Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ is an awesome task if one really understands anything about the things he's talking about. And it's an awesome thing. You can't go on feeling, you just preach by faith. I had a nephew one time that was, he was a ring bearer. They had a wedding. That's when Lisa got married, a long time ago. And they had a big church wedding. Everybody was dressed up and the church was just filled. And they had, back in the Vestibule, they had the doors shut and the girls were back there, four or five girls. Betty and some others, and they had the little girl, the little boy, and my nephew all dressed up with a pella, and he was a ring bearer, and it was time to march in. And he balked. He wasn't gonna go. He saw that crowd of people, and he looked around. He wasn't gonna go. And they, the ladies, they threatened him, and they pinched him, And finally they just gave up on him. He wasn't going to go. And it was time for the wedding to start. And he was one of the first ones, you know. And I had an idea. I said, I knelt down beside him and I said, I said, you want them to get married, don't you? He said, yeah. I said, well, they can't get married if you don't take that ring up there. They can't get married. Well, that little old boy straightened up. My, his tears went away and he straightened up and he was ready. He had a purpose that was bigger than his feelings. His faith was overcome with feelings and he had a purpose that was greater than his feelings. He never cried whipping one time he went up there with that ring. I have to remember that preaching, you know, we have to remember that. It's awesome to preach the gospel, but feelings are important. We have feelings, and I want to preach to you a message on feelings. Have you ever heard a message on feelings? Okay, I will try to preach a message on feelings this morning. Because we are creatures of feeling, aren't we? We're creatures of feeling. You greet someone on the street, say, how you feeling? You don't want to ask everybody that, because some people will tell you. You don't have an hour to listen. But we experience life under this sun through feeling. Creatures of feeling. And it's wonderful, wonderful to be able to feel. Consider a leopard. A leopard has an awful disease that they lose their feeling in their hands, in their body. And their fingers can actually be falling off and they don't feel it. You can stick them with a pen and they don't feel it. Awful to be without feeling. What an awful disease that would be to have leprosy and not have any feeling. There are all kind of feelings in this world and we experience pride, pleasure, regret, pain, grief, pity, joy, satisfaction, fear, Anger, courage, love, desires of all kinds, some good, some bad. But I'm thankful for feeling. But, you know, we can't be governed by feelings. That's the thing. Feelings are important, but they can't govern our lives. Feelings can be dangerous. They must be governed not by the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. Feelings can't be governed by those things. They have to be governed by the Word of God. We can't follow our feelings. In Jeremiah 17 9, the scripture says, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? That's talking about our hearts. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. And our hearts will deceive us. So we can't follow the feelings of our own heart. We have to be guided by something greater. And our hearts will deceive us. We live by faith. The just shall live by faith. The scripture says in Hebrews 30. Now the just shall live by faith. That's talking about saved people. The only people that are saved are just people. And that's talking about people that through faith in Christ, they're righteous and just before God. And the just shall live by faith and walk by faith. We can't go by feelings, we gotta go by faith. But faith has to be governed by something also. Faith, everybody believes in something, so you have to have faith in something that's real and substantial. And that's God's word. For example, Noah. It says in Hebrews 11, seven, that by faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, to the saving of his house. He was warned of God and he had a good feeling in it. He had fear of God and he moved with fear, prepared that ark to the saving of his house. The Word of God must be the basis of our feeling, the foundation of our feeling. Faith in the Word of God. I've given you this example to illustrate that. I can't think of another one, but there was three soldiers walking on the wall around the city. And the big one in front of those soldiers, just imagine three soldiers walking on the side of the wall, right on the top, a narrow ledge up there. And the big soldier, his name was the Word of God. And long behind him came another soldier, his name was Faith. Taking up the rear was a little bitty soldier named Feeling, and they were marching, marching on the wall. And Feeling got concerned about, or Faith got concerned about Feeling. And he looked around to see what Feeling was doing, and he lost his balance, and both of them fell off the wall. So the moral of that story is you gotta keep your eyes on the Word of God. Faith has to keep your, it's, This foundation is the Word of God and you keep your eyes of faith on the Word of God and let feelings follow on behind. Feelings are wonderful but you can't follow feelings. There's a little old poem that says, frames and feelings, they fluctuate. These can ne'er thy Savior be. Learn thyself in Christ to see. Then be feelings what they will. Jesus is our Savior still. So that's a good little form. You know who taught us that? Dr. Connolly, Peter Connolly. Taught us that back in school, but the Shanks probably remembers that. Now when Paul was preaching in Athens to those Athenians, they had all their gods and temples there, and he says in Acts 17 27, He talks about the Lord establishing the times and appointed the times that men should seek the Lord. If happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. That's talking about feeling after God. Isn't that strange? We walk by faith, but he's talking here about feeling after God. And we can't trust our heart. It's deceitful. We gotta, our feelings must come from the word of God. But he says that you might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. He's not far off someplace, because he gives us life. He keeps his old heart ticking, beating. God is not far off somewhere. He gives us the life we have right now. Now feeling. It's something that must be governed by the word of God. Think about what it'd be awful to be without feeling. Without feeling. To be a drunk or a drug addict. They have feelings, but they don't have any feelings towards God, the important things. The feelings toward the... I know a drunk can can drink himself into a stupor and lay in an ant bed and sleep. And the drug addict, they don't have any feelings for the real things important. All they're thinking about is just the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. But the Bible talks about the reprobates or past feeling. It'd be awful to be a reprobate, to be past feeling. A reprobate is just someone God's given up to his own own heart, his own self, his own thoughts. In Ephesians 4, 17 through 21, Paul says, This I say therefore and testify unto the Lord, that you walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of their mind, who being past feeling, have given themselves to work all uncleanliness with greediness. A person's past feeling is reprobated and God's given them over. They don't feel a conviction of the need. They don't feel the violent things. The Lord says, Paul says in the same scripture in Ephesians, but you have not so learned of Christ. We learn true feelings from Christ, from God's word. It so be that you have heard of him, heard of Christ, and have been taught of him as the truth. is in Jesus. So I'm a creature of feeling. We all are. And I love to feel good, don't you? Well, we're going to have to learn what the true feelings are important because there are so many deceptive feelings. We can't follow our own heart. We have to learn from Christ, from his word. You know, God is a God of feelings. He's the God of all feelings. Consider our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our high priest. And Hebrews 4, 5 says that, for we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was tempted in all points as we yet without seeing. Ain't that amazing? He's not a high priest that can't be touched with each one of our feelings. First Peter 5-7, the Apostle Peter says, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. That's amazing, that we could cast our cares upon him. One time I was in Mexico, it was years ago, the girls remember this, we had moved from a house that was more comfortable, and had to move because Not because of anything we'd done, just they wanted the house back. But we had to get another house that wasn't very comfortable. It was in a bad situation. And in front of that house, there was a dirt road. And right directly behind the kitchen there, right across the road, was a chicken ranch. They had a long building, it was as long as this building or longer, and hundreds and hundreds of chicken double-decker just stacked up in there. And this was in the hot part of the year, stifling hot. And the smell of those chickens and the chicken feathers in the air, you could just rake them off your nose. And the dust from the street, just a continual powder bath all over the furniture, all over everything. And I don't know how to pray about things like that, really, I don't. I know that prayer has to do something with the will of God, and praying according to His will. But I was praying in my bedroom, and the window was open. Well, you had to have all the windows open. And, oh me, it was miserable to smell. I was praying, Lord, I can't take any more of this. I said, this is just unbearable. I said, just smell it, Lord. Can you imagine praying such a thing? Just smell it, Lord. The reason I'm telling you this is because a month hadn't passed by till they moved that chicken ranch. And not only that, they paved that street. That actually happened. And it wasn't about a month's time that they did all of that. And all I did was just cast a care upon the Lord, not even knowing how to pray. Psalms 56 8 David Prayed this way the psalmist David said put down my tears in that bottle Are they not in that book? He cares for us then And he's not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities in Revelation 21 for we have the scripture says and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and He's a God of all care and compassion. The Lord said, fear not, little flock, for it is my Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I'm interested in feelings. I'm interested in God's feelings. And I want my feelings to be aright, in tune with the Word of God, and to be learned of Christ, The scripture says in Psalm 1611, that in him, talking of our Lord Jesus Christ, in him is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. I've always loved that scripture. I love pleasures. And there's the pleasures of sin that are for a season, but I'm talking about pleasures in the Lord forevermore. And him is fullness of joy, and it is right hand pleasures for evermore. Now we're fixing to leave this service in a little while. I won't keep you too long. We're gonna go back there and eat some food that these ladies have prepared. And y'all eat better than kings used to eat. Tell by the way everybody's fat and healthy and their eyes sticking out. Me too, I've gained 15 pounds since I got into Mexico. But the point I want to bring out is that the Lord has provided all these things for this natural man. And we know that by nature we're sinners and by nature we're at enmity with God. And in this flesh dwelleth no good thing, the scripture says. But yet, the Lord has prepared these things that we enjoy here in this life, that we can enjoy them. These natural men, these natural bodies can enjoy that. And that's the old flesh that had to be nailed to the cross. And yet God has provided these pleasures for this temporal man, this natural man. Now the thought is this. How much more does the Lord have prepared for the spiritual man? pleasures forevermore That's wonderful feelings important Now let us look to a scripture in Matthew or Mark chapter 5 And learn what true feelings are from God's Word in Mark chapter 5 We have the account here of the woman That had the issue of blood And the Lord was going to the house of a man named Jairus, and his daughter was sick, and it says that there was a lot of people following along with him. In verse 24, And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing better, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came into the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press and said, who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, daughter of thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and behold of thy plague." Now it says in Spanish that thy faith has saved thee. Now we know that faith is not the cause. Christ is the cause. It's His grace. It's His virtue. It's the cause of salvation. But here this text is talking about a woman being healed in a in a material way, but it's teaching also a greater healing, in the sense that he called her daughter there. I think this goes far beyond just a physical healing. If the Lord just healed this physical body, that wouldn't be salvation. The greatest healing is the healing of the soul, the spiritual need, the spiritual healing. And that's what I want to talk to you about, about what this woman felt, first of all, and then what the Lord felt, and then what believers feel, what everybody ought to feel. Well, first of all, let's think about what she felt, this woman that had the issue of blood. She felt her condition. She was shut up by the law. The law condemned this woman, separated this woman as unclean. The law said she was unclean. And she was separated from society. She had to live under this separation, this unclean. And everything she touched was unclean. If she sat down on a chair, pew, it was unclean. If she's laid down in a bed, that bed was unclean. She made any food, make a pie, nobody eat, it was unclean. And that's the law separated her as unclean. And she felt it. She felt that separation. She wanted to be healed from that plague. Well, our condition is the same thing spiritually. The law, we're under the law. We're condemned by the law. We're separated by the law. Everything we touch is contaminated by our condition as sinners, even our righteousness. It's contaminated by sin. It's filthy rags, Isaiah said, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before thy sight. That woman felt that condition under the law, separated and unclean. It's awful to live that way. For so many years she lived that way. And she had done everything she could. She had went to the physicians and given them all the money she had to be healed, and they gave her all kinds of remedies. But they couldn't get to the condition that was on the inside. And that's our trouble. We don't have something. Sins are the fruit of what we are by nature. We're sinners. And it's going to take, it's not just cropping off the outward things, it's going to take a work of grace in the heart to get to the problem of a sinner's need, our needs. And she had probably told her to go take some hot baths or something. Everybody had a remedy and they charged her for it. But she grew worse. Her condition just grew worse. And she felt that. She felt her need and her condition. And she had given up hope. She felt her hopelessness. She had spent all she had. There was no hope for her. And then she felt the power of a testimony. Because when she had heard of Jesus, somebody told her about what the Lord had done for somebody or what the Lord had done for themselves. That's what a witness is. A witness is just telling others what the Lord had done for you. I can't be a witness of what the Lord has done for Jack. I can say something about it, but he's a witness of it. I'm the witness of what the Lord has done for me. So we're not responsible to convert people, but we need to tell people what the Lord has done for us. And she had heard about Jesus, and she felt the power of the testimony. because it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the power of God and the salvation. And faith was born in her heart. That's where faith comes from. It comes from God's word concerning Christ, who he is and what he does, what he did on Calvary, what he's doing now on the throne of God. She heard a testimony. She felt the power of that testimony in her life, giving her hope, giving her faith. And she felt the power of that faith in her life because she was weak and had given up hope. And when Christ came through there with that throne of people, she felt the strength to go out. And she pressed through that mob of people. They were pressing on Christ all up against him. And she went through all those obstacles because faith is living. Faith that comes from God's word gives strength. It's life. There's no such thing as a dead faith. I mean, a Christian faith is not a dead faith. Saving faith is alive, and she had power to get there and go through all that mob of people. You can just imagine a weak woman, weakened by this disease, pressing through that clamoring, pushing, shoving mob. Everyone wanted something from the Lord. And she reached out and touched the garment of Christ. And she felt the virtue of Christ coming into her body. And she was healed of that plague. She felt something. And it came from the Lord. It came from the law. Then it came from the testimony concerning Christ. Then it came from Christ, the touch of faith. She felt that virtue. That's what we need to be saved. We need virtue. We need righteousness. The only virtue that saves the sinner is the virtue and righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. And she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. That's a feeling, that's real. It comes from Christ, it's real. It comes from His Word, it's real. And she felt constrained to worship too. The Lord turned around and said, who touched me? He spoke in a general sense, but he was very particular because it says looking at her. He said this in a general term to everybody, who touched me? And everybody was pushing and shoving, but he's making a particular call to her, but everybody's spoken to everybody's ears. She knew he was talking to her. She felt that penetrating, convicting power of God's Word and Spirit. She was She came trembling and fell at his feet. She felt constrained to worship, didn't she? Those are real, those are good feelings. Those are good feelings. Those are wonderful feelings. And she fell before him at his feet to worship. And she confessed before him the cause and the truth, why she had come and why she was, her condition. She confessed it all before the Lord. She felt that responsibility to confess and to make it public. And also she felt assurance. She felt assurance because the Lord said, go in peace, daughter, said, and behold of thy plague. Assurance, something you feel. You gotta come from God's word. You can't come from the preacher. You can't come from anything else. Gotta come from God's word and the testimony of the spirit through the word. concerning Christ to give us that assurance and that peace. Any other assurance is not sure. It could deceive us, false assurances. Now let's think about what the Lord felt. He felt the touch of faith in him. Now he's the author of faith, and he's the finisher of faith, and he's the object of faith. But he fails to touch his faith. I like to think of electricity being a positive and our bodies being a negative. You've been walking around the house sometime without any shoes on and touch something electrical and you get a shock. Well, your feet are grounded and that positive current comes out and you're shocked by that current. But now that's not really a good example. The Lord felt something. We feel something also. But he felt the touch of sin. It cost him something. You know current, the reason I'm saying that the current has not a good illustration is the current doesn't feel anything. Electricity doesn't feel anything. that I know of. But the grace going out, it cost Christ something. It cost Him something. Just think about in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweat drops of blood contemplating the cup that He was to drink there on Calvary. That cup of the iniquities of His people, the people that those that the Father had given him. And he drank it on Calvary. But he set sweat drops of blood contemplating that cup that he was to drink. In Isaiah 53, 6, this scripture says, the prophet said, the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. If he had just laid on him my iniquity, he'd have felt something. but he laid on him the iniquity of all his people, of all the elect of God. And it pleased the Lord to bruise him when he was made sin. He felt something, it cost him something. He had to humble himself and come down to this earth and be made a man to be our representative and die in our place and it cost him something. When he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I'm so grateful he felt that for me that I won't have to feel it. In Romans 8, 3, listen to this. I want you to think about what the father felt also. We talk about what the son felt. A man dying on a cross is awful. There's a lot of men died on the cross, but what makes it important is who died on that cross. The Son of God died on that cross. What makes His feelings important is who He is. I'm not talking about this serpent feeling. I'm talking about the Son of God suffering and dying. It's who He is that makes His suffering important. what he felt and why he felt it. But think about what the father felt in Romans 8.3. God sending his own son, God the father sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. When God condemned sin in the flesh of his son, the son felt something. But think about what the father felt. Consider the father what he felt, because his son was sacrificed in the father's heart before the foundation of the world. Y'all know that, but the world don't know that. This religious crowd don't know that. They don't know about the eternal covenant of grace that Christ was made, set forth as a lamb of God before the foundation of the world. The father had sacrificed his son in eternity before he ever created the world through Christ. before he had already given his son and his heart. Now I don't, I don't, I can't even get into the depths of that any more than I can get into the depths of Christ's suffering on Calvary. But I know that I wouldn't give one of my grandchildren for anybody. I wouldn't give the least of, the latest one that was born was Natalie. She's now about seven weeks old or something like that. But I wouldn't give her to save myself. And I sure wouldn't give her to save anybody else. But think about the father. The father gave his son. There's a type of that in the Old Testament. He didn't give his son for good people. He gave his son. It said God committed his love for us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Christ didn't own Calvary to make God the Father love us. It was because his love that he gave his son. And think about the Abraham. That's the type of the father. offering up his son. Abraham was commanded of the Lord to take his son, Isaac, and offer him up as a sacrifice. And this old man, over 100 years old, loved that son, his only son, born of Sarah. And he took that son out, got up early in the morning. He had already done it in his heart, or he'd have slept in, or he wouldn't have done it at all. But he got up and prepared everything and went off in a far country And in three days journey, he had already done it in his heart. And when he got to that place of Mount Moriah, the Mount Moriah there, and had put that wood in order and laid his son on that altar and tied him and bound him and he raised that knife, he had already done it in his heart. And that's when the Lord provided the lamb instead of his son, Isaac. That's when Abraham really saw a burst of glory of the gospel in the substitution there that was set forth when his son took the place, I mean, when the lamb took the place of his son. But there was no lamb to take the place of the son of God, because he is the only lamb of God. He's the only sacrifice that takes away our sins. But think about what the father felt. Not just what the Son, but the Father. God is one, you can't separate. I talk about God like he's three different persons, but he's not, he's one God. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And in the death of Christ, God the Father, God the Son, and the God the Holy Spirit were all active in that sacrifice. He was offered up by the eternal Spirit. The Lord felt that virtue had gone out of him. And that's what it takes. He had made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. In order that virtue, His righteousness, to go out of Him. Where did it go out? It went out toward us. by imputation. It went out in our favor. In favor of who? Of those that believe in Christ, that trust in Him. For He, the Father, had made Him to be sinned, the Lord Jesus Christ, for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So 2 Corinthians 5, 21, that's talking about a righteousness that we receive by faith. Now we put faith in the Word of God, and then we believe and trust in the Word of God, and we know that we have this righteousness given us in Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I tell you, that feels wonderful. That feels wonderful to know this love I'm talking about and to rest in it. The father, Christ felt that virtue had gone out. It cost him something. But I want you to talk to you about satisfaction. The father felt satisfaction and the son is gonna feel satisfaction too. And he's already felt satisfaction. Because Isaiah 53, 11 said, he shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Now when a woman gives birth to a child and goes through the agonies of childbirth, and then right on the brink of death and life, and then they bring that little baby and put a little baby in her arms, she doesn't forget about it. I mean, she doesn't think about the pain anymore. They see the travail of their soul, and they're satisfied. Now that's what Christ is gonna, he already sees the travail of his soul. But he's not gonna be dissatisfied at all, because they're not a one of his sheep are gonna be lost. Now what am I doing in Mexico? Why are we to witness? Why are we to be missionaries? Because that's the means that God has ordained to call out his people. call out his sheep, and they're going to believe God's word. If it depended on me, if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't go back to Mexico. God was satisfied in the death of his son. There's something he felt. There's a testimony that the father gave when Christ was baptized. That baptism there typified the death that he would suffer. He was baptized showing His identification with us. Death, burial, and resurrection. That's what baptism sets forth. And He did that for us. And when Christ was baptized, the Spirit testified and the Father spoke from heaven saying, Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." So the Lord is satisfied. He's satisfied in His death. He's satisfied in the blood that was shed. I'm satisfied. That satisfies me too. That's something you feel and it's satisfaction. God doesn't have to do away with His holiness and righteousness in order to feel that satisfaction either. You remember the example of Darius in the Old Testament. Darius loved Daniel. And Daniel was a Hebrew. And Darius was provoked into making some laws, foolish law, about throwing someone into the lion's den that didn't do a certain thing. And the ones that tricked him into doing that was his guys that wanted to put Daniel away. And so Darius made that, he was a proud man. He made that law and the laws of the meads and the persons couldn't be changed. And the first thing that happened is that law fell on Daniel because Daniel was guilty. And Darius had to throw Daniel in the lion's den. He couldn't break his law. He had a dilemma, didn't he? The dilemma of Darius. He stayed up all night worrying about Daniel. He threw him in that lion's den and he roosted up all night worrying about Daniel. But the Lord saved Daniel out of that lion's den. Shut the mouths of those lions. Now you know that's the type, there's a type in that of salvation. But you know God didn't have a dilemma. There was no dilemma in God. His law had to be satisfied. His law cannot be broken. But he provided his son as a substitute in the place of those whom he saves and who he purposed to save. And when Christ died on Calvary, the Lord didn't break a jot or a tittle of his law when he fulfilled all that was fulfilled in our stead. It was all fulfilled, and the Father is satisfied. His holiness is glorified and maintained and satisfied. And that's what, I'm preaching the gospel that actually saves. Not an attempt to save, but a salvation that's real. He didn't attempt to save anybody. Christ actually redeems a people. and his death redeems, saves. It's not what men let him do, it's what God has done in Christ Jesus. And we believe God's word, that's where faith comes from. Believe in what God said concerning his son. Now let's close out by stating what true believers feel. If we believe, we feel peace. If we believe the truth, I don't wanna, you can believe a lie and feel a false peace, but peace is something you feel. Romans 5.1 says, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. But that peace, if it's a true peace, is based upon Christ and what He did in our behalf, as our substitute. That peace is real. Peace with God. I can call God my Father and not be presumptuous about it. Because there's peace. And he made that peace through his blood. And cleanses is something you feel. You work hard, you get out and mow the yard and you're all sweaty and you smelly and you get in and take a fresh bath and sit down by the air conditioner and you feel cleaned and refreshed. That's something you feel. Hebrews 9.14 says the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve a living God. His blood cleanses us and we feel it cleansing. That dead works is talking about religious works. That's what in Hebrews 9.14 is talking about religious works, dead works. Religious works can't save. All those blood, the blood sacrifices in the Old Testament for religious works that they did to set forth the only blood that actually cleanses, the blood of Jesus Christ. But cleansing is something you feel and rest is something you feel. A believer feels rest. And we rest in Christ. He's our Sabbath and we rest in Christ. In Matthew 11, 28, the Lord says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He gives us rest. That's something you feel. You're tired and worn out and you sit down and you rest. I'm resting in Christ. People that are not resting in Christ, that are depending on their own works, They can never have rest. But a person that's not resting in Christ on what he did and continues to do something, try to do something to get that rest, to earn that rest, they'll never find it that way. Because we gotta rest in what Christ has done. He did for us. And I tell you, a person that really believes that and knows that, That person is resting in Christ, and yet that kindles strength and releases so much energy to serve Him. People that are retired sometimes work harder than they ever did for themselves than they did for Armco or the job they were on. They were working for themselves. But when we're resting in Christ, we can work for the glory of the Lord. Freedom rekindles those false emotions to channel them into the service of the Lord. There's so many things you feel. Understanding, the peace of God that passes, all understanding shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Peace and understanding is something that's satisfaction. The Lord says in John 4, 14, whoso drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst again. I'll never thirst again because I just keep on drinking. Just keep on drinking. Christ and his word and the hope in him, that's the water, he's the water of life and I just keep on drinking. Satisfaction, when you're really thirsty, you're not satisfied with anything but water. I don't imagine anybody here probably has ever been really thirsty. You think you've been thirsty, but you haven't been thirsty, I don't think. Maybe there's some have. I thought I'd been thirsty up until the other day. We were talking to Eric. Jack and I were about football practice. I said, you get all thirsty, don't you? He said, no, they have a big cooler of Gatorade and ice water. I said, what kind of training is that? I said, when Jack and I were playing football, they wouldn't let you drink water. Man, we couldn't have a drop of water. Only after you got in shape and in the games, they'd give you a little old bitty Coke to drink during the halftimes. But those boys, they were thirsty. I'd roll over in a mud puddle and drink out of a mud puddle in practice. But I'm telling you, it's just kind of break, you know, give you a break. The other day, I was out in the jungle. And I'd been out there all day, from early in the morning to late in the evening without water, and I got lost. And I found out since then that everybody down there had been lost one time or another, because it's quite common to get lost down there. And it was during the hot part of the year, and there was no water, no moisture, nothing, just dryness. This is the dry part of the season when the temperature goes above 100 and stays that way all during the day. and I was dehydrated. My legs were cramping, my thighs were cramping, my calves and my stomach was cramping. And they'd actually go into a spasm if I had just hardly been and my feet were swell where I'd been walking, trying to get back to the place where I didn't want to be lost. I'd never been lost, Jack, like that. I've always been able to walk out of a place of pride. See, I just didn't want anybody to come looking for me. I was strong, I thought, you know. But I was lost, and I found, I had fallen, I'd fall, just fall right in there. You see people on movies and things, how they stumble along in the desert and they fall down. Well, I was falling like that, and I thought, well, I'm just gonna die right out here. I guess the buzzards will get me, and they'll see the buzzards and they'll come and find where I am. I mean, it was serious, it was serious. And my mouth was just dry. There wasn't any moisture, couldn't spit up anything. Well, I'll make a long story short. About five o'clock that evening, I had come down off a little rise and threw a thicket, and I tumbled and fell right on my face, and I just lay there. I thought, I'll just lay here all night. And I heard a voice way off somewhere, and I thought my ears were deceiving me. And that voice got a little stronger. And then I began to shout. I began to holler. And I wouldn't shut up then. I began to shout and holler and holler. And finally, some men came. They were trackers, Indian trackers. And they found me. And they were all torn. The shirts were torn, and their arms were lacerated just like mine. I had quit perspiring. I didn't have any more moisture. But I was caked with blood on my hands where and thorns had cut me. But they were too. Their shorts were torn and they had come through that thicket fast to try to find me because they know it's very dangerous. But the first thing I was concerned about is water. Yeah, they had a jug of water with them. They hadn't drank any of it. They were saving it for me. Well, they gave me that water and I drank that water. Oh, boy. I'll never forget those men. I say, y'all are my saviors. I was lost and you found me. brought me the water, life-giving water. I tell you, I'll never go out in that place again without water. I'll never go out there without water. You know, people, people that know the gospel, know the truth, they're not going to be satisfied off drinking in some Armenian Baptist church or whatever. They get away from it, they're going to get thirsty, you might have to get back to the water hole. I hate to see folks leave a church where they can hear the gospel and go to a place where they can't hear the gospel, because tape recorders don't make good pastors. Tape recorders don't make good pastors. Well, I'm going to Maryland now, I guess. But let me close out. Satisfaction is something you feel. in Christ. You feel that passing from death to life. You feel it. Love is something a person never really knows. He thinks he knows what love is until he knows the love of God in Christ Jesus. And what everybody ought to feel is the repentance and faith in Christ. Everybody ought to believe the testimony of God concerning their need, that they're condemned, they're under the law, they're condemned. They ought to believe the testimony of God concerning Christ, his Son, and they ought to repent. Everybody ought to feel that. Everybody ought to believe that. But if a person's given up to his own thoughts, God's reprobated him, and that's what it is. And all God has to do to reprobate a person is just to let him go in the way that, the way his own mind, own thoughts, and own feelings, and his feelings are not followed, governed by God's word, and they're not learned of Christ. Those feelings will take you to hell. But the true feelings that won't deceive us are the feelings that come from God's word, from his gospel. It'd be awful to be without feeling, not to even feel any of these things we're talking about concerning Christ and faith and repentance and forgiveness. Not to be able to feel that. That's just dust and ashes to you. You don't feel anything. They're not real. God may have given that person up to be a reprobate, to be past feeling. May the Lord bless you.