Welcome to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church in Donaldson, Arkansas. This is Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching in our regular Sunday morning service. Enjoyed the song service and appreciate Brother Mike's prayer. Certainly stand in need of your prayers this morning. Brother Dan was mentioning in his opening remarks about our Lord eating with people. And so this morning we're gonna maybe look at one of those occasions of the Lord eating with people. Because this morning I want to look at some of the different people that came to Christ and became Christians in the Bible. I was reading about several of them and my mind's been exercised about them. And I thought, well, is this a sermon to talk about? Peter and some of the other people who followed our Lord and I thought sure it is it's in the Bible, isn't it? So we've got all these beautiful cameo pictures of people who became Christians and I was thinking about all the different kinds of people and that came to know Jesus Christ and followed him and became members of the New Testament Church. And we see there's so many kinds. They came in different ways. There's no two alike. There's no two alike in this church. We're all different, aren't we? And we all had our own personal experience. When we came to know Jesus Christ, And we became members of the church and decided to be baptized in his name and to follow him. And I would just add all of that to being a follower of Christ. And we all come in different ways. Some come with a lot of baggage and some come with not so much baggage. We find that some come with a different kind of faith. And then some come with no faith at all. They come to God's house and they discover the faith that the Lord has given them. Some are rich. Some are poor. We find some people that have different kinds of jobs. Some of them are looking for something, they're seeking truth. And other people come, and they're not really looking for anything. They were just invited to come to church, and they came, and they found the Lord Jesus Christ. That's kind of the way it was with me when I became a member of this church, although I already knew about the Lord Jesus Christ. But I didn't know about the many truths that we preach here and that we rejoice in at this church. And so as we consider these, there's kind of a back theme I want to give to you that we find in the book of Revelation 22. I'm not going to stay there, I'm just going to give this to you because I want you to understand that all the people that came to Christ, he was calling them. It wasn't an accident that they came. The Lord called them, and he called them not only by his spirit and by his providence to get them in a place that they would hear something that moved their heart and their soul, but his providence led them there, but also the Holy Spirit was calling them and the church is calling them. So whoever you are here today, I want you to think about that fact that you may be being called today. The Lord may be calling you, the church is definitely calling you, and this Verse in Revelation 22, we read in verse 17, and the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. So there's always this call that's going on. It's going on today. It's going on in this church. It's been going on since our Lord began to preach and since the very beginning of the church. And it was mentioned in Isaiah 55, even in the Old Testament, that the Lord would be calling his people to follow him. Because we read there, ho, everyone that thirsteth. Now, if you're thirsty this morning, that means that you're thirsty for truth. You're thirsty to know more about Jesus. You're thirsty to know more about yourself. That's one great thing about being in church is we learn about ourselves. You wanna know something. Christ is in your heart and there's this... And it compels us when Christ dwells in our heart that we want to know more about him. So Isaiah says, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters. These are the gospel waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Nobody charged you anything when you came in here this morning, did they? It's free. The gospel is free, and the blessings that we receive here are of no price, and they always have been. And so we're gonna see some of the people today, and I don't know how many we'll get to look at, because I like to look at them in depth if possible. But we're gonna look at some of them this morning and see this call that was going on and how they obeyed and followed our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now I'll say this up front. As primitive Baptists, we're not arm twisters, okay? We don't twist anybody's arm to become a member of the church. It's free. And we enjoy it and we love it. And we all came because we love the Lord and we love the truths that are preached here. And we're not gonna hold you over the flames of hell this morning and tell you that if you don't come down to the front of this church before it's over with, you're gonna burn in hell. because we know that those for whom Christ died are gonna live with Him forever in glory. But we will tell you that if the Lord's calling you, you're gonna miss out on a great blessing. You're gonna miss out on the greatest blessing of your life if you don't follow the Lord and enjoy the fellowship in His church and with His people and to receive something from His word that helps us all week long, every day of our lives. So the first person I wanna look at this morning is Peter. You know him pretty well, and so we're going to look at his calling and how he came to the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's not exactly like you might think. So just a little outline of him up front. Peter, you know, was a pretty rough character. He wasn't going to Sunday school or anything in his early life, and he wasn't going to church. Peter was a fisherman. And he was a rough character. We find him even cursing the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, the night before he was crucified, and saying, I know not the man. We kind of see a little bit of his former character there. I know Marilyn says, don't bring that part up about Peter. There's too much good about Peter to bring up. I'm trying to paint you a little portfolio of his life before he came to know Christ and became a Christian. He was the guy that got the sword out and tried to cut the soldier's head off when they came to apprehend Jesus. So he wasn't this little guy out there that's, you know, following a God and doing all these good things. So we find his life in all four of the Gospels, but I'm gonna go to the first account of him in Matthew chapter four, if you wanna go there. I'm gonna start reading in verse 18. And so, in Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And straightway they left their nets and followed him. Now usually when we're thinking about Peter, that's about all you hear is Peter, Jesus came by, told Peter to put his net aside and follow him, and Peter threw his nets down and followed Jesus. That's in our mind kind of the way that, well that's not the way that it, that's not all, there's more to the story about Peter following our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This was not his first encounter with Jesus. So let's kind of go back a little bit and see what Peter knew about Jesus when Jesus spoke these words to him. He grew up in the area of Jesus. He knew about, probably about the virgin birth of Christ, or what was said about it. He had probably heard about the shepherd's account, the night that the wise men came, and the night that the shepherds saw the angels in the sky, and they came and told everybody what they had seen. They had heard John the Baptist preach. It's historically thought that Peter was actually baptized by John the Baptist. And then John the Baptist, all of his followers, and he had a lot, he began to point them to the person of Jesus Christ, which he did with Peter and Andrew and James and John. They were all fishermen and partners in their trade. And John began to say, after, He began to say, there's one man of your coming, the latching of whose shoes I'm not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. And he was pointing to the person of Jesus Christ. Now that was his job. But John baptized Jesus and you know, the, Heaven was opened up and the Spirit appeared unto John in the form of a dove and all of this was told and they knew about that. But the next day after he baptized Jesus, after John baptized Jesus, we read in John chapter one, it says, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, behold, the Lamb of God And the two disciples heard him speak, they followed Jesus. One of the two which heard him speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, we have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ. So Andrew comes, after all this had happened, Peter already had heard about him, and then Andrew says, this person is the Christ. We found out that he is the one. So after that, Simon meets Jesus Christ, Peter does. In John 1.42 it says, and he brought him to Jesus, this is Andrew, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon the son of Jonah, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. Now this is where Peter had his first encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. Andrew takes him to him and tells him that this is the Christ, and Jesus looks upon Peter knowing, knowing, and knowing what's gonna happen, he's gonna become an apostle. And he said, you are Cephas, you're going to be a stone. And so at this point, Jesus did not call Peter to follow him immediately. But he did meet him, and he did said, you are going to be a stone. Now go over to Luke chapter five, and let's read some details here about. his further encounter with Jesus Christ. And this is all interesting to me because I used to think that Jesus just came by one day and said, okay, follow me, and he just left his nets and followed Jesus. And so sometimes it causes you to wonder, maybe in my own personal life, I should have done something earlier and just followed Jesus immediately. That's not the way it usually happens. So in Luke chapter five, it says, and it came to pass, that, and this is where Jesus calls Peter, and Peter follows him. It came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them, and they were washing their nets. Well, that's Peter. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, now he's preached a sermon here, okay? I don't know what was in that sermon, but something apparently caught Peter's attention. And he said, launch out into the deep and let your nets down for a drought. And Simon answering said to him, master, We have toiled all night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. And when they had thus done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in their net break, and they beckoned unto their partners, which was Andrew and John and the others, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help him. And they came and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. And when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, for he was astonished. and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. Now this is where Peter begins to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And as with every person, there's something different when we follow the Lord Jesus Christ. You have your experience and you know what it is. Or maybe you don't have an experience yet, and maybe you're yet to have one, we don't know. But this is Peter's experience, and so here he is, and he's over here, he's washing his nets, and he knows Jesus, he's been baptized by John. Jesus has already met him and said, you're gonna be a stone. And here comes Jesus once again. an encounter with Peter, and Peter has been fishing all night long, and now he's over there washing his nets. He's getting all the barnacles off the nets, he's getting all the moss and seaweed off the nets, and he is tired, he's been up all night, and now Jesus says, go take those nice little clean nets of yours, and put them back out in the ocean again, and you're gonna catch some fish. Now, when I look at that and think about it, that's kind of the way it happens with most of us. That when the Lord begins to deal with us and call us, it's at an inopportune time. There's something that we really don't want to do it right then. It's kind of out of the way here for Peter. But you know, Peter has had an experience with Christ already. He'd been thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He'd heard him preach. He had heard some of the miracles that Jesus had performed. And he says, nevertheless, at thy word, I will. In other words, this is just not a friend talking to me right now. You know, you may have had some friends talking to you in your life, and they may have encouraged you to go to church. They may have brought you to church, and you got nothing out of it. But when the Lord speaks to you, and you know that he's right there in your heart, there's something more about it. It's not just somebody talking to you. This is the Lord talking to you, and he is telling you to do something. And Peter says, at thy will nevertheless, I will let down the net. Now Peter's a thinking person, and he's basing this on some prior knowledge that he had of the person of Jesus Christ. Now, that's exactly what we should do. We need to be thinking people. Nobody wants anybody to follow Jesus Christ who hasn't done a little bit of thinking. that doesn't have a little bit of prior knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you think about your experience. I know when I was young, I knew about Jesus Christ. I went to church, my parents told me about Jesus Christ, and it really hadn't come to that place where the Lord really dealt with me and my personal life. But when the Lord dealt with me in my personal life, I knew there was something more to it than just going through some motions that my parents had asked me to do. And when the Lord deals with us, we need to say, nevertheless, at thy will, I will follow you. Well, there's some things that didn't happen with Peter that we're gonna see with some of the others here this morning. Peter didn't accept Jesus as his personal savior to be born again. Now, that's a very popular thing in Christianity today, that if you're gonna become a child of God, you need to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. And people that tell me that, I keep saying, well, would you get your Bible somewhere and show me where any of the apostles, disciples, or anybody in the New Testament ever accepted Jesus as their personal Savior to be born again, or whatever they say is supposed to happen at that very moment. Peter was already a child of God before Jesus Christ ever called him. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have had ears to hear what Jesus Christ was saying to him. We must be born again before the gospel can ever have any impact upon us. We must be alive because dead people don't hear anything. Dead people don't respond to anything. Dead people are not thirsty. Dead people are not hungry. But we are alive. and will rejoice at the name of Jesus Christ. He didn't read the sinner's prayer. He didn't walk down an aisle to be born again. Jesus called him and he followed, nevertheless, at thy word. And the spirit and the bride were calling him. Well, there's another one I wanna look at this morning. This one is really an interesting character. He wrote the book of Matthew, by the way. We know him as Matthew Levi. And he went by two names. As I said, he would later write the book of Matthew. He was, of course, a Jew. And his vocation was that he was a tax collector. That was a vocation that the Jews hated because he was working for the Roman government, but he was a Jew. The Jews were in bondage to the Romans at that time. And so he was collecting taxes from people. A lot of them, of course, many of them were the Jews. And when his Jewish brethren would come by, he would collect taxes from them. The way they did it was, is the Roman government built these booths in little houses, perhaps. And when people passed by, like if you were going to the ocean, you're going down to the sea, or you're going by this crossroads, they built those booths in those places so that whoever came by had to walk in and pay their tax at the booth. And the reason that they hated them so much was because many of them were extortioners. They exacted more than what was required of them. So in other words, if you come, it's like a toll road, if you're going down a toll road, and you're supposed to toss in 50 cents, and the guy there says, oh, that's a dollar and a half today, so you gotta throw in another dollar. You're not gonna really like that person very much, which probably there was more they were collecting than a dollar. And so he was collecting more than he should, and so they hated the tax collectors. Well, Jesus, of course, had passed by those booths many times. He and his poor mother had gone through those places and had to pay taxes to this person. So this person wasn't somebody that was not acquainted with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew him. And by the way, the term publican was what was attached to these people who were tax collectors. And so many times when Jesus Christ was preaching, he would refer to the publicans and usually in the form of being a sinner. Remember in Luke 18 where we have the two people that went up in the temple to pray and one a Pharisee and the other one was a publican. And Jesus uses these parallels in his sermons because he knew that the Pharisees hated these tax collectors. Now, I'm not saying every one of them were extortioners, but we got a pretty good idea that this guy was because of how he's going to be called by Jesus Christ. But anyway, in the parable, two men went to the temple to pray. One's a Pharisee thinking that he's doing everything right. He's going to church, he's paying his tithes, he's living his life like he ought to live. But the other one, Jesus says, was a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing afar off would not so much as lift his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus Christ makes this assumption. I tell you that this man, the publican, went down to his house justified. Rather than the other, for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. That was one of the comparisons that Jesus Christ used when he was comparing these tax collector publicans to the Pharisees that thought so much of themselves. Another one was in Matthew 21 when it says the publicans, Jesus said, the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before, you know, that's quite an insult, isn't it? To the chief religious people of that day to say that these tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom before you. And you know, my friends, when you read the gospel, they did. Many of them heard the preaching of Jesus Christ and followed him. As I said, Matthew knew Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son. And when Jesus and his mother moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, that's where he meets Matthew at his toll booth. And by this time, Jesus's fame had spread all around the country. And as I said, they were acquainted with one another. And I feel like that Matthew had felt a little twinge of guilt in his heart. because of his extortions and even taking money from Jesus and his mother. The point I'm making here is I want you to understand that the people who came to Christ did not come immediately. Some of them came later in their life, much later in their lives, after the Lord had dealt with them time and time again and they had refused him or refused him. And here we find Jesus Christ coming to him, and we find this call in Luke chapter five as well. Let's go to verse 27. And after these things he went forth, that's Christ, and saw a publican named Levi, that's Matthew Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said unto him, follow me. That wasn't out of the blue. He knew Christ, you know, I charged him taxes. Don't you imagine that he had a little twinge of guilt in his heart? He had already been kind of thinking this thing over a little bit in his experience. That's usually the way it is with most of us, isn't it? We're kind of thinking this thing over a little bit in our experience. We're looking back on our former life. We don't see, we don't see a real rosy picture when we're looking back in our lives many times, especially if somebody at this age is coming to know Jesus Christ. You know, as David said, although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered and all things ensured. David looked back in his life and saw the sin with Bathsheba and all the other things he had done, and he said, you know, I got nothing I can offer, but the Lord did make a covenant And I'm included in it. And when the Lord makes a promise, he can't change his mind. He chose his people before the world began. And I can promise you that every person that he chose before the world began is gonna live with him in glory one day. He's not gonna change his mind concerning that. Because God does not change his mind. He does not repent as man does. God has made up his mind and he chose his people because he loved them. Well, we're looking at this man and We see his call, but I want you to notice what he did. This is interesting to me what he did. He's a tax collector and he's a sinner. And he's got a lot of sinner friends. You know, some people come to the Lord Jesus Christ and they got a lot of sinner friends that they've been hanging around with all their lives. And so does he, he's in league with them. And it says, Jesus says, follow me and he left all, rose up and followed him. He's walking away from a very lucrative profession. You know, that's a difficult thing for some people. Jesus said, hardly will a rich man enter into the kingdom of heaven. And the reason is because they want to be rich more than they want to be in God's kingdom. There's a lot of sacrifices that we're seeing people are making here to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Peter left his profession, his nets, he left his ship, he left his job. You think he became poor or richer when he did that? He became much richer because he had the fellowship with the person of Jesus Christ. And so we find this guy's having to leave a very lucrative profession and so he goes, rose up and followed him and Levi made a great feast in his own house and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with him. So here he invites all of his sinner friends to come to this dinner, as Dan mentioned, you know, it's a good thing to sit around and eat, because now you can talk. And Jesus is going to be there. He's going to go and he's going to be there. This is going to give him an opportunity to be with some other publicans and sinners. I'm glad Jesus eats with publicans and sinners, aren't you? We'd never have him, would we? We're a bunch of publicans and sinners ourselves. So anyway, but the scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples saying, why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Now these are the scribes and Pharisees. And Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Jesus didn't come to call people who had no sin. If you have no sin this morning, you don't need a Savior. But I'm going to assume that most of us, all of us, have sins and we all need a Savior. Some people have talked about sin as being temporary insanity and even a sickness, because sin is a sickness that we can all fall into. It's a sickness of the soul, of the spirit, of our own hearts when we get involved in sin. That's what it is. But Jesus is the master physician. He is the one that comes with healing in his wings. He is the one that can recover us from our fallen, condition, even when we're down and out and we're depressed, the Lord Jesus Christ can raise us up. And so here we find this great sinner inviting Jesus to supper with his sinner friends. Now there's a few points in this that I thought about. Matthew was so excited that Jesus would call a sinner, and we should be that way, shouldn't we, all of us, that Jesus would call a sinner, that he invites Jesus to his house with some of his publican friends. He's thinking in his mind, well, Perhaps some of my sinner friends will meet Jesus and change their ways. That's a great hope, isn't it, for us, that when we have those that we know that need to know the Lord Jesus Christ. that they need to be in God's house that we believe that they will receive a blessing from. That's why we invite people to church. We're not trying to build up a big congregation here. We're not trying to become a mega church. We love people. And the people we love are those that we invite to church, isn't it? Our friends, people we love, maybe somebody who has a problem that we feel like that by coming to God's house, they'll get what we got. They'll get the blessing. They'll get to know the Lord better. And they'll find a blessing in their own personal experience and in their lives. We're not trying to get people to heaven. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ did that. The church is not getting people to heaven. The church is the place that we bring them to meet the person that gets them to heaven, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I've already mentioned that he lost a lucrative profession. And this feast, as one person said, was a celebration of his new life. It's kind of like, I'm inviting all my friends because I'm changing my life. and I'm making a public confession that I'm gonna follow Jesus Christ, that I love him. I want all of my publican friends to know that. You know, that's sometimes what we have to do in our own personal life is we have to tell some friends. I'm not going over there anymore. I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm following Jesus Christ and this is where I'm gonna be on Sunday morning. I'm gonna be there every Sunday morning because I want you to know that I love him and that I wanna be in God's house. You know what, I think something else about that day. I think that there were many publicans that day that learned that Jesus Christ did not hate them. You know, the Pharisees and the scribes, they had taught everybody that God hates publicans and sinners. But there were probably many of them that day that said, you know, Jesus Christ, he could love me. I'm a sinner, but yet he still could love me as a sinner. So we see this man who was a tax collector follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's so many in the Bible that obviously our time is about up this morning. And so I've got several here. Now let me just go to Mary Magdalene. Let's look at her just a moment because She's a female, by the way. We need to get some women in here, right? Dan talked about the women and the things they do in our church. But there's as many women in the New Testament who follow the Lord Jesus Christ as there are men. And there's as many women sinners in the New Testament as there are men sinners that follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We find some women that were businesswomen. Lydia was a seller of purple. She had her own business. And we find some that were wonderful mothers and some that were not mothers. You know, there's all kinds of women that we find in the scriptures that follow the Lord. Now, Mary Magdalene, as mentioned in Luke 8 and 2, she's an unnamed person. I mean, she's a named person, excuse me. She has a name. And every time you read about her, we read that she had been healed of evil spirits, and out of whom went seven devils. Now, we don't know exactly what her case was before Christ found her, but she was possessed of devils. Jesus cast seven of them out. And every time her name is referenced, it's of whom Jesus cast out seven devils. Now, you know, we understand the devils to be fallen angels, and we know that they're still here. They still possess people. People still get caught up in them. I believe drugs and even alcohol are ways that people can become possessed of evil spirits, especially the drug culture. We find people that don't even know what they're doing half the time when they're involved in drugs. So I'm not gonna try to paint an exact picture of Mary Magdalene, but you can kind of get some kind of idea of who she is. She wasn't a person that initially just came to Jesus and came to church one day and became a member of the church. She was a person that was helpless. Helpless and hopeless. She had no hope in her own heart, because she really didn't know what she needed. That's the way sometimes we all are. We don't know what we need. I don't know about you, but in my experience, there was a time I didn't know what I needed, and I didn't even know what was out there. But you know, the Lord has a way of bringing us along. But anyway, she was helpless, and one of the reasons, and the reason I want to mention her this morning as we close is because I want you to see why we read so much about her in the Bible. I want you to see the impact that Christ had in her life, and maybe we might think about that so far as our own personal lives, of the impact that it should have on us. Because if I'm just going to kind of walk down through here, she is a beautiful example of how thankful that we should be that Christ has done what He has done for each one of us. So in her life, we find her deeds being a wonderful token of her love for Christ and her deliverance. You know, if you've been delivered of something in your life, we always want to give something back, don't we? If somebody's delivered you from something horrible, you want to give something back to that person. And that's what we should be to Christ. He's done so much for us. We should want to give something back to Him. And that's why you know, if we give anything to the Lord, to his church or anything, it's because it's a token of love that we give because of what he has done for us. But we find our deeds that after Jesus Christ had been crucified, we find that she and the other women brought sweet spices to anoint the body of Jesus at his burial. Now that is a wonderful token of somebody that didn't just receive a blessing and then go her way. Sometimes we receive a blessing from the Lord and we just go our way. We don't even stop to think to thank Him for what He has done. Remember the ten lepers that were healed? Only one turned around to thank the Lord that he had been healed. One in ten thanked Jesus Christ for his healing. And I think it would be proper for us in our own personal relationship, if we know that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, to at some point say, thank you. Thank you for dying for my sins. Thank you for suffering up on the cross. Thank you for what you have done for me. But anyway, we find her being very close to the passion of Christ because she brought the sweet spices for his burial. When the tomb, when the stone was rolled to shut the door, she was there when Jesus Christ was buried. She stood close by his body. And she was there at the tomb when the angel appeared and rolled back the stone. I think she was the only one that was there. Now, if I were to ask you this morning, who was the most appreciative of the person of Christ and what he had done for them? And we were to even compare her to some of the apostles and some of the men who would later become apostles. Who was the person that was closest to the death of Jesus Christ? It was this person, because she loved him. And I don't even mind saying more, perhaps more than anybody else. She was the first person that Jesus appeared to as a resurrection. And Mark 16 and nine, now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. His first appearance was to this lady. Not to Peter, not to John, not to any of the other apostles, it was to a woman that seems to me to love him. more than anybody else. We notice her love in John chapter 20. It says, when the disciples went away again into their own home, so they've given up, kind of, you know, they know what to do. But Mary, this is Mary Magdalene, stood without the sepulcher weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher and seeing two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Who was the first person that Jesus Christ appeared to? Was it to Peter? Was it to any of the other apostles? No, it was to this woman. of whom he had cast out seven devils. Seven devils. But she thought he was the gardener, and Jesus said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. She wanted to go find him and take him away, and Jesus said unto her, Mary, And she turned and said unto him, Rabbona, which is to say, Master." What a beautiful picture of someone of whom the Lord has cast out seven devils. Now, have you ever thought in your own personal experience what the Lord has done for you? Have you ever just stopped to think where you would be when you die if Jesus Christ had not died for you upon the cross? Where would you be today if it weren't for the person of Jesus Christ and what he has done for you? That's a sober thought for all of us because many times we are very prone to take things for granted that have been given to us freely by God's grace. Our health, maybe our husbands and wives, our children, our homes, the food we have, the peace we enjoy. But we should never take for granted the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus, she turned herself and said, Rabboni, which is to say, Master, and Jesus saith unto her, touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my father. But go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend to my father, to your father, to my God, and your God. And she went and told the disciples all the things. She told the disciples that Jesus had risen. Where are the strong men right now? These real brave, strong guys, where are they? It seemed like idle tales when she went to tell them. He said he was gonna rise, and she just told them that he did. Where's Peter? Where are these apostles that are supposed to know so much? Well, here's the female here. the most appreciative of what Christ had done for them. How appreciative are you this morning of the person of Jesus Christ? Somebody's died for you, or do you claim that? Do you claim this morning that Jesus Christ really died for your sins? Do you think you're going to heaven? And if you are, how are you gonna get there? You're gonna go rent a car? If you're going there, you're going there because somebody that loved you before the world began died for you and suffered and suffered for every single sin you've ever committed in your life. Every little dirty sin, he suffered it, you're not going to. Should we not love him? Should we not follow him? You may say, well, I don't really have much to offer. Well, he knows you don't have anything to offer. What's the problem here? Let's come up with some other excuse. How about I really don't want to have to be in his house and listen to those boring preachers up there all the time. No. She ran to give the disciples word that Jesus had risen. A woman of whom the Lord had cast out seven devils. Don't tell me you're too much of a sinner. Here we find a woman going to tell Peter and James and John and all these other people what Jesus had done for her. Not that complicated. Not that complicated. The Lord calls us. Wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever you're doing, when He calls, we need to follow. I appreciate your attention this morning. Well, what a wonderful message. I appreciate that. There's so many good examples in the Bible for us to look at. I'm hoping that next time you preach, you'll take some of those notes and work on some of the other ones. I've always found a lot in Peter that I think is in me. I think everybody can find characters in the Bible and say that there's similarities in how they're put together. And I think those are in there for that purpose, to help us recognize that it's nothing good or wonderful found in us that forms the basis of why God would want to save any of us. We're just a bunch of sinners. We've got a lot of problems and issues, and we will struggle with those things till our dying day. But we have a promise of God that we will have eternal salvation, not only just in this lifetime, as his people and enjoying it here in the kingdom of God, but in its fullness, when we have the redemption of our bodies and we're no longer dealing with a sin nature anymore, that's a great promise to have. And I think Brother Sonny covered many good gospel truths here today. Romans 1 16 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Those who look at the gospel, the telling of what Christ accomplished at Calvary, and say, that is salvation, those people who believe that see it as their salvation. It's what David said, this is all my salvation, right? This is the thing that people see in the gospel, but it's to everyone that believeth. Paul taught all men have not faith. There's some people who don't have faith, you can tell them the gospel, it doesn't mean anything to them. They think it's foolishness is what Paul said. It doesn't resonate with them. There's a real theological implication to that observation. It means that if you hear the gospel and you believe it and you can say that's the power of God, that's the righteousness of God I see there. I'm unrighteous, that's the righteousness that's gonna get me to heaven someday. You're a believer. And that means you only received that message because you were already in a state of grace. And Paul says that in the very next verse, which is often left out when people speak of the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, you hear that quote a lot. But verse 17 says, for therein is the righteousness of God In other words, the Gospel tells us about God's righteousness in saving His people, not about how good you were, or how you accepted, or how you went down an aisle, you did a bunch of motions of religion to be saved. It tells us of the righteousness of Christ, and it's a revelation. You see that? That's information being imparted to you. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. The gospel tells you about what Christ did in accomplishing our salvation. And how is it revealed? From faith to faith. You've got to have faith in order to receive it. You know what? If you don't have a legitimate U.S. mailing address, you cannot receive mail in this country. Now, there's people that have properties all over the country that don't have a valid U.S. mailing address. They cannot receive United States postal mail. They don't have a legitimate address to send it to. You see that? Faith is like your mailbox. that can receive this message of the gospel which reveals the righteousness of God to you. If you didn't have faith to begin with, there's no place to put that message. You had absolutely no way to receive it. There's a theological implication in that which is that if you're someone who heard the gospel and are blessed by it and believe it and you say that's my hope, you are already in a state of grace. It can never be taken away from you. You may trip and fumble and have a lot of problems in your life. But you have God-given faith, that's why you found joy in the Gospel. That's why it revealed the righteousness of God to you, and you can rejoice in that fact today. Thank you for listening to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. This has been Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching from one of our regular meetings. Come and join us as we worship God in the simplicity of Christ every Sunday morning at 416 North Hall Street in Donaldson, Arkansas. At Harmony, we don't have many things that are so common in the religion of our day, but we do have a successful Savior. We invite you to come and see.