six days and one day is his day and we ought to respect that as God made it. We ought to come into his house to worship Him the God of all creation. Moses was called up into the mountains to receive the Ten Commandments and he was gone forty days and do you know what happened in forty days? The Israelites said “this Moses we don’t know what happened to him and he’s been gone to long and so they said Aaron make us another God” and you know we’re the same kind of people aren’t we? We are we’re the same kind of people and we’ll say Lord that can’t happen to us and that can’t happen to our church honey you listen to me I’m nearly sixty eight years old and it won’t be long before I’ll be gone and some of the people will say I remember when old Bro. Gentry was telling us these things in 2010. And so he said “amend your ways, amend your ways.” We need to abstain on non religious things on the Lords day. I said to the people the other night in Goodlettsville where I was in revival and I said to them I like the TN Titans and every now and then I’ll watch them and sometimes Chuck will go to one of their games but you know what I despise what they do and you say what do they do? Honey they set their playing and scheduling on church time you watch and read their schedule is on church time they have no regard for God Almighty or his house. Why do they do that? It’s all about money it is it’s all about money yes I know we all have to have money but honey the love of money is the root of all evil so you need to lift up your eyes. Jeremiah said amend your ways and if you amend your ways God will stand by you and if you don’t you’re going down the drain as it was. So this morning I’ll say to the people of our country I’m just one and I’m just a little ol’ preacher from Carthage Tennessee but our country needs to amend their ways. I went to LaVilla one day last week for lunch at the round table and a fellow who’s a candidate for the State House came in and I said “come here I want to talk to you a minute and I knew he was going to be unimpressed about what I said and he said what did I want to tell him and I said people are tired of all the bickering and backbiting and arguing and back and forth. Our people want somebody to represent us and get something done for the good of the people” well I don’t think it absorbed too good but at least I made him aware that the people of Smith County is tired of all this selfishness in their hearts and there are two things about it number one they are all party party and I guess that’s the thing to be and the other thing is it’s all about money. It is if you’ll vote for mine I’ll vote for yours and somebody will pay us for our vote. I’ve got two more things before I’m through with my message this morning. Jeremiah said “the Lord said my people have committed two evils”. Think about that my people not the sinners out there and not the synagogues of the devil but my people. The first one is they have gone after strange gods and I’ve already talked to you about that but in going after strange gods they have committed idolatry. God Almighty in the first commandment that he gave to the children of Israel he said thou shall have no other Gods before me and then he said thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images or any likenesses thereof. In other words God is God serve him and worship him all the days of your life. The second thing he said they have hewn out broken cisterns that can hold no water. Now you know what a cistern is back in the old days they built cisterns that caught the water that ran off the roof but if the cistern is broken and leaks out the water it’s not worth a thing to have it and catch the water. What in the world is he talking about? He’s talking about this simple thing he’s saying people say trust in the Lord trust in the Lord and being saved but he says they are like empty cisterns empty cisterns. Let me say this morning brothers and sisters is the most important thing in this world is getting our people saved and getting them prepared for the judgment and live in the glory land. If we just teach them to come into the house of the Lord and that they don’t have to trust in the Lord and be converted it’s an empty cistern for them. And you know what an empty cistern is like. Jesus said it’s like building your house on the sand and when the storms come the house is swept away because it’s built on a faulty foundation. There’s only one foundation for you to build your life and hope on and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus said he that heareth my sayings and doeth them I will like unto him a wise man that build his house on a rock and the storms come and the winds blow and the house fell not because it was founded on a rock. I can tell you that the old time religion will be good for you in life it will be good for you in death it will be good for you in the judgment the foundation will not fall from under you it has stood the test of the fiery furnace it has stood the test of the Lion’s den and it will stand before the final judgment when we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and he tells us to go on it that you’ve been faithful over a few things and I’ll make you ruler of many things enter now in to the joy of the Lord and we’ll be glad. I’ve got to close my message my time is gone but thank you all for hearing me this morning and I hope when we have gone from this place that we’ll think of these things and not apt to be in an uproar and tossed to and fro in an evil wind of doctrine. I’ll say this before I close this morning it scorches me when I see somebody burning the flag it scorches me when I see somebody trampling on the flag and it also scorches me when I hear somebody talking derogatory about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our spiritual mother is the church and she has bore the pain and the burden of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we can be born the children of God.

Blog Post 070410 – Righteousness Exalteth A Nation – Proverbs 14:33-35 – 4193 Words

Romans 1:18 Good Morning, I’m going to read one verse this morning for our devotional I had planned on reading more however time is running on so I will just read this one verse. From the 1st Chapter of the Book of Romans these are the words from [...]]]> The Wrath of God: Download Sermon

Romans 1:18
Good Morning, I’m going to read one verse this morning for our devotional I had planned on reading more however time is running on so I will just read this one verse. From the 1st Chapter of the Book of Romans these are the words from the Apostle Paul as he was writing to the brethren at Rome and he said “for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” During the revival that closed a couple of weeks ago I spoke to you about the “Love of God”, “God is Love”. One of the great texts of the bible I think is “God is love.” But on the other side of that he is a God of wrath and it is just as important that I tell you that he is a God of vengeance as it is that I tell you that he is a God of love. For a few minutes this morning I want to speak to you about “the wrath of God”. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven and there is coming a time when the wrath of God will be revealed upon all people who fail to repent to the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of their soul. The last part of this verse said “who hold the truth in unrighteousness” and what that means is when people are told and told and told that God is love and that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and they hold that truth in unrighteousness and that the wrath of God waiteth for them sometime out there in the future. The bible said that hell was created for the devil and his angels now lest you get the wrong idea about that God Almighty created hell. It was not created by me or any of us here but God Almighty created hell. He did not create it for people like us but he created it for the devil and his angels however it is needful that I tell you this morning that the Psalmist said “the wicked shall be turned into hell with all nations that forget God.” Having said that the wicked shall be turned into hell I need to say to you that hell is a real place. People are being taught and many are believing that it’s a fictitious made up place but I’ll say to you that it is real as the bench you sit on this morning. If you do not believe on Jesus Christ the son of God ultimately you are going to land in a lake of fire forever and forever which is hell. So I want to talk to you a little while about the wrath of God that is reserved by God Almighty waiting to be poured out. It is a frightening thing for me to think about the wrath of God not being mixed with anything to soften the destruction for the people who are going there. It is a place of death it is a place of destruction from the presence of the Lord. I can’t hardly imagine completely being separated from the presence of the Lord. The unsaved are in the house of God this morning where the presence of God is being manifest continuously in their presence that they may know God is real and that heaven is real. But if they put off their circumstance of seeking the Lord and being saved ultimately they’ll be turned into hell with all nations that forget God. So I’ll share this with you the Psalmist said a long time ago that the “sorrows of death encompass me” and then he said “the pains of hell got hold upon me”. He was alive very much alive he was a young man but what does it mean “when the pains of hell got hold upon me”? He could just see him coming to die without the Lord and being turned into hell and that circumstance the pains of hell got hold upon him. I’ll say to you without contradiction this morning that when I was a sinner boy the pains of hell got hold upon me. I’ve never been there and I’m not going because I believe and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ with all of my heart and the pains of hell got hold upon me and the bible said it’s a real place and the reality of it touched me as a sinner boy and so I believe it is a real place. Now people say that it is not a real place will tell you that it’s the grave and I deny that. Let me just say this morning in a personal way that I’ve been blessed to have 2128 funerals in my ministry and I’ve looked over into the grave place and in all of my seeing and looking and I have never seen any fire or anything destructive to humankind over in the grave. The bible said that hell is a place of fire in fact it said it was a lake of fire. I thought about Center Hill Lake up here and Cordell Hull Lake and people that cannot swim if they fall in without a life jacket more than likely their going to perish in the lake. But how much more will they perish in a lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone? Let me say to you that it is an unquenchable fire and that means that it shall never be put out. When we call our fire departments out to a fire most of the time they’re able to put the fire out and if not they just let it burn down but in this case in this lake of fire people are dying and burning and begging to die in this lake of fire where there is no end to that fire. In this lake of fire the fire burns day and night and the scripture said “where the worm dieth not” and is unquenchable. The worm the scripture refers to is our soul. Our soul lives on and as it continues to live and cannot die there is fire and torment and destruction in that place forever and forever more. The bible said that “that place” is a place of torment day and night. A man said to me one time he was determined to go to heaven because he had had enough of the other down here. You see you know there are those times down here in this world where there is destruction upon us but it is nothing to be compared to the destruction and the torment and the weeping and gnashing of teeth that shall be in the lower world.  Jesus said of people who forget to trust in the Lord he said they’d be turned where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.  I want to say to you that the people are profusely weeping and crying aloud “Lord have mercy on me a sinner” but there is no prayer being answered down there. But here in this service this morning there is a line open to the throne of grace where you can receive mercy and grace from the Lord Jesus Christ. But the rich man that was turned into hell is still praying and still praying and still praying and you’ll be like him and it will one continuous prayer forever and forever in that place where there is no peace. The Prophet Isaiah used these words a long time ago he said “the sinners in Zion are afraid” I can relate to that. There was a time when I came into the Lord’s Zion the church of the living God and you know the the church and the message of the church the gospel and the songs and the testimonies and prayers of the people of God it heaped more fear and trouble upon me. So the sinners in Zion are afraid and I’m glad they are afraid for the bible said of Noah he moved with fear and prepared an ark “to the saving of his house whereby he obtained witness and was righteous” and God took him into the ark that he built by the same token. When sinners move with fear in repentance and fear in the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord will take them into his own ark of safety and they’ll be safe and safe and safe for ever more in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus said when he comes he’ll have the “fan in his hand and he’ll thoroughly purge the floor and he’ll gather the wheat into the garner and the wheat is the saved and he said of the unsaved that he would burn them with unquenchable fire.” Notice the word unquenchable fire for it will always be there. I used this verse during the revival meeting “wide is the way and narrow is the gate which leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there where it’s at.” A sinner person doesn’t have to do a thing to be on the broad road and the end result of that broad road is that they’ll die of their sins and the Lord will cast them off and they’ll be turned into eternal night eternal destruction forever and forever and forever. Everybody is familiar with the story in the bible of Lazarus and the rich man. I used this story just the other day at a funeral and I said to the people that when Lazarus died he was carried by the angels into paradise into the presence of God and the rich man also died and was buried and in hell he lifted up his eyes.  Now he didn’t go to hell because he was rich but he went to hell because he failed to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. “In hell” I understand that to mean that he was in a place and was already there in that place and he said when he lifted up his eyes being in torment in deaths flame. And do you know what he did? He looked away and he could see Lazarus in the bosom of Father Abraham he still had his eyes he could still hear he could still feel and all of those things and he said “Father Abraham.” The bible said plainly that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to the glory of God but you know some people fail to do that in this world. But it will come to pass either in this world or in the lower world in hell. There was this rich man who faired everyday he wore fine clothes but that didn’t meet the qualifications of being saved but what meets the qualifications of God Almighty. But the bible said God commanded all men everywhere to repent and those who fail to repent of their sins will perish and so that was his circumstance. As he prayed he said “Father Abraham send Lazarus down here so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water so that it will cool my tongue.” Oh, mercy he was just praying for a drop of water just a drop of water that’s not much you see I have a drop of water on my finger here but when your whole being and soul is on fire a drop of water won’t do much to quench that and it’s too late to receive the mercy of God. In this life if people are going to escape hell they’re going to have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I’ll say to you ineffectually this morning that the bible teaches and I believe that the people must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ while they live and that there are no opportunities when death has come upon us to trust in the Lord. God Almighty said to his apostles “fear not them that can destroy the body but fear him that can destroy both body and soul in hell” oh how bad it must be. The scripture said the Lord said to this man the rich man “that I fixed a great gulf and when you want to get out of that place you can’t no matter how bad you want to get out you can’t because I fixed it that way and you’ll be there forever and forever more.” Just a little more in my message this morning God Almighty spared not the angels that sinned. You remember there was war in heaven and the devil and his angels fought against Michael and the Archangels and the devil and his angels were cast out. The bible said they were delivered to the change of darkness reserved for the punishment until the last day and that punishment is to be cast into the bottomless pit forever and forever more. The smoke will go up from the wrath of God where they are burned day and night. The best people that have lived without trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ will be turned into hell with the false prophets the idolaters the adulterers the whoremongers the liars and thieves and whose ever name is not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I ask you as I come to the close of my message is your name written on the Lamb’s Book of Life? Honey my name is written there I know my name is written there. We sing a little song sometimes that says “he wrote my name” he did when I got saved. He did he wrote my name when I got saved and he said he wouldn’t take it off and nobody else can take it off. But if you’re here this morning and unsaved then death destruction and eternal torment fire and hell awaits you. It is real and I don’t want you to go there I plead with you to not go there. Simon Peter said the Lord is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance. You don’t have to go the Lord has made everything ready for you that you may seek him and be saved and be prepared for life death and destruction and all eternity. Bro. Carr said when he told me his experience said I had a hard time but it wasn’t on the Lord’s part he was always willing to save him but he had a hard time just giving his life to the Lord Jesus Christ but he said when I got saved he made me so happy. You see when the Lord takes that burden away it will make you so happy and it will make you happy today to know you’ve escaped the damnation of hell but I’m not going there and people who are saved are not going there. But sometimes our family our friends or some people that go to our church here refuse to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will die in their sins will be turned into hell and all nations that forget God.

Blog Post 062710 – The Wrath of God – Romans 1:18 – 2555 Words

Galatians 3:6-9

As I mentioned to you in the preliminaries today is Father’s Day and last night before I went to bed I watched David Letterman and he talked about Valentine’s Day, Halloween and other holiday’s but said Father’s Day is a special holiday. I guess [...]]]> Abraham: The Father of the Faithful: Download Sermon

Galatians 3:6-9

As I mentioned to you in the preliminaries today is Father’s Day and last night before I went to bed I watched David Letterman and he talked about Valentine’s Day, Halloween and other holiday’s but said Father’s Day is a special holiday. I guess it’s because he has a son that’s about six years old and I’m also honored to be a father and a grandfather and I’m glad for being able to do that. And I think the Lord appreciates fathers being fathers and men being men and so I’m going to have a little something to say about that in my message on today. For our scripture reading we’ll read from the 3rd chapter of Galatians. The Apostle Paul was writing to the churches of Galatia and verse six he said “Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now I’m going to read some more verses but I’m going to stop right there. Abraham is an Old Testament person and people who think to be saved is different in these times from the early times just needs to read this verse. Abraham was saved because he had faith in God he believed God. And God Almighty accepted his repentance of sin and faith and awarded him righteousness through Jesus Christ who had not yet been born but stood as a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. In these times people are saved when they repent of their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for it is accounted for them for righteousness. So we are certainly akin to faithful Abraham we are akin to him in the flesh and perhaps we are more akin to him thorough the spirit of God which brought righteousness to him and to us. “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same which are the children of Abraham.” Not really the children of Abraham but Abraham is the father of the faithful because he was faithful and because we’ve been saved and are faithful and he is our forefather in the Lord Jesus Christ and we are glad to count him as one of us. “And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, “In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.”” I hope you understood that verse as I read. God foreseeing is that he was looking through time and looking through the future and knowing we would need somebody to save us, God sent the Lord Jesus Christ to save us and sanctify us and wash us in his blood. HE that is God preached unto Abraham the gospel, isn’t that something? Before the days of Jesus Christ before the days of Solomon God Almighty himself preached unto Abraham the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me say this to you early this morning that God Almighty also preached the gospel unto Adam and Eve the gospel, early in the Garden of Eden. “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” We’ll close our reading with these four verses in the 3rd Chapter of Galatians this morning. My subject this morning is “Abraham the Father of the Faithful.” We all who are bible readers, Sunday school teachers, church people we are all children of Abraham. I’m not going to start my message with Abraham but I’m going to start with something else and lead up to Abraham. We have one father as children of God and that’s God Almighty, God Almighty is our Heavenly Father. I should say to you at the beginning of my message the greatest example to fathers, the greatest example to all the earth is our Heavenly Father, God Almighty. He is the God of all creation and he’s the Father of all nations and he looks at all the people with the same eyes and they’re all judged by the same basis and I can say to you that he is fairer to you than your mother and that’s fair. In the New Testament the bible set forth the model prayer. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and said “when you pray say, “Our Father which art in heaven”. He is our father if we’ve been born the spirit of God and we can address him as our father because he is in heaven and seated on the throne of his glory, the throne of grace, the throne of mercy where he can be approached. As I look at the situation this morning we have one heavenly father. Now there are many gods in this world but I can’t talk about all of them but you cannot worship many gods and be very successful. But you can have one eternal almighty God heavenly father that you can worship with all of your heart. You can pray to him, you can walk with him, you can live with him by your side and you will live the happiest life in all the world but it won’t be problem free. We’re in the flesh and we’ll be in the flesh until we die and in this flesh there are troubles and sorrows all the days of our lives but when we have trouble and when our families are filled with trouble we can take our trouble to our heavenly father and he is approachable, he is understanding, he is merciful, he is kind, he is the God of all grace and he will help you with these things. Simon Peter said “cast you cares upon him for he careth for you.” He is able to take your load and to bear your load. I’m not able to bear every load but I am appreciative of the opportunity to bear some loads for God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ. The bible refers to Abraham as the “father of the faithful.” Now Abraham is not in the same category as our heavenly father God Almighty but Abraham is an exemplary to all of us a long time ago and I’ll say to you that as he is the father of the faithful it is most helpful that all earthly fathers be men of faith. You need the Lord Jesus Christ and you need God that you may be a genuine head of your house and you may be a leader of your family and your children. If there are men here this morning that are not saved and you do not know the Lord in the forgiveness of sin it’s important for you, it’s important for your family but more important for you that you come to know the Lord in the forgiveness of sin that you may walk before the Lord and that you may walk before your family as a father is expected to do. Abraham being the father of the faithful obeyed the Lord and that’s important and I’ll say to you that it’s always important to obey the Lord. The bible tells us in Samuel that obedience is better than sacrifice. We can sacrifice our lambs we can sacrifice our money and we can even sacrifice our lives but to obey the Lord is more important and it’s more pleasing to God that we obey him than to sacrifice. God Almighty does not expect physical sacrifices anymore, they offered those in the Old Testament but he expects us to offer our bodies and our lives as a reasonable sacrifice unto and that does not require death. That requires us to using our physical talents for the honor and the glory of God. When Abraham was called out to a country of which he knew not of the bible said he went out not knowing of where he was going. Now most of us live fairly close to the community or to the communities of where we were born. But sometimes the Lord may direct us to go in a path that leads us from people that we know or churches that we know and go out somewhere else into the world. And when we do we go out by faith obeying the leadership of the spirit of God and going out and preaching and testifying to them that need the Lord. The bible said by faith he sojourned in a strange land as in the land of promise dwelling in tabernacles. That meant that he dwelt in tents or temporary places. This morning as fathers and mothers we too are dwelling in temporary places. We are blessed to have a nice home and a nice community but this is a temporary place for us. God has prepared for us who are saved a long home beyond this vale of tears where we can live with him and be with him through all eternity. The bible said that he dwelt with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise. Our children that we brought into this world and born into this world are living with us in the same situations living in tabernacles or houses that are temporary and we are looking on to the end of this life where we’ll be with the Lord forever and forever and forever more. So concerning Abraham the bible said he obeyed the Lord and that’s important for us to remember. Now the next thing I want to say about him is the Lord said I know Abraham and I’m glad the Lord knew Abraham and I am more glad that he knows me in the forgiveness of sin and more than that I know him also. And then he said and he will command his children and the Lord had faith Abraham would command his children and his household. And then the bible said after him they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. Solomon said train up a child in the way it should go and when it is old it will not depart from it. I believe in that and I believe we should start training our children when they are born and you know in many cases the girls will be tremendously similar to their mothers and the boys will be tremendously similar to their fathers. Now going away from some scripture reading here yesterday afternoon I’ve been real busy this week and I told Chuck and Ms. Puddin that I hadn’t had time to prepare my message for tomorrow as I ought to have and I asked them for some suggestions for my message this morning. When I asked Ms. Puddin she asked me “what is the best thing your father ever did for you? And what’s the best advice he ever gave you?” So I began to mull over those things and my father was a Christian man, a Sunday school teacher, a deacon in the church and faithful to attend and worship the Lord. But you know when I thought all of those things over and I have some things I’m going to talk to you about in just a minute but when I thought of those things it did not immediately come to me what was the most important thing but there are many things that are similarly important about what he taught me. I want to begin with some early things before I came to the age of responsibility and I think these things are important for our fathers to teach their children while they are young and their hearts are tender and they can remember and while they are willing to obey them. My father taught me early to show respect just simple respect to people around me now he would have given me a tremendous scolding for not respecting older people. We don’t see respect for elderly people now a man said to me not long ago about a person he said he didn’t have any respect for people he didn’t say anything but he observed and it showed this fellow didn’t have any respect for other people. And so people are looking and observing our lives every day when we were children we were taught to say Mr. and Mrs. and I think that is right. I saw a man the other night at the funeral home and I called a man Mr. Eatherly and he said to me “I’m not Mr. I’m just John” but I told him that he was Mr. to me because he was older than I was and I was showing him respect. I think we should teach our children to say Mr. and Mrs. and I know that’s not popular in these times and we were also taught to call our kinfolks by Aunt or Uncle and we that as long as they lived. He also taught us to love our neighbors just simply to love our neighbors. In these times we don’t know who lives next door to us and that’s just the way it is. But in some community’s people still get acquainted and have fellowship and things going on but we need to learn our neighbors and to show our love and respect for them. Jesus said in the second commandment to love your neighbor and he also said to do this and to do unto them as you would have them to do unto you. I think that is a wonderful teaching of the scripture don’t you? How would you like people to treat you when you are meeting them or engaging them in things and how would you like them to treat you as you would treat them likewise because the Lord said for us to do that. Thirdly this morning he taught me to be a leader. When I was a young boy my dad said “anyone can be a follower” you know anybody can be one of the crowd  but it takes somebody strong and well this may not be a good word but I’m going to use it on you but it takes somebody prideful and strong to be a leader. It means you’re not going to be pushed around with every wind of doctrine and every change that comes into the world and the community but just simply be a leader of your house and be a leader of the people around you and be a leader in your church. I can tell you that this country needs some leaders in almost every facet in this world and if our church people would become leaders in this world in these capacities we could influence this world we are living in. And so for the fathers that’s in this church this morning I want to encourage you to become leaders that you teach other men or teach boys to grow up and be men. That’s right for boys to grow up and be men. When we are children we speak as children and understand as children but Paul said when I became a man I put away childish things so we need to put away childish things. The most important thing he taught me about was when I came to the age of responsibility I needed to be saved. That’s important isn’t it? We’re not prepared as we are to meet the Lord. Jesus simply said “ye must be born again” and he taught me about being born again and I was born again when I was eleven years old I came to know the Lord in the forgiveness of sin and thus he became my Heavenly Father, my Savior and all of those things. Paul used these words “he” he was talking about a man who is responsible for his household. My dad taught me to work, Ms. Puddin and me got married on August 13, 1963 and when we got married because of what my dad taught me I felt the responsibility of the household. It was not her job, she could work if she wanted to, but as the head of the house it was my responsibility to make sure we had a home and the things we needed. Paul said this “he that provideth not for his own hath denied the faith”. That is strong teaching, if we are not providing for our household we’re not doing what is right and fulfilling our obligation. He said if a man provideth not for his own he hath denied the faith and is worst than an infidel. No person this morning in this building wants to be an infidel. We are people of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and God Almighty. In simple since I don’t have much time left I need to say my dad was an example for me as Abraham was to his family. He was so faithful to the Lord that when he called upon him he took his son his only son actually to offer him up on an altar on that hill. He even built the altar and tied him to it and the angel of the Lord said do not harm to him and he looked and a ram was caught in a thicket and he took that ram and offered him up. Finally this morning when we were talking Ms. Puddin said to me “tell the young people of this church” and I’ve had time to think about this but she said “tell the young people of this church especially the girls when they are looking for somebody to be their mate, their spouse to look for someone who will be a family person somebody to be a father to their children and somebody who will be faithful to them in that respect. You know this is a sizable thing to do especially in these times, you know you can say those marriage vows but there’s more to it than carrying them out till death do us part is a responsibility. Favor I tell the young people when I council them I tell them it’s one thing when their pretty or good looking it is. It’s one thing for a girl to pick someone who’s handsome but those things will wear old on you but there’s one thing that won’t wear out if it’s cultivated and that’s the root or it should be the root of all marriages that take place and that’s love. Paul said “love never faileth” if you love him then proceed but if you don’t love him because of his or her beauty or because of physical attractions the best thing to do is to cancel out right now. When we were having Elizabeth’s rehearsal the other night we were back in the fellowship hall and Patrick’s dad said to Elizabeth “you still have time to cancel this thing” you know the vows had not been read and there’s a lot of responsibility in this and it’s the responsibility for the boy becoming a man and taking the responsibility. When you are old enough to take a wife you should be old enough to take responsibility and be a man. When David was dying he said to his son Solomon “son be strong and be a man” and that’s what we should do. One other verse “favor is deceitful and beauty is vain” but Solomon said “a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised.” I’m going to paraphrase that a little and say to you that a man that feareth the Lord should be praised, you’ll be proud if your husband fears the Lord, you’ll be proud if your father fears the Lord and you’ll be rewarded when you grow up. Now when I was about 15 years old and going to high school and I thought I had become wiser than my father and you see he had an 8th grade education and in those days people would say a good 8th grade education. My dad had a good 8th grade education and I thought I had become wiser and time passed on when I was about 23 or something he was wiser than I first thought that he was. And then when I was about 28 years old I learned he was a scholar and a gentleman. He was filled with knowledge and beyond that he was a gentleman in every respect. So I challenge all of you men this morning to be wise in the things that you do and become a dependable head of your house. Accept your responsibility and in accepting your responsibility I need to say this don’t just send your kids to Sunday school but take your kids to Sunday school and take your kids to church and be with them as they learn about the Lord and get saved and when they grow up they’ll appreciate it all the rest of the days of their life.
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Blog Post 062010 – Abraham the Father of the Faithful – Galatians 3:6-9 – Words 3495

Matthew 24:42-47

Alright, thank you very much for these good songs.  I need to announce that Ms. Rachel Simmons is here.  I forgot to announce that.  She lives in Chattanooga and is a member of the church.  One of our youngest members here.  And she has [...]]]> Being Ready for the Second Coming: Download Sermon

Matthew 24:42-47

Alright, thank you very much for these good songs.  I need to announce that Ms. Rachel Simmons is here.  I forgot to announce that.  She lives in Chattanooga and is a member of the church.  One of our youngest members here.  And she has been at the Do-Re-Mi Singing School this week.  And so she’s here for service.  Her mom and dad are here.  Her mother is a member here.  That’s Miss Barbara’s daughter and granddaughter.  So we’re glad to see all of you.  Now they asked me to preach a, I’m going to use the word historical sermon down at McFerrin.  And when I got down there I asked them, I said how much time do I have?  And they said about 35 minutes.  And I said, lord, I prepared an hour and a half.  I thought that this was a historical sermon.  One that was going to be kept.  And so I cut through and did the best I could in 35 minutes.  Normally my sermons are about 30 or 35 minutes long.  I try to be watchful of your time.  But today I don’t know how long my sermon will be.  It probably will be over 30 minutes long.  I think it’s important.  I think it’s necessary.  And sometimes I’ve been watching some of these baseball games and some of them have been going into the 10th and 11th, 12th and 13 innings.  And you know what?  Everybody stayed.  They did.  They did.  They all stayed.  They all stayed.  So, so I’m expecting you to stay.  Yes, sir.  Yes, sir-ree, yes, sir-ree.  I’m going to be reading from Chapter 24 of the Gospel according to Matthew, beginning with verse 42.  Matthew 24, Chapter 24 verse 42.  These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus said watch therefore.  You know what the word means?  It means to be alert.  It means to be vigilant.  It means that you are aware of the times and the things that’s going on and the surroundings, which you’re in.  Watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord doth come.  But know this that if the good men of the house had known and what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken.  Therefore be also ready for in such an hour you’d think not the Son of Man cometh.  Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his Lord have made ruler over the household to give them meat in due season.  Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing.  Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over his goods.  I’m going to close my reading with verse 47, this is reading from verse 42 through verse 47 of the 24th Chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.  My sermon text will be taken from verse 44.  These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He said be ye also ready.  For in such an hour you think not the Son of Man cometh.  For just a time this morning I want to speak to you about being ready for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And the people of these times seem to be as though they were in the days of Simon Peter when he said that the people said that things still remain as they were from the days of Noah after the flood.  In other words they are paying no attention to the promise of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I personally feel like that this world is not paying much attention to the promise of his Second Coming.  And I’m not sure how involved church people are and how their thinking is about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  I tell you this.  The bible absolutely says that Jesus promised he’s coming again.  In as much as he has promised that he’s coming again he told Noah, he said, build you an ark.  I’m going to rain a flood.  And he fulfilled that promise.  And you know what the people did?  When they came to the door it was shut and too late for them to get in that ark.  So I need to give you warning this morning that you should not wait too late to trust in the Lord for salvation.  For when you come to knock on the door of the Lord Jesus Christ, the door may be shut for you where that you can’t get in.  Jesus is coming.  He said in Acts Chapter 1 to the Apostles as you see me, go away.  I’ll come again.  In like manner he went away on a cloud and they saw him as he went up.  And he went up into heaven and entered into his office, the Mediator Office, where he ever lives and makes intercession for all of us.  In Revelation Chapter 1  the Apostle John wrote these words.  He said behold he cometh.  And then he said and every eye shall see him.  What if the trumpet sounded this morning?  It was noise abroad that Jesus is coming.  How would it find you, in what condition?  Behold every eye shall see him.  I need to say to you now that it won’t excite me as far as where I am, what I’m doing or where I’m going.  Because preparation has been made in my life for that time.  But he said they which pierced him shall also see him.  You think about that.  How would you like to face a man that you pierced with a spear and the man that you nailed to the cross.  I believe that those people will be afraid and ashamed and not in any way ready to look upon the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy his coming.  In the 22nd Chapter of the Book of Revelation he said behold, I come quickly.  And my reward is with me.  It’s not going to be a long drawn out thing.  Some morning, some evening, some time the trumpet’s going to sound.  And Jesus will appear on a cloud of glory in power coming back again to claim his people.  And he’s coming quickly.  Every eye shall see it.  And his reward is with him.  And then he said a second time in Chapter 22 behold I come quickly.  So he was emphasizing that there was not going to be time for people to make ready for that time.  And the third time he said surely I come quickly.  Even so come Lord Jesus, the Apostle said.  Then he said amen.  The word amen simply means even so, Lord, come now.  I’m ready.  And so Jesus is coming.  [9:33???] from Adam said behold he cometh with 10,000 of his saints.  10,000, here is a perfect number.  I mean that as he comes on that cloud in power and great glory that with him will be the disembodied souls of all of them who have died in the Lord.  And as they come with him the resurrection will take place and the bodies will come out of the graves.  And body and soul is going to be joined together and meet the Lord in the air.  And Paul said so shall they ever or forever be with the Lord.  So that day is coming.  This morning we don’t know if we are going to be coming back on that cloud or if we will still be alive.  But I tell you what, it won’t make any difference with his saints for they’re going to be changed in a moment, in a twinkle of the eye.  And they’re going to be called up to meet him in the air.  And so shall we ever be with the Lord.  The second thought of my message this morning is where are the signs of his coming?  What should we be looking for that is an indicator that his coming is near?  Jesus said as you see the trees putting forth their buds in the spring of the year and that’s just as common and natural as it can be.  We have just ended the springtime and we have watched the buds as they came out.  And we know when the little buds begin to come out on the tree that spring is just around the corner and warm weather is nigh.  So Jesus said when you see the signs being fulfilled it’s like a tree in the spring.  You know that his coming is not far away.  Now there are so many signs that I can’t talk to you about all of them this morning.  But I’m going to talk to you about a few of them.  Important ones.  The first one that I’m going to talk about may not seem so important to most people but, honey, I’ll say to you that it is really important that we pay attention to it.  Jesus said that this shall be a sign of my coming when you shall see and hear people saying I am Christ and shall deceive man.  I’ll say to you that we are not waiting for the fulfillment of that promise.  It is at hand among our people in the United States of America.  Yes, we are a Christian nation.  We do live in the bible belt but in the bible belt it is filled with deceivers and some who are claiming that they are Christ.  And we need to rise up as a church and I need to rise up as a minister and expose those untruths that our people may not fall into these traps and be carried away with diverse and strange doctrine.  He then said you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.  Turn the news on when you get home and the newscasters will take up most of their time talking about wars and rumors of wars.  Where there is no war they are talking about rumors of wars.  People or nations are continuing to try to develop the atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb, things to kill people with.  And that is a sign of war.  We are making our best efforts in this country to keep Korea and to keep Iran and other places from having these destructive weapons.  But, honey, the best insurance that you can have is in the Lord Jesus Christ.  And when you trust him and get saved you will survive all of the bombs that come and you’ll be ready to meet him at his coming.  He said nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom is going on all over the world.  Friends of nations are breaking off from friends.  And in the personality of nations, nations need friends like all of us need friends.  And when we lose our friends it’s just a sign of the closeness of the coming of Jesus Christ.  Then the bible said there shall be famines and pestilence.  Famines and pestilence and earthquakes in diverse places.  These are the beginning of sorrow.  I can say to you this morning we know what a famine is.  We do, we know that it’s a drought.  We know that it may cause people in some parts of the world to be without food, without water and all of those things.  But he wrote in your little word that we don’t pay much attention to and that word is pestilence.  Do you know what that means?  Diseases.  Our world is filled with new diseases in these times.  They are contagious diseases.  There is no remedy for them as far as medicine.  And doctors are concerned.  I’ll just give you an indication how many years have we known about AIDS?  Not very many.  The national news talks like that it is saturated our world.  We were not prepared for this pestilence that has come upon us.  There was no cure for AIDS.  And it is of no respect of person.  So I need to say to you this morning that all of these things are the beginning of sorrow.  Not only are they the beginning of sorrow but they are a sign of the closeness of the coming of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  So you listen to me this morning.  He gave one specific sign that I need to share with you.  And he said and the gospel of this kingdom, that is the gospel of the church kingdom, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the amazing saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  When this gospel has been preached in all of the world as a witness of the sacrifice and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, then shall the end come.  I want to ask you this morning where in this world is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ available today?  Just a suggestion as I preach to you this morning.  Our internet service is sending the message of this church as I preach.  And all corners of this world if people have an ear to hear, if they have a mind to listen, if they have a concern for their soul they can hear and be saved today.  In the father’s point of the world, my father-in-law was in World War II and he said I spent four Christmases away from home and then he said, two of them I was in New Guinea.  He said that’s as far on the other side of the world as you can get.  But you see the message that you are hearing and seeing me with your eyes they’re able to see this morning because of our internet service and hear the preached word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We don’t know how many people is listening.  We don’t know how many people is being touched.  However the other side of this is that it is being offered as a witness either for them or against them in the day of the judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus said accept those days should be shortened there was no flesh to be saved.  Now, boy, I tell you that excites me.  I tell you why.  It excites me.  I don’t want to be living when nobody’s being saved.  Do you?  I just don’t want to be living.  Honey, times are bad enough.  But you think about a time when nobody is being saved.  I’ll share with you, Miss Pudding says I’ve got a hard head.  And you know I agreed with her, you’re exactly right.  The Lord gave me a hard head.  When I started preaching if I hadn’t of had a hard head, I’d have quit a long time ago.  But he give me a hard head that I might endue hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ and keep on keeping on in spite of the overwhelming opposition.  And I can tell you that there is an overwhelming opposition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The people who would destroy the bible this morning if they had it in their power.  They have tried to do that already at times.  You know what they’re doing now?  They’re using a different method.  When they didn’t succeed as a group in destroying all of the bibles they began saying we need to rearrange it.  It’s not sufficient as it is and the scholars and the printers have for some time been rearranging and retranslating the Gospel of Jesus Christ and so they’re doing a good job of rearranging it.  And the first thing you know you got to pick up a bible that says Holy Bible on it and, honey, it’s about half different than anything that we know.  The bible as it was given by the Holy Spirit of God and pinned down by saved men.  It’s either the Word of God or it’s not the Word of God.  I believe with all my heart that it is the Word of God.  And the reason I believe that was because the preaching of this Word that convicted me of my sins and brought me to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Except for the fact of the elect, that’s the saved.  If it weren’t for the elect’s sake there would no flesh be saved.  But God has shortened time for the elect save.  That it might not come to pass when there is nobody being saved.  He said when they say peace and safety then cometh sudden destruction.  Oh, honey, sudden destruction is awaiting out there.  When a certain fear of the destructible power of God Almighty comes upon this world.  And he is raining fire and brimstone down from heaven.  There is nothing to repel that.  We can make all the bombs we want to.  We can make the bomb shelters.  But, honey, every eye will see him.  When he’s coming, I don’t know.  The bible said of that time that hour no man knoweth, not even the angels in heaven, Jesus said, but my father only.  When you see these people putting a date to the Second Coming of the Lord, why they don’t know what they’re talking about.  Only God knows that.  His angels in heaven do not know when he is coming.  We need to mention one or two of the things about that.  In the book of 2nd Thessalonians, Paul wrote to the church there.  They said accept there come a great fallen away at that time shall not come.  I want to tell you this morning we’re already in it.  We don’t have to wait for it.  We don’t have to look for it.  It may get worse but it’s already here.  Honey, it’s come to Carthage, Tennessee.  There is a great fallen away in our community and other communities among our own people.  And so when we see this fallen away and I say fallen away from what?  Fallen away from the truth.  Fallen away from getting people saved.  They want to confess and profess people in these times without the knowledge of the gift in their heart.  Being saved the bible said with all of your heart you believe unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  There is a place for profession.  There is a place for confession.  It is after you have received the procession in your heart.  It won’t help you any.  It won’t make you feel better when you profess without the procession.  In fact in a little while you will go away and you’ll say I’ve made a mistake.  I’ve made a mistake.  But the old Devil with the strength that he has will allow you and prompt you to keep it just as that.  It’s a hard thing to seek the Lord after you have made an empty profession of faith.  And then it said that the son of perdition would be revealed.  The man is saying I don’t know who he is.  I’m still looking and searching for him.  I just don’t know who it is.  But I know he’s coming.  He is.  The bible said that he’s coming.  And you know what he’s going to do?  Exalt himself.  He’s going to sit up in a high place and he’s going to pose all that’s called God.  He’s going to pose all churches.  He is going to put himself in the Temple of God as God himself to be worshipped by people like us.  May the Lord give us strength and grace that we may not be guilty of falling into his trap.  In his method may the Lord help us to be like the children of Israel whom they was going to cast into the burning fiery furnace.  You remember Nebuchadnezzar said that if you don’t fall down and worship this image you’re going to be cast into the fire.  And then they said if it so be that the God we serve will otherwise bring us out and we had cast them into that fire.  They said did we not cast in three?  And they said thou art right, oh King.  He said behold I see the face of the fourth.  And the fourth is as the Son of Man.  Honey, God Almighty walked in the fire with them.  God Almighty protected them in the fire.  Let me throw in a thing this morning.  When you get saved fire can’t touch it.  Fire can’t destroy it.  But you’re one of God’s children and you’re headed for that country where people don’t die.  And finally in my message this morning the Apostle John in the 6th Chapter of the Book of Revelation wrote two or three astonishing things.  He said when the sixth seal had been opened, behold a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair.  How would you all feel this morning if while we were in the building the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon began to stream blood.  It’s going to happen some morning.  It’s going to happen in the light of day the sun’s going to be changed to darkness and the moon is going to stream blood.  And then he said and the stars began to fall from heaven as a fig tree cast her untimely figs unto the earth.  And somebody said my Lord what a morning when the stars begin to fall.  My Lord what a morning when the moon begins to stream blood.  And the sun is turned as black as a sackcloth.  And the bible said that the mighty men and the captains and all unsaved people will begin to cry out.  And you know what they’re crying for?  For the rocks and mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the face of him that comes upon the throne.  Rocks and mountains won’t hide you.  They won’t hide a single eye from the face of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  If people this morning who are unsaved would call out to the Lord Jesus Christ, honey, he’d save every one of them and they wouldn’t be worried about the moon streaming blood or the sun turning to darkness or the stars falling from heaven for they’d be ready for that.  But the Apostle said the great day of his wrath has come.  And who shall be able to stand?  I leave you with this question this morning.  The great day of his coming and the great day of his wrath, will you be ready.  Be ye also ready for in such an hour you think not the Son of Man cometh.  And then Matthew said and then I’ll prepare to close, Brother Jeff, he said behold he cometh with power and great glory.  Lord have mercy.  Never been anything in the history of this world like this when Jesus comes in power, the planes flying into the Twin Towers in New York City will be nothing compared to the manifestation of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes on the cloud of glory.  Everybody will know that it’s Jesus.  And everybody will know that he’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The bible said when he comes a second time it will be without sin unto salvation.  He came the first time to save people.  But the next time he’s coming it will be to gather his from the four winds of the earth.  And take him home to heaven to be with him through the endless ages of all eternity.  Not only power but glory.  He comes on a glory cloud.  It won’t be a rain cloud.  It won’t be a thunderstorm.  But, honey, it will be the cloud of glory.  When the glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth in which we live.  And everybody knows that it is Jesus Christ.  And he’s coming to wind up this world.  I’m not afraid.  Are you afraid?  Honey, God fixed my heart a long time ago.  And I’m not afraid for myself.  But I’m afraid for some of my grandchildren.  I’m afraid for some of your children.  I wouldn’t be preaching this message if it were not for being afraid.  And for the love that God put in my heart of our unsaved people when he enslaved my soul.  It’s left up to you.  You know I can’t change anything about it this morning.  But every person must bear their own responsibility in coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and being saved.  Why don’t we stand and sing, Brother Jeff?  Would you seek the Lord this morning?  Our salvation is free.  You know if it was a million dollars you’d want to get a job where you could get enough money to pay for it.  But it’s not a million dollars it’s worth more than that but it’s free.  It’s free.  It’s not a shelf item but it is an item that is in reach of every human being that’s unsaved.  So why don’t we stand and sing?  If you’re unsaved would you come?  Will you come and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as we sing?  I’ll leave it up to you.  May the congregation stand.

Blog Post 061210 – Being Ready for the Second Coming – Matthew 24:42-47 – 4236 Words